The first day of Pillowcase Palooza was a BLAST.
For the first session there were only three of us, but it gave me a chance to get in the groove of how to explain things and how to have things set up. We made 7 pillowcases in about 50 minutes.
At the afternoon session there were five of us sewing for about an hour. Becky came back because she had sew much fun and we added Nicole, Wendy, and Kami (who is here visiting from New York). We knocked out 18 pillowcases and further refined the process by starting to do some assembly line work. Wendy spent most of her time trying to make one of my sergers (the poor thing is at least 17 years old) work, but we never did have success-despite the fact that it had been sewing like a champ for the three weeks previous. Oh well.
Kami and her mom Teressa helped out between session cutting more fabric because choices were running short. Can’t have THAT! I was so grateful to the ladies who brought fabric with them. Your choices were adorable.
Things really ramped up during the evening session as Carey, Melia, Moriah, Lisa, Janene, Teressa, Julie and I got down to business. Although we were down a serger, we persevered. Several of the ladies became professionsal Burrito Pillowcase makers. That made the seam at the cuff have no raw edges and then we used the serger to go down the side and bottom of the cases. Except Julie. . . who is a dynamite seamstress and managed to do beautiful French seams on my little 1939 Singer Featherweight.
The funniest part of the night was that ladies who are usually calm and laid back were all of a sudden competitive and wanted to make sure we had beat the afternoon session before they could pack up and leave. My heart was warmed by the two teenagers who came and did a beautiful job sewing and adding to the joviality of the evening.
I am so grateful for each of these ladies who cam and gave of themselves to add a little sunshine in a child’s life. You immensely brightened my day, as well. At the end of the evening the tally was 49!
