A.M.D.G.
Sewing has helped my soul to a surprising degree. It has given me innumerable opportunities to experience disappointment and great frustration, and live through it! I've learned much greater self-control to sit with hot feelings of frustration during sewing without exploding, shouting, or saying inappropriate words (a habit I was able to kick about ten years ago, thanks be to God). That may sound silly for an adult to voice, but being a perfectionist is actually quite a spiritual problem of hubris and pride, and it is hard to overcome. Next step: Don't feel those hot feelings of frustration in the first place!!!
I had (have) a hope this year of sewing most of Mary's winter dresses instead of buying them. I have bought plenty of winter fabric to do so. I had planned matching Mass dresses for the girls in a navy blue corduroy with tiny pink dots.
Each pattern has its own sizes, so one must always measure the child, then check the pattern directions to know which size to make. I did that, like always. But at nearly the end of this project, I tried the dress on Mary and realized it was swimming on her, including at the shoulders and bodice, so couldn't simply be "hemmed up" to fix the problem. Despite all my measuring, this dress won't fit her this winter, but more than a year from now.
I slipped into a pretty dark mood the evening I figured out the problem: way more black a mood than a dress deserves, especially in light of some true tragedies some of my friends are working through right now. This dress has some fancy features I tried tackling in order to improve my skills: hidden pockets, a collar, and buttons! The whole dress took me 12-14 hours, which is truly precious time for a busy mother.
As one girlfriend cheerfully reminded me, "You'll probably be pregnant next year and not sewing, so imagine how happy you will be when you open up your bin of size 6 girl clothing and find this dress!" Indeed, God's will be done, she is right!
Well, its a lovely dress and the tag is sooo cute! You will be blessed to have it next year.
ReplyDeleteWhat is A.M.D.G.?
ReplyDeleteA.M.D.G. is short for the Latin Ad maiorem Dei gloriam, which means "for the greater glory of God." It was an old habit of students to write A.M.D.G. on the top of all their papers as a reminder that any work we do is for the glory of God, not for the glory of us. It is a good habit that I'm giving a try, something I might adopt.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_maiorem_Dei_gloriam
Another thing people write at the top of papers for the same purpose is JMJ, which stands for Jesus Mary Joseph.
Thanks, Hafsa. It's taken seven years of sewing to get this far, so a lot of practice. I was really pleased with my first hidden pockets, a collar (of which I've done very few), and buttons (which are hard for me).
ReplyDeleteWhere does one buy dresses like that? I know I won't be sewing any.
ReplyDeletePriscilla: I don't know! If I could find stuff like this on the market, I wouldn't sew it either.
ReplyDelete