Hello!
Welcome to week one of Super Scary Sewing Stories!!!
What is Super Scary Sewing Stories?
It’s a collection of “scary” sewing stories that we’ve gathered from seamstresses around blogland to share with you during this spooky season.
Some of the stories are funny, some are crazy, and some are just plain frightening. And many of these stories come with the pictures to prove it!
We’ve laughed, shuddered, and cringed as we’ve read through this collection and are excited to share these terrifying tales with you. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we have.
So without further ado let’s get started.
The first tale comes from me (liZ).
It’s the first scary sewing story I ever heard.
8 years ago my mom dragged me to a quilt block class. (It was back when I fought against all things domestic.) One night while in the class I was pinning some blocks together and at some point during the process I started holding some of the pins in my mouth. I don’t know why I did it. I guess it just seemed like a natural place to stick them while my hands were busy.
So there I am working and pinning when all of the sudden the instructor starts freaking out and snatched those pins right out of my mouth.
“DON’T EVER PUT PINS IN YOUR MOUTH!!!” she’s saying and everyone is staring at me like I’ve lost my mind.
Then she proceeds to tell me about a lady she knows who was pinning a quilt and had a pin in her mouth when something went wrong and she swallowed the pin!!!
(Apparently this story had been told before because all the other ladies there seemed to know it and chimed in with details and gory details.)
(Apparently this story had been told before because all the other ladies there seemed to know it and chimed in with details and gory details.)
Anyway, the pin became lodged in the poor woman’s throat and she had to be taken to the hospital where they had to remove it while she was under anesthesia.
Whether or not this is a true story or a quilters myth. I don’t know. All I know is it freaked me out enough that I’ve never put another pin in my mouth since.
*****
Our next story comes from our friend Pam over at Threading My Way.
(And I really love this one.)
When I was in 6th Class, after 3 years of hand sewing, we were allowed to use the black treadle sewing machines. I think there were two or three for the whole class. We made muumuus. Mine was green and I loved my creation!!! At the end of the year, we had to show off our dresses at a fashion parade. I was twelve years of age, shy and a little nervous about parading in front of the whole school, but I can remember being a little excited and very proud of my dress. To this day, I can quote my sewing teacher’s introduction as I walked onto the stage… Pamela doesn’t need darts in her muumuu. Every boy in the school was watching and listening. I was mortified!!! I didn’t care if I needed darts or not; at that moment, I desperately wanted them. The nerves hit big time and I just wanted to run off the stage. Inside, I was a nervous wreck, but I kept on with the parade. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was flat as a tack and without darts in her dress, but it sure felt like it.
I so wish I had a photo of that dress, but sadly, I don’t.
*****
The next story comes from another fun friend, Haley from over at Welcome to the Mouse House.
Her tale is about a bubble romper that went very, very wrong:
And ended up fitting her instead of her little girl!!!
To read all about it just click HERE
*****
Our last spooky guest is actually sharing 2 stories with us today.
So to wrap up our first week of Super Scary Sewing Stories we have our fabulous friend Michelle from over at Falafel and the Bee:
STORY #1.
After a very full day of stress, I decided my Falafel needed new pants and I needed to sew them. She only wears the two flannel lined pants that I made her and will not wear anything less-cozy (or without pockets). As I began this very necessary process of decompressing by doing something creative and full of purpose, I noticed (after cutting all the pieces and beginning) that my bobbin case was missing a screw.
Oh yes. I knew exactly where it went, too. I had taken it out to hand-wind elastic thread around the bobbin for a project a few days before, and whenever I do this I have to remove the screw or it doesn’t work properly. I placed it on the table (Now my memory came flooding back). And….and….
I swept it up with the tiny pieces of thread and fabric scraps into the trash!!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
Well, needless to say ( but I will anyway) it will not work without that tiny screw. It cost $30.00 to replace and I needed to wait for a special order.
But do I give up? NO.
I ask my older daughter to use her sewing machine. It is a basic Singer and I think will do the job. After all, I did promise Falafel new pants. So I sit down and try to assemble the cut out pieces and totally forgot to leave a space for the pockets I had just sewn. OK.
Do I stop? NO.
I continue on this foreign machine. It feels like using someone else’s hands. Just wrong. But I made a promise and I needed some therapeutic sewing, damn it.
*eyes twitching*
I go to thread the elastic through and the casing is too narrow.
Do I walk away? NO.
I seam rip for about 10 minutes, and then re-sew it. I go to match up the seams and they don’t match.
Do I walk away? NO. I RUN!
Finally, I throw my hands in the air (uh, and the pants) and drop the whole thing.
STORY #2.
My older daughter was sewing with an embroidery needle (the huge suckers) and she accidentally dropped it
into the rug without realizing it.
Along comes younger daughter and….
it went through the back of her heel (sideways).
Luckily it just went under the first layer of skin, so there wasn’t a whole lot of blood.
My heart may have stopped, though, after seeing it sticking out of her footie pajamas.
into the rug without realizing it.
Along comes younger daughter and….
it went through the back of her heel (sideways).
Luckily it just went under the first layer of skin, so there wasn’t a whole lot of blood.
My heart may have stopped, though, after seeing it sticking out of her footie pajamas.
*****
So there you have it.
Week One of Super Scary Sewing Stories.
Tune in next week…when we’ll have 4 more guests telling their tragic tales….
Now that’s a LARGE pair of bubble rompers.. LOL!!! Thanks for the series and the laughs. Not that I laughed over the last one… ouch!!!!!
I think we all have scary sewing stories. 🙂 I know I do. And I do believe I have pictures somewhere of the double needle sticking out of my finger….
I had a student, several years ago, who was holding a pin (or needle? I forget) in his mouth when he sneezed, inhaling the pin in the process and lodging it in his throat. He showed me the pictures of his xray. He had to have it removed under sedation. No fun.
Ha so the swallowing the needles thing is actually pretty common apparently. I was reading a news article recently that kids have been DIY’ing their own blow guns and accidentally sucking the thing back into their mouths/throats, then they end up in the ER. In the article they mention this happens to people when they hold needles/nails/etc in their mouth- I assume someone makes you laugh and you suck it into your mouth on accident. I’m still terrible about holding needles in my mouth though. 😉
This confirms my choice to not use my rotary cutter the other night. I had a horribly stressful few hours that had put me into a tirade (involving the school, meds, and my daughter being left behind from a volleyball game for their failure to follow thru with retrieving the meds prior to the nurse leaving!) and I really needed to decompress. I really needed to cut out a stack of organic fleece backings for my Sensory Ribbon Blankets but just knew that was not a good idea. I was afraid I wouldn’t be focused and chop off a finger. And yes, a lady at the fabric store had that story and finger wrapped to prove it just months ago!
positively hair raising! Glad I’m not the only one that continues to sew after a scary sewing story!
Oh no!! But man…these were some pretty good stories. Why do the tragic adventures always make for the best stories?
Haha, after sewing for 50 years I thought I was the only one who had sewing horror stories, but I guess I’m not alone! Karen’s muumuu story brought back such a memory of when muumuu’s were The Thing to make. I’ll never forget mine and I wish I still had it.
hahaha ooo fun series!!!
I’m glad I’m not the only one. Do we give up on this addictive sewing habit? No way! In January, I got my finger too close to my needle & needed to visit the doctor the next day…got to see an interesting x-ray & I do have a photo taken after the doctor operated on it.
Aghhhhh!!!! That freaks me out!!!!-liZ
SO that story she told me IS totally plausible…that is horrifying!
Danielle! Stop putting the needles in your mouth!!! All these stories are making me nervous.
Good choice. I don’t ever sew when I’m mad..it leads to mistakes and them I’m even more mad than I was when I started!
I don’t know but you are right, tragic adventures do make for the best stories!
You had an operation due to a sewing injury!?! Man this is a dangerous hobby! But I’ll never give it up 🙂
I’ve only taken one sewing class, and the teacher told me the same thing about swallowing pins. It happened to someone in her class. I’m starting to think that maybe they just say this to all classes! I still do it, but most every time I do I can still hear her story! 🙂
Oh my gosh! I totally need to stop putting pins in my mouth! I do it all the time!!! Yikes. I’m loving reading these stories. Such a fun idea:). I remember the first thing I made actually, now that we’re talking about it. It was a jumper dress in high school. And the fabric was home décor clearance fabric my mom paid for. Yep, I was walking around in what looked exactly like a couch in shape and fabric–tan with big blue flowers. But I was so very proud of it and didn’t realize there were other fabric options!
Great stories – I may just be scared enough into never holding a pin in my mouth again!
Oh, Pam!!! You poor thing! I absolutely CANNOT tell my daughter this story. She is only 9 and is currently obsessed with bras- even putting them on her Christmas list when she definitely does NOT need them.
Oh, and I put pins in my mouth all the time. Definitely a scary thought!
We have had a few needle and pin incidents here, but nothing serious. We have had more fishing hooks stuck in feet, to be fair. I do know someone that had a needle snap off in her foot and she was in rough shape for a long time- I think it might have gotten infected and traveled further into her foot or something.
My cousin swallowed a pin once. They had to knock her out to retrieve it. I sure will never put a pin in my mouth! It gives me the willies just thinking about it!
I’ve sewn for years and never hurt myself. I open a fabric store and within a couple of months manage to cut a large hunk off the side of my thumb with a rotary cutter while cutting customer fabric. Thankfully I didn’t bleed all over the fabric. When my daughter was 8 months old she found a sewing pin in the carpet and swallowed it. It lodged just above the opening to her esophagus and had to be removed under anesthesia. The hospital gave us both the pin and the x-ray to show her when she gets older.