One of the reasons my progress on the granny square bag-to-be has slowed to a crawl is that I have to sew the lining, and like many crocheters I’ve met, I have an aversion to sewing that borders on the ridiculous, but today I made a bit of progress toward my goal.
While the skill required to sew the lining is rudimentary, so are my skills. I can thread a needle and not get the thread tangled too often or too badly, but the truth is my sewing is just (barely) good enough, and because I so seldom sew, it is unlikely that it will ever get much better.
My paternal grandmother, on the other hand, seems to have been a bit more practiced with her sewing than I am with mine. On the occasion of her older brother Hilbert’s marriage to his wife Grace, she embroidered this tea towel as a gift:
Each stitch is carefully made, and the back is as tidy as the front:
My own efforts with the inner and outer linings of the granny square bag-to-be were not quite as impressive, but I did manage to get the bottom seaming done:
Which allowed me to fit one lining into the other in preparation for more sewing:
Having exhausted my sewing skills for the day, I set the linings aside and worked on joining the two-round granny squares that I am hoping will work as a combination edge trimming and strap for the completed bag:
But despite my lack of sewing skill, each stitch (be it crochet or sewing) is both a record and testimony of the person I am at that specific moment in time; I am sure that some of my work will out live me, and one day someone might reflect on the bag I am making and remember me.
I’ve found that the time and energy procrastinating about projects like the linings tends to be much larger than the actual doing once I get myself in gear. Persistence, my dear- you are so very close!
It’s going to be lovely!
I know it too well! I messed up several projects with my sewing skills:(
I love the bag! Will you be using a sewn-in cord to make the handles stronger?
My sister did this when she made a knitted bag for me. It’s handles barely stretched at all!
Yep, sewing aversion is holding me back on a project, too. Michelle is so right that usually, when I finally get down to sewing, it ends up to take WAY less time and energy than I thought it would (unless you count in the time and energy I spent fretting). Press on! Inspire me to finish my knitted pencil case (it needs lining and a zipper, egads)!