Susan Melted Her Scissors with a Hot Iron…Again!

I can never find these tiny scissors when I need them. But once I start ironing, there they are. Stuck to the sole plate of my HOT iron!

Over on my favorite sewing website,Pattern Review

Many of us have been discussing what sewing is like now that we Boomers are seniors. Gone are the days when I could whip out a mini skirt or two in the morning before school. Or even in my 30s when I made entire wardrobes for my favorite daughter, Miss Meliss while she slept.

While the heart is willing, the hands and eyes are no longer up to the task. Add to that the need to take siesta, and the fact that here in Baja Sur, we call 9:00 p.m. Senior Gringo Midnight!

The other thing about this is; I no longer decide five hours before an event that I will make a  new dress. Oh the thought crosses my mind. I even head to the Engine Room. But Suz, my messy haired Guardian Angel with the dented halo, manages to stop me before I get crazy.

I gave up deadlines when I left California at the turn of the millennium. I have retired from real estate. Well mostly, people still insist on calling me for help. The only real deadline that I have is my writing. But you writers  out there know,  writing on deadline keeps the juices flowing.

Back to what we have been discussing. And that is how long does it take to finish a garment these days? Well two Sundays ago, I was able to cut, mark and sew and wear later that  evening a pair of white Capris. That was a fluke. Suz and all the saints in Heaven must have lined up all the planets for me. Nothing went wrong!

The real issue is, that we have the time. Or I have the time to sew whenever I want.  But other things get in the way of completing projects in the time I think I should do it. I spend a lot of time looking for tools.

“Suz, dammit,Where is my rotary cutter?”

“AAAAAAAAAh!” I scream as I put my hand down on the  uber-sharp blade.

Or,  I ask to no one “Why isn’t this machine turning on?” Then I realize that I had unplugged it  during a thunder storm the day before.

And there are the pattern pieces that mysteriously float off the cutting table. The pins that spill. The bobbins that roll away and are invisible until you step on them days later. All four seam rippers ending up at the computer not near the sewing machine.

The iron. Oh the iron. I am hard on irons, I admit it. I have had many mishaps with irons.

1. I was moving my ironing board. Its toe got caught in the tile grout. Ironing board at full stop. Expensive Rowenta top of the line(TOL) iron goes skidding to the tile floor and shatters.
2. I was out of iron cleaner. So I used oven cleaner. Take it from me,DO NOT EVER USE OVEN CLEANER ON YOUR IRON.Especially don’t do this if you share an iron with someone like my Beloved that irons his own shirts ( and mine). It tends to irritate them.
3.  Wheelchairs, tight hallways with ironing board and iron do not mix. I was in a wheelchair for a few weeks after breaking my ankle. I could not stand not to sew. So My Beloved set up the ironing board in the hallway. So I could get around it. I was rolling down the hall, bumped the  ironing board, and you guessed it!
4. Do not put small plastic handled scissors out of sight  on your ironing board. If I  didn’t know that Suz is just a figment of my imagination, I would believe that she in her perverted, non-angelic way deliberately put those little scissor  UNDER my hot iron.

Another thing: always have plenty of iron cleaner and old towels in your sewing  room.

So this morning as I was preparing to press the pristine, white lapels of my latest blouse, I picked up my iron. And the awful smell of melting plastic  filled the air. This was very dramatic. The scissors were stuck to the iron, then they  took a few seconds to slowly peel away. They left behind a quarter inch of both  lovely, blue -colored handle shapes on the iron.  I wish I had snapped a photo. Don’t worry, I am sure that it will happen again!

So twice in  a few weeks I have melted my scissors.

Here are the two shots of these little,not at all inexpensive scissors. Exibit A on the left is today’s event. And Exhibit B on the right is from a few weeks ago.

I posted  something about this on one of my sewing FB pages.

Someone asked me how I  got my  iron so clean.

Well just before she asked someone else piped in and said that I was lucky that I had one of the new T-fal ceramic sole plate irons, because they cleanup so well. And they do.

I have had two different irons with their own water reservoirs that made  clouds of stems. I left them boiling away as I sewed, and well, burned them out.

And here is my iron before and after: