Naomi Girson | opinions editor

When I was about 6 years old, I truly believed I didn’t have an imagination. I was completely flummoxed by the other kids in my class that could do anything we weren’t being taught directly in school. When you’re in elementary school, you are supposed to be kind of crafty, and trust me, my mother tried her best to show me every craft in the book.

I was an awful artist until I got to college. Since I found classes in the liberal arts school expeditiously easier than taking 5 AP classes in high school, I suddenly had a lot of free time. I started carrying a sketchbook and crayons around with me. When my sister came home for Christmas my freshman year I was showing her some of what I had drawn recently and she was actually impressed with what I was doing. For Christmas, she bought me a new (better) sketchbook, charcoal pencils and other fine art materials to keep me inspired.

I tried crocheting when I was younger too, but that didn’t click until high school, though I have only mastered the single loop stitch. Sewing was even worse. My mom had tried to show me numerous times, and it would always end with me incredibly frustrated. In elementary school art class, we had a project that involved sewing a button onto a piece of fabric. I once spent the whole 40-minute class period trying desperately to thread my needle.

Two weeks ago, when spring break commenced (which now feels like an eternity ago), I set out to complete one simple goal. I wanted to make some alterations on some of my clothes. I thrift a lot of what I own, and with that comes worn down materials and ill-fitting shirts that are otherwise much better quality than the products off the rack at the mall nowadays.

In order to do this, I have to ask my mother to get her sewing machine out and help me set it up. That always feels like the worst part and is probably a large reason why I don’t sew much.

I had done a few small alternations on my own before. I brought in a dress a couple inches on the sides a few years ago and I wear it much more than I would have had the waist stayed the same size. I also once made a pretty subpar throw pillow about 10 years ago, that I still have on my bed.

But, I was feeling ambitious. I spent longer than I imagined possible setting up the machine by myself and with the help of kind women on YouTube showing me how to thread the bobbin before finally getting the loop of the thread to come up in the machine, just as I was ready to give up. And the thing is, a few years ago, I would have, and that would have been the end of my craft venture. But instead, I actually made alterations on a lot of my clothes, making them more wearable. It’s astonishing what you can do with a little bit of patience, even though several years ago, I would have been happy just getting the needle threaded.

Naomi Girson can be reached at girsonn@duq.edu