Does this scene seem familiar? Dancer goes into store to buy her first pair of Pointe shoes. Dancer and Mom are both excited. Until they discover, that is, that ribbons and elastics have to be sewn on. Dancer looks at Mom inquiringly. Mom looks at retailer, politely panicked. . Retailer looks back, smiling.
“They don’t come already sewn?”
“No, they never do. It’s too personal. Each dancer likes them in a different place.”
“Well, what are we to do. I don’t have time to sew” which usually means, “I don’t know how to sew.”
Eventually a solution is found. Either the store offers the service (for a fee) or a kindly relative or friend is suddenly remembered.
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There was a time when sewing was considered a necessary life skill. Imagine your dress hem coming undone or dropping a button on your jacket and not being able to fix it!
Leotards side seams can have an annoying habit of opening up an inch or two while small holes in tights appear seemingly out of nowhere. Pre sewn elastics pop off under stress from the ankle. What to do? What to do? With a minimum of sewing skills, the remedy is easy. No, you do not have to go get a new leotard. A few stitches and within minutes you are done. The problem is fixed and the credit card stayed in the wallet.
When we don’t know how to do something, the task usually seems un-surmountable. Yet sewing is not hard and can actually develop into a fun activity. If you were not lucky enough to have a mother or grandmother to teach you, there are all kinds of ways to learn by yourself.
Recently, I explored the most obvious source of information, the Internet. I was pleasantly surprised to come across sites that teach basic hand sewing – down to how to thread a needle. The following website teaches you all to need to know. The best part of learning online is you can repeat as many times as you want without feeling humiliated. So by all means, go to www.monkeysee.com/play/2144-how-to-sew-by-hand. Dawn Anderson from How to Sew by Hand will happily guide you through the very simple process.
---Anne Polajenko
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We hope you all had a fantastic weekend and may this week be a glorious one,
Love from your humble blogger,
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