Tuesday, October 25, 2011

learn something new...

...everyday... when possible. 

Sometimes I forget how amazing Army wives are... I suppose I should say military spouses in general... they are amazing.  For example, a neighbor down the street is moving tomorrow to Germany.  Her husband has been there for over a month.  He went ahead - to a foreign country - to pick out housing.  Meanwhile, she's had her three boys in school just waiting to see when they'd join him.  She was busy clearing housing last week (when they inspect your on-post house to see if there are any damages that you need to pay for) when she called to see if I wanted some cub scout stuff that they weren't taking with them. I'm not one to reject free stuff, so of course, I said yes.

I stopped by and was amazed at how well she had the house cleaned and packed, just a few more days before they would travel overseas to their new home.  She didn't complain or seem scared, just ready, for international travel by herself with her three boys and two dogs.  Amazing, right?

As we chatted she asked if I could hem some pants.  I told her I probably could, but they might not look that great.  I had never successfully hemmed pants before and I wasn't sure I had the time to get it right... or that she had the time either. 

Being a long-legged girl myself, I had never really been too sympathetic to those that need their pants hemmed.  I figured you can always cut off the pants, but you can't add to them. 

Well, she said she didn't care what they looked like, she just didn't want to be walking on them.  She said her husband told her that it was freezing cold in Germany right now, and that she only had one pair of pants that was the right length.  So I told her to bring them over and I'd do what I could.

Wouldn't you know she had three pair of pants WITH TAGS ON!  Oh dear, I really didn't feel right about a hack job on new pants. As I pinned them, she was telling me that they were all petites... and they still needed hemmed. I suddenly felt a little guilty about all the times I glared jealously at not-so-long-legged girls and their right-length-pants.  I pinned all three pair, and told her I'd try a pair and see what happens.  I was up against another deadline as well, so I just prayed that God would help me figure it out.

Thankfully, I remembered seeing some hemming pins on pinterest.  And eventually used this pdf to help me through this new adventure...
I had to use a different method for the pants, so I had to pull out my trusty sewing machine manual to figure out the blind stitch using the blind stitch foot. 
I thought the jeans turned out pretty well.  Way better than I thought they would in my head.  Honestly, I thought I was going to just have to cut them off and sew them with a dark blue thread.  I know my neighbor imagined the same thing -- which to her was still better than walking on them -- I wasn't home when she came to pick them up but her text said "I can't believe how good the jeans look!"
As it turns out, I didn't have the blind stitch foot in my sewing machine's secret compartment; so I had to google for a tutorial that showed me how to do it without a blind stitch foot.  Thankfully, I found one here.
All in all, I was pretty well pleased with how they turned out.  And I thanked God for giving me the opportunity to do something nice for my amazing Army-wife-neighbor before she left town.  She asked me what I owed her, and I told her nothing... "thanks to you, I learned a new skill!"

1 comment:

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