Really Random Day

Yesterday was a Personal Sewing Day...as opposed to a Costume Sewing Day...and I made the brown linen pants and got all the interfacing fused to the pink tweed jacket. It's ready for sewing...when I get a chance to put some pink thread in the machine.

I also tissue-fit my 1945 jacket and think I will need a muslin, after all. The bust point was about 1 1/2" too high and I had a fair amount of fullness in my upper chest, due to the bust shaping being off. But it *looked* like it fit fairly well otherwise; however I'm not very good at tissue-fitting myself; can't reach/see the back well enough. Hence the muslin... and I actually *need* the first jacket I will make from the pattern, a linen tweed, so I should get on it as best I can, amongst the costume sewing. I'll be running around town today, so I *may* get the thread changed for the next two costume pieces, but that's probably all I'll manage. I should get 3-4 hours of sewing time tomorrow, though, before our women's conference starts tomorrow night. After that...it'll probably be Sunday before I'm even home for more than an hour or two at at time.

But, as I hemmed my linen pants yesterday afternoon, I watched Episode 2 of this season's Project Runway. Miss A surprised me a couple of weeks ago with a video tape she'd made for me of the first three episodes. Of course, the two dkids still at home had to wander in and watch with me. It was very interesting to listen to their comments...especially as neither one of them has developed any kind of fashion sense as yet (they are 10 and 13). DS, the 13 YO, routinely puts on print shorts and t-shirts with graphics that DON'T match...shudder...but his comments about the designs were surprisingly on target. His favorite designers are Laura, Michael and Kayne (after watching 2 episodes). DD did not like Angela and was upset that Mahlon (did I spell it right?) left at the end of the Miss USA challenge.

Perhaps the two of them will begin to pay attention to how their clothes look now ;)

Finally, I found something last night that I've just got to share. Re-reading Madeleine L'Enlge's book The Irrational Season, I found this poem, which, as Madeleine states, was written from the perspective of Mary, the mother of Jesus, but really applies to mothers everywhere. Thinking of all of us moms who are confronting the clean, empty rooms of our offspring who are taking their first steps into adult independance, I'll offer it here:

Now we may love the child,
Now he is ours,
this tiny thing,
utterly vunlerable and dependent
on the circle of our love.
Now we may hold him,
feeling with gentle hands
the perfection of his tender skin
from the soft crown of this head
to the sweet soles of his merrily kicking feet.
His fingers softly curl
around one finger of the grownup hand.
Now we may hold.
Now may I feel his hungry sucking at my breast
as I give him my own life.
Now may my husband toss him in the air
and catch him in his sure and steady hands
laughing with laughter as quick and pure
as the baby's own.
Now may I rock him softly to his sleep,
rock and sing,
sing and hold.
This moment of time is here,
has happened, is:
rejoice!

Child,
give me the courage
for the time
when I must open my arms
and let you go.

-- Madeleine L'Engle