In the Queue Wednesday

You've already seen this project - it was a Christmas gift from Ana.  :)

She picked out the pattern, the fabric - even a contrasting fabric for the yoke - and got me matching thread and a zipper.  I love it all!  

I'm almost as happy about the fact that she did it all by herself!  I remember the first time she ever stepped foot into a fabric store - I took her to pick out the fabric for her first sewing lesson.  She didn't speak English and it was all new and strange to her - the books of patterns, the file cabinet of patterns, the rows of fabric, having the fabric cut, reading the table on the back of the pattern to figure out how much to buy and what size zipper to get - it was ALL as foreign as our language...

Now she can do it all herself.  She can waltz into Joann's, go straight to the pattern books, find a picture she likes, pull the pattern out of the file cabinet, select the fabric(s), wait in line to have it cut, tell the woman behind the counter how much she wants, pick out the required notions, and then pay for it all.  She is comfortable and confident and speaks easily in English with the people who work there.  

Of course, I don't get credit for teaching her English - she went to school to learn that.  But I do think that practicing with me and my husband helped her gain confidence outside of the classroom.  

Anyways, every time I wear this skirt I'll remember that she picked it out for me and that it shows how far  she has come since that first day that we got together and I showed her how to thread a sewing machine...  

So, I'll be getting to this skirt soon!  It's in the queue...  :)