Hurrah!

Hurrah! I have finished Alastair’s Children’s Corner Glenn, the first of three Thanksgiving outfitsfor my grandchildren.  A very simple, lined Jon-Jon with a button-on bib, the suit fabric is  Viyella plaid and the bib is twill.

The embroidery design is from Sew Many Designs We Give Thanks collection. The suit is still drying from having the blue marks washed out. I will post a picture of the complete outfit tomorrow.

I thought I would never get started on these but really got into it just after lunch today. In the past several days, I did manage to alter patterns, select fabric for the appliqués and get two garments cut out. But that was all. I was kept from sewing by one thing and  then another–unexpected but very welcome house guests, unexpected but very happy 14 hours of babysitting on Saturday and, as the King was wont to say in The King and I, “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

My husband told me that I should forget about getting these garments made. They have , he assured me, other things I have made that they could wear. He thought I was under too much pressure and stress. The children and their mothers would understand.

It took a while to make him understand that this is what I desperately want to do, not what I am required to do. He just smiled and urged me on with one of his favorite quotes, “Then damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” declared by Civil War Admiral David Farragut. So full speed ahead I go, with his blessing.

I waited such a long time for grandchildren, planning all the things that I would do and sew for them. And now that they are here, the clock is ticking. They are growing up so fast that I can’t bear to let a holiday sewing opportunity pass by.

Do you ever feel like this? Do you feel that your family and/or friends do not understand the drive, the need to sew? I remember so clearly many, many years ago when Sew Beautiful had a gallery section, where mothers and grandmothers sent in pictures of their little darlings in the confections that had been made for them. I so wanted to be one of those grandmothers.

Now it is my turn and I refuse to allow laundry, dinner preparations or scattered children’s blocks on the back porch interfere with my mission. I’m planning Chinese carry out and delivery pizza for dinner until Thanksgiving.

We will be thankful and celebrating with a huge assembly of extended family on Thursday. All three grandchildren will be at the same place at the same time, the only little ones in the group. And they will, I declare, be wearing matching outfits! So there. 

Now, with all that tough talk, can I really complete  two outfits in two days?