Today I had the opportunity to do alterations. I'll be the first to admit that I really don't like doing alterations, but there was this wonderful older lady at church who had this sweater that just made her feel like she was "swimming" inside of it. "It just needs to be taken in a bit," she told me.

Isn't that the way it always is? What seems like a simple project to non-sewers, is sometimes a monumental task when you start going through everything that needs to be done just to make simple changes in the fit. To make matters worse...I'm picky! I like for things to be done well, and when I make mistakes I really just can't stand it! I'm not as hard on myself as I was when I was in my twenties, but I still like to set the bar pretty high and then drive myself to meet the challenge.

Anyway, today I took her sweater in "just a bit" on the sides. This involved taking apart the decorative blanket stitching around the armholes and hemline, ripping out the stitches holding the hem and the armhole edge in place, removing hundreds of beads that were along the side seams, taking up the seams, and then putting the whole thing back together again (praying that none of the sweater unraveled before I got it all back together again). Not exciting work, but different from my usual embroidery and sewing projects.

Something dawned on me while I was working, though. This sweater was given to her by her daughter-in-law. She didn't want to hurt her daughter-in-law's feelings by letting her know it was the wrong size, and yet she wanted to be sure she wore it on Christmas so her daughter-in-law would know she was proud of it. As I was sitting there with my needle and thread in hand, tacking down the edges of the seams, it occurred to me that instead of dreading the alteration I needed to do, I should probably be thankful she trusted me enough to work on something that would mean a lot to a member of her family. I had never thought of it that way, I guess, and that made the work seem much more enjoyable.