I am one of two people that holds the title of Sewing Coordinator at my daughter's school and I had to sew six muslin curtains for school by today. I just got the final details yesterday so this made for a long night of sewing. No pictures because muslin curtains are too uninteresting to look at.
Work was super-psychedelic this afternoon, whee! And I refused to open my desk drawer to get a form for my boss because it would have taken too much effort.
My night went like this:
7pm: I smash my thumb unfolding the ironing board. The nail turns purple. Crap, that's not going to help.
9pm: Now that I'm cutting out the 5th curtain I've almost got the hang of measuring 7 foot lengths. (How do you all cut large pieces to a specific length?)
11pm: My rotary cutter becomes as useful as a butter knife, reducing one curtain hem to shreds. Oh, and I cut the hem too short so now there's less than 1/8" to turn under.
11:45pm: I hit the wall and I'm ready to call it. I'm begging my husband for help (yeah, like that's going to work out well.)
midnight: I power through the pain and I'm back in action. I may not be able to stand up tomorrow.
2am: Asleep but not complete.
6:45am: Advil for breakfast and back to work.
8am: Good enough, 6 curtains done with a few wavy edges, now hurry to school.
OK, I want to hear your tales. Share your most painful all-night crafting/volunteer/homework stories. If I get a good one I just might send you a prize.
10 comments:
At least it's done.
I don't have any good stories to share. Wes and I did stay up until about 1 one Christmas eve building a giant Playmobil farm set that the kids reduced to rubble in about 3 minutes. That's all I've got.
It's unbelievable but I've NEVER in my whole life pulled an all-nighter! Not for nothin, I tell ya.
What a good mom you are for doing this! Crazy!
Wow! You are a good volunteer! I have stayed up the past two Christmas Eve's knitting in vain to finish gifts! Everyone goes to bed (at normal hours) while I'm stuck watching "A Christmas Story" over and over again - b/c apparently that is the only show they play on Christmas Eve and knitting like a mad woman. Each year I say never again, and each year I find myself doing the same damn thing for the sake of a homemade gift with lots of freakin' love.
If you look at my left hand there is a one inch scar right on my wrist. It's from when I was trying to get an order for an indie toy company done and my sewing machine bit me. I bled all over the fabric had to toss it out and I almost threw out my machine. After I calmed down and started sewing the rest of the project I ended up sewing up my pointy finger on my right hand and did 5 stitches.
I ended up taping myself up and finishing the project and then took a few weeks off sewing.
Up to that point I never had any accidents with the machine. I'm chalking it up to lack of sleep and a tight deadline.
How my wrist got caught up in the machine is beyond me.
It's been a good long while *knock on wood* without an accident.
wow, I have been in that situation over a million times, I don't know if it is because I am a bad planner or a perfectionist /streber?, Birthday parties of the girls always end up with me being up untill 2/3 in the night, but seeing the girls happy, and getting compliments makes up for lack of sleep.
I have no sewing or knitting all nighters, but I did work a 23 hour day on a music video once, from setup to finish. (Pearl Jam's Alive, shot at RCKCNDY.) It was exhausting, crowded and hot, and that song will be embedded in my DNA forever.
cheryl from Purlygrrls
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Oh, gosh. This post brought back memories. For too many years to count, I made costumes for our local high school musicals. One year, I made 37 costumes in approximately one month for Once Upon a Mattress. The set was monochromatic, mostly gray, so I was told that my costumes would provide the color for the set. Most of the costumes consisted of medieval type dresses requiring 5 yards of fabric each. The night before the costumes were due, I had several dresses to complete. I can't remember the number but I literally stayed up the entire night sewing. In the morning, I drove the whole batch of costumes up to the high school (my daughters were students at the time and were both in the show) and I instructed both girls not to tell the teacher that I didn't sleep all night. Of course, they spilled the beans immediately. A couple of years later, another mother and I sewed 47 costumes for Guys and Dolls. One year, I sewed over 40 vests for one scene in Funny Girl. There is a seat in heaven for volunteers. Keep telling yourself that!
When I worked for that school, I pulled an up-til-2 am shift making bubble forms. You know, structures for blowing bubbles through? I had to make them out of coffee stirrers. With hot glue. In several certain forms. I had to go to several coffee shops and beg for stirrers. I then had to dig out my ancient hot glue gun. And I don't think the kids really used anyway. I didn't smash my finger, although I did want to smash something. :)
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