random thoughts – Day 2,224 (Sunday) – sweatshop day shift

The gray, drizzly day turned out to be perfect for a quiet day at home sewing in the makeshift sweatshop. The 25-yard skirt is coming together and the machine (and my back) are getting a semi-abusive workout. Sitting on the floor to deal with miles of fabric because the table isn’t large enough (even when empty), is tough on the lower back. I always seem to forgot this detail.

Sewing the strips to make the tiers.

This skirt is a textile engineering marvel with each tier double the size of the one above it. In today’s progress, the first tier, which measures 3.1 yards of fabric, was joined with the second tier, which measures 6.25 yards. The larger tier is tucked and gathered to fit the smaller. The smaller top tier will be gathered into the waistband and the bottom of the second tier will have the 12.50-yard third tier gathered into it. Then the 25-yard final tier will be gathered into the bottom of the third tier. And just like that, it will be done.

It was around 11:45 when things got started today, fortified by a late breakfast of leftover risotto, scalloped potatoes, and fried salami. The breakfast powered me through sewing the strips together to make the tiers and verifying the length of the tiers, and suddenly it was 2:00.

Gathering, clipping, and hand-basting.

Mom stopped over at some point in the afternoon and we had a quick visit, during which I showed her the sewing project that was consuming the dining table and hard to miss. She sewed a lot when I was young, and taught me how when I was kid.

Fabric clips were used for the gathering and it took 100 clips to go halfway around the tier done today. I may need to order more fabric clips because the tiers are only going to get larger. When the 100 clips were securing half the tier, I switched gears and hand basted the gathers in place so I could use the clips to gather the rest of the tier. It is tedious, and probably not the sort of drudgery endurance test some people would find appealing. I kind of wish I had started with joining the fourth and third tiers, because then the remaining tiers would have been the shorter tiers. Lesson learned for the next time, if there is another one.

Done for the day.

There was a supper break with some freshly prepared sauteed veggies and rice, and then it was back to the sewing. I finally stopped sewing around 8:45. The rug was covered in pieces of thread and metallic bits from the fabric, so vacuuming seemed necessary because I don’t want Kiki picking up metallic thread with her paws and ingesting them while grooming herself. In the sewing times before pets, vacuuming would have been delayed until the end of the project or guests were coming, whichever happened first.

I didn’t plan to work on a skirt for the equivalent of an entire sweatshop factory work shift, but sometimes that is what happens when things are on a roll. I would complain to management about the paltry (nonexistent) wages and harsh working conditions, but I talk to myself enough already.