That Familiar Sense of Hopelessness

(updated from Saturday)

It's very chilly outside today. The perfect day to start Project Seal The Drafts. I had a plan, material, filler, and time. Everything I needed to get the project Done.

Right?

My mom said to cut the strips 2 inches wide "to make sure there's enough room to turn them inside out". My mom has more confidence in my sewing abilities than I. I know better. I thought to myself, "Hmm. I bet that will be too small for my patience." (I hate fiddling with detail stuff) However, I did as she said. I even cut nice, straight, uniform strips. And I sewed them with a 1/4" seam, just like she said. I even marked the 1/4" measurement on my sewing machine so I would have a nice, even straight seam.



And then I sewed one long strip for HOURS. Well, it seemed like hours.

I got it all done. I had a nice long tube. I cut the tube into the correct-length strips. I sewed one end of each tube. I even double-sewed it to make sure it would hold.


Then, I tried to turn one inside out. It was, as you can imagine (from my well-crafted foreshadowing), too small to turn inside out. It was very frustrating. The seams started to rip out (since I was just using muslin, with a 1/4" seam). I couldn't even get just one turned inside out. I used chopsticks, wooden spoon handles, safety pins.. .all the tricks. Nope. I started to cry. I'd been working on this stupid project for hours.


Then, I just gave in to the situation. I decided: it's just going on the windowsills, behind the blinds and curtains. It doesn't matter if it's wrong-side out. All I need are damn window-sill draft blockers. I'm not winning any awards for my sewing anyway.

So I started to fill them with rice. And, with a few very, very sad spills all over the floor (keep in mind that I am continuing the project despite that terrible craft-disaster hopelessness), it worked. Pretty well.

They are ugly, but they seem to work. Hallelujah, because I made a ton of them. I figured, I made all these damn strips, I am just going to finish them all so our house will be nice and sealed up for the winter.


Now what am I going to do with all this rice? Seriously. I have like 15 pounds of rice. I need another project! (yes, even after all that, our herione remains undaunted and would try it again. Because that's just the kind of crazy that I am)