Greetings, Friends!

I just finished a project that I had literally been pushing off my sewing area for months. But, to finish it, I had to use invisible thread for part of the seam.
Some of you are laughing already.
And you are correct to do so.

Sewing for me is often like solving those story problems we remember so well from elementary school. I do it my own way. My mom, a teacher, used to chuckle at how I viewed the details of said problems. She was also amazed when I got the correct answers.
The phrase, “More than one way to skin a cat,” comes to mind…
Well, as I was laboriously working with this invisible thread, several images came to mind. One of them was that this would have been a good stunt for Lucy Ricardo to try. And I do not use the word stunt lightly.
Invisible thread has a mind of its own, sproinging out when you want it to go in, falling into the shade so you think that your needle has come unthreaded, and coming off the bobbin from the top and the bottom.( Even I know there shouldn’t be two bobbin threads that come up when the needle comes to pull it up through the opening)
All of these things require great stretching and straining.It’s quite a workout. Next time I’ll wear one of those headbands to keep the sweat from falling into my eyes.
That’s why I call it a stunt.
And that’s why I can see Lucy struggling with it. I can see her start to try to get into a different position to encourage the thread to do what its supposed to, to go where all threads have gone before. She starts out sitting in her chair, then twists to one foot on the chair and one on the ground, finishing with straddling the machine while both are covered ( although you can’t see it) in invisible thread)
And it’s at this point that I can see Harpo come in with his horn and honk three times at her in greeting.

Can’t you just see it? I mean, if it weren’t invisible thread?

The other two images that came to mind were a flea circus and a mime. SPOILER ALERT Both play around with imaginary things. Sorry, but that trapeze in the flea circus is rigged and that rope that the mime is pulling? It’s not attached to anything.
As I was threading the machine, I felt as though I was performing as a mime—just going through the motions. And I could hear the flea circus music, you know the tune I mean.

So now I suppose you want to know why I had to use the invisible thread in the first place?

Well, now, I can tell you, at least from my perspective, why those sweatshirt hoodies that zip up the front and are featured at the Official Collegiate Wear ( read spendy) stores like the M Den in Michigan are so gosh darned expensive.
It’s because of the zippers.
Because if you happen to lose some of the teeth from that zipper in the front, replacing it is H E double toothpicks.

Remember putting zippers into that eighth grade jumper we made, ladies? Well, I’m here to tell you that that experience pales in comparison to the machinations I had to go through to get this zipper in place.
And when I had finally identified which facing went to which side of the zipper and had successfully sewn the two seams on one side and had pinned and sewn half of the other side, I zipped it up and MICH did not match up with IGAN.
AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Have you ever tried to rip anything out of sweatshirt hoodie material? Nigh unto impossible without catching the innocent loops of the adjacent fabric.
Sigh.
I now have a MICHIGAN cardigan. No zipper.
At a certain point in sewing you have to cut your losses. Or rather, rip them out.
As Ye Sew, So Shall Ye Rip.

So, you ask, Where did the invisible thread come into play?
The blue and maize letters were where the seam had to go and I didn’t want to trounce across them with the gray thread that I used for the rest of the seam.

So there.

The hubster says that the ribs are nearly ready. Yum. So, I’ll say good bye for now.

Have a Super Sunday evening and remember everyone has a candle that they can light to dispel the darkness. Light yours.

Love,

Janet