Search

Sewing with less stress Front

Sewing with less stress Front
My newest sewing book

Sewing with less stress back cover

Sewing with less stress back cover
What my new book is about

Clothesmaking mavens

Clothesmaking mavens
Listen to me on the clothes making mavens podcasts

About me

My photo
I am a mother, a grandmother, and a teacher. But whatever happens in my life, I keep sewing. I have worked as a political communicator and now as a teacher in my formal life. I have also written extensively on sewing. I have been a frequent contributor and contributing editor of Threads magazine and the Australian magazine Dressmaking with Stitches. My book Sew.. the garment-making book of knowledge was published in May 2018 and is available for pre-order from Amazon
SIGN UP BELOW FOR BARBARA EMODI'S MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

FOLLOW

SIGN UP TO FOLLOW BARBARA EMODI'S BLOG "SEWING ON TH EDGE"

Follow me on Instagram

Instagram
Follow on Bloglovin

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Flypaper thoughts: the persistence of Christmas edition

  • 2020 has sometimes felt 
  • Like topstitching
  • And finding out that the bobbin thread ran out half way through
  • And this happening over and over again
  • Times like this
  • It's easy to say
  • Now what?
  • And to brace yourself for more bad news
  • That's if you are a pessimist
  • Optimists
  • Are like those poor Japanese soldiers
  • They used to find on Pacific Islands
  • 40 years later
  • Still waiting for word from the Emperor
  • That it was all over
  • Their one thought to hold on tight
  • Until they heard the all clear
  • This is tricky stuff
  • We have been at it long enough to admit that
  • Out loud
  • But this is precisely the moment
  • It seems to me
  • To remember
  • Who makes the rules wins
  • And Christmas gives us the tools
  • It gives us little boys
  • Still running across the field in Santa hats
  • Watching your son and granddaughter bite into
  • The shortbread you have been making for your kid
  • For 35 years
  • So what it's on FaceTime
  • You still saw it
  • And hell would freeze over before that shorbread was not baked
  • Didn't break at all on the long mail trip from this coast to that one
  • It's in the lights in my neighbourhood
  • Up early this year and twice as many
  • It's the man across the street
  • 75 and living alone
  • Who adds more lights every day


  • It's my husband making a snowman to surprise me
  • And ever practical with two noses so it has a face from the house and street view

  • It's these two jogging near my house


  • It's my 93 year-old-mother in Manitoba
  • Who has to be alone in her house this Christmas
  • Cooking a turkey breast and a dinner for herself
  • So the house will still smell like Christmas
  • It's the memories of other Christmases
  • When we had the privilege of all being together
  • Making me happy not sad
  • Because I am lucky enough to have those times to revisit in my head
  • When I want to
  • It's the Temptations Christmas album
  • And mincemeat like my dad used to love
  • Who else puts cheddar cheese on a tart?
  • It's seeing an old lame border collie roll around in the snow
  • With joy
  • It's knowing I am one of a million grandmas who sewed Christmas pyjamas this year
  • That little kids still won't be able to sleep
  • And will get up way too early
  • It's knowing that
  • Christmas comes every year
  • And nothing can stop it
  • Don't even try