[Sarvi]

…you read a tutorial where the author apologizes for her bad photos and for needing to mow her lawn, and you keep looking for loose threads or frayed selvedge, thinking that the fabric shown looks a heck of a lot more like quilting cotton … then the light bulb goes on.

[with love Heidi]

When you’re looking at clothing in a Target catalogue and because the dress is made in a dark background floral you go looking all over the page for the line drawing so you can see the details of the dress!

[Nicole]

Someone asks your child where they got their dress/trousers/shirt from and they look blankly at the questioner and answer slowly …. ‘My mum’ ….

[Masha Richart]

You spend the better part of a church service scrutinizing the priest’s vestments/a particularly beautiful Easter dress/insert-other-garment-here, looking for seam lines and trying to figure out how they were put together.

[Brittney]

When you leave a clothing store empty handed because you could make it better/higher quality.

(Stripes and patterns not lining up in RTW drive me insane!)

[Mel]

Ha! I love this thread. My husband bought the girls’ xmas pj bottoms this year because I ran out of time to make them and the mismatched side seams drove me bananas!

You know you’ve been sewing too long when . . . someone in your family mentions needing to go somewhere and your first thought is “are there any good fabric stores nearby?” and “if I go, will I have time to shop?”

[Reeni]

— your children nonchalantly tell their friends the costume of their fantasies is not a big deal, “my mom can make it.”
— Red carpet shows or Fashion Week is an onslaught of “Ohhh I want to make that, but that’s the wrong color/length/sleeve/print.”

[Sarvi]

…when you no longer have any idea what you were talking about in your own post earlier in this thread…

[Tamara]

When your mother tries to buy your children rtw clothing in adult sizes because the kids rtw doesnt come anywhere near them and you are so disgusted with the fit you throw them in the good sammies bin and sew new ones.

When you sew a tractor costume instead of using boxes.

When you have your children heaving sighs of relief after a fitting!

When you exclaim that you need to clone the kids in order to fit the alterations properly because they are so over it they stand there looking like slumped over geriatrics!

When your son comes home from school to get ready for a party expecting a “rat from horrible histories” costume to be made with one day’s notice!

when you are in the middle of sewing one project while planning the next.

When your daughter goes shopping with you and tells you she wants you to sew a dress “just like that one”

When you have a letter from your daughter written when she six framed because it says “i like kit when you make me prittee dresses”.

When you are reading this thread while the baby monitor is relaying delighted squeals of a nearly four month old refusing to nap – she’s in the swing in the sewing room of all places!

• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Tamara.
• This reply was modified 9 years ago by Tamara.

[with love Heidi]

When you’re on a camping trip and at least two (out of 7) the kids at any one time are wearing something you’ve sewn. And none of them are your own kids 🙂

[katybellabug]

When you walk out of a shop, not loaded up with bags, but with camera shots of everything you want to recreate.

[Tamara]

Haha! I need to do that! I saw this gorgeous dress a friend was wearing at church a few weeks ago but of course didnt have the camera – she bought it in New York!

Another way of doing what Katybellabug said…. Using up all available hard drive space on saving pictures of garments you want to create!

When you have sketches by your kids of things they want you to recreate!

[cybele727]

When your daughter rifles through catalogs and points to things and says, “you can make that for me?”

[Tamara]

When your 12 year old daughter comes in and shows you her new dress – that she handstitched herself, straps and all and asks you to help her “redo” it! I will after this week but not right now!

[Sarvi]

Haha, a smart friend explained my own comment to me: I’d misinterpreted lawn meaning grass (needing to be mown) as lawn meaning cotton (needing to be trimmed of loose threads). Thank you Nicole! I’m glad I have friends smarter than me!