Our most embarrassing/funniest mistakes while quilting/sewing
 

Howdy!
Last night - out of the blue - a memory popped into my mind and it made me giggle. Last year I finished a quilt. I sewed the binding with the machine and didn't realize that there was no thread on the bobbin. So I was sewing round and round and round and it took about 10 minutes till I was wondering that something didn't worked as planned. Back then I was thinking, that I must have been a stupid geese. Today it is a very funny memory. :o

So, what are your most embrassing/funniest/weird mistakes while quilting/sewing? Please share them!

having a ruffling border
sewing something on the back that isn't suppose to be there
i blush...

somehow I stitched my shirt into a seam once....did I mention while I was TEACHING a class! Lifted up the project and up came my shirt!

Sewing blocks together one was wrong way.Did this ALMOST 3 times Same Block for goodness sake

I was creating a bag (just my own little version of the bowtucks) and finished, thinking "wow, I really like that". Then went to change everything over from my other bag and realized I had sewn one side of the lining, pockets and all, upside down! I wasn't exactly laughing though....my seam ripper and I had quite the conversation that morning!

I made a quilt for my DILs mother who is a friend of mine. The day I gave it to her (it was a suprize ) her mother was here with her. She was thrilled! As she spread it out on my sofa to see the whole quilt I noticed that I had sewn one side of the binding on backwards! I was so embaressed and said I would fix it. She said I shouldn't change a thing! She loved it as it was. Now I see it every time I go to her house.:p

Sewing through my thumb. I don't remember the particulars, but I do remember seeing thread coming out of my thumb nail and my husband calling the nurse helpline to see what to do about it. Not my best moment.

I was BOM chairman for our quilt guild and when showing a few sample blocks at a board meeting I realized I had sewn a section of one of the blocks in backward order, so it didn't make the flower design intended.

lol, sounds like something I would do.

Oh that hurts to think about it.

I have made so many, its NOT funny. lol

Yep, three times!
I sewed blocks together, right side to wrong side, ripped out, sewed again the wrong way, ripped out, sewed again the wrong way.
Closed everything down, went to bed.
Started over, with ripping, the next day.

One time I was sewing a pair of shorts for one of my kids. I don't recall exactly how I did it because it doesn't bear thinking about too closely, but somehow I sewed side to side instead of front to back and ended up with a pair that had a huge round waist and tight skinny legs. I probably could have ripped the seams out and fixed it, but I was so mortified I tossed the whole thing. And no, it wasn't even my first time sewing shorts!

My DD made a pair of elastic waist pants for herself & sewed both legs together. She had one giant leg. We still laugh about it. And yes, she is a very experienced sewer.

Chain stitched 15 prs of 4 1/2" sqs together with no thread in the needle;)

Now THAT would be embarrassing!

Actually that was a very "teachable" moment. Students can be aware that these things happen and does not have to be a moment for panic or frustration. The best thing to do is: 1st, laugh; and second, rip.

Oops! Forgot to mention that I had many "teachable" moments in my 33 years of teaching. My most "memorable" was the day of my evaluation by the parish supervisor, I misspelled one of the spelling words on the board. I had reversed two letters. I was mortified when she quietly pointed it out to me. I quickly used the moment to point it out and had a little side lesson on that.

That had to be entertaining!

Mine was not witnessed by anyone other than family.

We were heading on a trip early one morning. We had packed the night before and laid out our clothes, so we could just get dressed, brush our teeth and leave.

I pull on my pants and the button pops off. I grabbed the button and needle and thread and we left.

I sat in the car while DH drove and sewed on the button, while wearing the pants.

We got to the ferry and I undid my seat belt. Yep, I had sewed my pants to the seat belt! I had to remove the button, then resew it to my pants only before I could get out of the car.

Being so happy to be finished when clipping that last thread and cutting a hole in my quilt.

Hmmm I don't know that the right word for how I felt is "embarrassed", I guess I don't embarrass easily... but I did quilt a scrap onto the back of a small quilt I was quilting on my DSM. I laughed and showed everybody so they could chuckle, too.

I sewed garments for years before starting to quilt. Last year I decided to make my husband a Christmas shirt. You see so many holiday shirts for women & my husband has more Christmas spirit than most 10 people put together. I was making him a black camp style shirt with a row of Christmas prints down the front. It was coming together nicely- kind of elegant, but fun & I was quite pleased with myself. I am pretty sure I even said" Wow, you still got it! " out loud! After I had trimmed the sleeve I held it up to look at & I had cut a HUGE gash through the sleeve! Brought me back down to earth pretty fast! I had to go out & buy more fabric for the sleeve.....It did come out nice & he does like it, but I still laugh at myself & my cockiness!

Forgot about this one until DD reminded me. I made my one and only tote bag and sewed the handles across the opening instead of up each side. Can you blame me for trying to forget about this? :eek: In my defemse. the directions for the whole bag were confusing, but this was the only part I messed up on.

I have totally done that.

It certainly wasn't funny at the time, but I once cut a sleeve out of my mother's tablecloth that I had failed to completely remove from the kitchen table before I started cutting. After she stopped fussing, we cut TWO blouses out, one from the fabric, and one from the kitchen tablecloth. It really was a pretty tablecloth. I smile every time I see my high school senior picture. I was wearing my mother's tablecloth. I should hunt it up and post a photo...

Years ago I made a rather fancy dress for myself. There was a slit up the front and when I walked the sides kept flopping back. So, in all of my wisdom I decided to put weights in the bottom corners of the dress. When we went to the buffet table (after my dress attached itself to the table) I realized that not only were they weights, they were also magnets. I kept pulling my dress away from anything metal all night. I still laugh at myself for that one. You can dress me up but can't take me anywhere.

My "duh" moment was when I had completed a handbag for myself and gave myself a big pat on the back for a job well done. I grabbed my old handbag and started putting my things into my new bag which kept making a crinkling sound every time I put my hand in it. I finally figured it out......I was out of stiff interfacing to use in the pockets so used Steam A Seam which worked well, but I forgot to take the paper backing off!! That took the wind out of my sails real quick!

I love your magnets story. Laughed out loud at that!

I did the same thing. The directions said to stitch handles across from each other ---so that is what I did! LOL!

Many, many years ago, long before spray basting, I had a king size quilt on a plush carpeted floor all laid out to baste it. When I got done I went to lift it up & had managed to baste to to the carpet as well. I thought I was being so careful. My mom nearly wet herself laughing at my opps moment. I went out & bought a huge cardboard cutting board after that one.

My dumb moments was machine quilting in cream on a quilt spent all afternoon doing a wonderful job.
When I took it out and looked at the back and had still got a dark green in the bobbin. Forgot to check
The colour in bobbin.

Yep, did that except with was my index finger AND I was home alone. Man, it hurt to pull that finger off the needle!!

Got ready for church, then read all the replies to this thread and laughed so hard I had to fix my face again. Can't wait to check in again later.

That sounds like a very valid teaching method! What an ice breaker!

Years ago in my garment sewing days, I sewed the right sleeve in the left arm hole and the left sleeve in the right armhole. After trying it on I realized my mistake, took it all out and turned around and did the same thing again!
Can you believe the third time I started to do it again, but caught myself after a few inches of sewing. Unbelievable!

I made a Freedom Quilt a few years back. It's a wonky Log Cabin, with the squares tilted one way and then the other. It had been to two quilt shows, and I had it on my bed for several years before I noticed that one of the squares is not tilted according to the pattern of "tilts". Now we'll see how I can keep my mouth shut and not tell anyone else.

LOL! Loved these! I have a good one. Newly married and still in school (aka broke), my husband was working for a furniture company. He would bring left over chintz/cotton fabric home that was appropriate for me to make dresses, etc. (I was student teaching, and needed to look professional on a dime.) Low and behold, we go to a house design open house, (a rather dressy affair), and I am standing there, matching the sofa. I stayed in the kitchen. LOL

:D so funny

A few years ago I was in a round robbin where we exchanged a piece of focal fabric to be used to make a row, we kept the row we made for our selves. When all rows were completed we got together to exchange rows and asemble our quilts. I was the only one out of the 12 to use my own focal fabric wrong side up! LOL The girles still put notes on fabric for me-THIS SIDE UP-

Glad to hear I'm not the only one that has done that! Ha ha ha :D