Mannequins, Movies and Mice

One of the ladies from The Gathering invited me to be her guest at a meeting of the local chapter of the American Sewing Guild. We’d been taking about needing inspiration and, she said, that was the place to get it. She wasn’t kidding. The ASG, according to their pamphlet, “was founded in 1978 for the purpose of preserving and promoting the sewing arts through sewing education and activities for sewing enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels.” The night I went the speaker talked about the benefits of making your own duct tape mannequin. Yes, duct tape. I used to sew my own clothing starting back in high school and the two decades that followed---even took tailoring classes in college---but I never had my own mannequin. A google search will find tutorials and photos galore of duct tape mannequins. I never knew it was a popular trend! Oh my gosh, if I still sewed clothing for myself I would have signed up for one of the classes that, by the end of the day, would have you walking out with a duct tape version of your own body type---flaws and all. The speaker had a wonderful sense of humor and had us laughing frequently. 

After Mannequin Lady finished and snacks were serviced there was a show-and-tell which was also punctuated with laughter as women told the kind of stories all sewers can relate to---happy and sad accidents and one-of-a-kind treasures. One woman made a wonderful suit but discovered after making both pieces that the fabric dye lots for the top and bottom are noticeably different. She’d bought part of the fabric online and the other part locally and no way could she wear the two pieces together. It was clear there was a lot of talent and creativity in the room of fifty women and a few men. Some wore their show-and-tell and others did a “Vanda White” as they displayed an assortment of bags and purses, showing off techniques they’d learned at a recent retreat. One quilt top blew me away with its unusual color scheme and 1920s art deco vibe, a project started by a mother years ago and a daughter took on to finish.

As much fun as I had that night, I’m not sure if I’m going to join the guild. I was hoping there would be more handcrafts but that was probably my misunderstanding of the ASG and I’m thinking a quilters bee or knitters club would fit my area of crafting interests more at this point in my life. I can barely keep my computer, printer, and other tech stuff running without pulling my hair out, I can’t imagine adding the stress of keeping stitch tensions on a sewing machine operating smoothly. It also wouldn’t be as much fun to sew for my old woman, pudgy body as it was to make A-lines dresses to go with my go-go boots back in my clubbing days. But all the ladies at the guild were friendly and excited about what’s going on in their world and I could see my younger self in their enthusiasm. It was time well spent.

The next day the son-I-wish-had came over to work on the Mouse Project. For the last three winters I’ve had mice in the basement and I wanted to see if we could figure out how they’re getting in and plug up their entrance point. It won’t be too many more years before I’ll get too old to go downstairs every few days to bait them and it wouldn’t take long for them to breed their way upstairs. (I killed nine last winter.) I had a pretty good idea where to start looking and sure enough we found two places to block with a foam sealant by Great Stuff, PESTBLOCK, especially made to block yucky things including mice. We also replaced a twelve foot section of insulation where we found signs of nesting and vacuumed up the mice droppings so we can tell if they come back. I shouldn’t say “we” because he’ll have to check since I don’t do ladders and this area is at the top of the basement wall where it meets with my sun-porch. Next I’m getting some mothballs to throw under the porch. He swears by mothballs for keeping mice out of boats and cars in storage and Google confirmed it. I have latticework around the porch so no animals will get the mothballs, but they will melt if they get too wet. Worth a try anyway. If they last through the fall, the mice will have already found homes somewhere else before the snow flies.

Yesterday my Movie and Lunch Club saw the new Tom Hanks movie, Sully, which was about the 2009 water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 dubbed the ‘Miracle on the Hudson.’ The film focused mostly on the aftermath that was not made public at the time---the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation while Sully was being treated like a hero in public. The board was pushing the narrative that Sully needlessly endangered his 155 passengers and crew when he didn’t turn the plane back to the airport. Eventually, Sully was cleared of any wrong doing and a lot was riding on that decision: large insurance claims involving the airline and manufacturer, not to mention Sully’s pilot license and pension rights. We all walked out of the theater feeling good about our movie experience. It was an engaging story, well told. ©