In June I walked door-to-door to businesses throughout my town with flyers and posters about National Alzheimer's Awareness month. This gave me a wonderful opportunity to meet and chat with hundreds of people, share information about this treacherous disease, and check out the contents of stores and shops that I had never visited before. It was interesting, enlightening, and fun.
While my personal delivery system required several days to complete, I finished feeling happy and knowing much more about my town and its merchants. I vowed then to do my best to only buy from local stores with local proprietors, skipping the big box discount monoliths that have intruded and run many out of business. Their prices may be better on some items but they are not good to their employees and they do not exude a sense of belonging to our town. So far I have been very successful with my purchasing and have had a great time as well and l know I am making a difference for local businesses.
One of our new shops sells fabrics. We have had similar stores in and out over the years but they have found it tough to stay afloat. The big box has some sewing essentials but not many plus it is off my list of places to go. The owner of the fabric shop is a casual acquaintance as our sons wrestled and played football together. On my first visit, the shop was pretty quiet so we had a chance to chat and I was able to snoop around and discover the variety of fabrics, notions, and quilting materials available. And so, even though it is August and summer is nearly gone, I decided to join the legion of sewers and make covers for my outdoor furniture.
On the second stop the shop was bustling, exciting for a fledgling business, but the owner had plenty of time for me. We found a perfect outdoor fabric in greens, tans, and reds, measured out the yards, found thread and stuffing for pillows and my sewing adventure began. I have sewn off and on over the years so I have experience, but I am not a regular at my machine. Fortunately it is a trusty Singer, a graduation gift 42 years ago, and it runs with glee. I gathered up my old cushions, washed and dried them, shook the stuffing back into every corner, and then set them atop my fabric. I cut one large cover for my favorite rocking chair and fashioned two pillows for my swing (one a cover-over and the other a new creation). After seams were in place I shoved in the old cushions, stitched up the hole left for stuffing, and had sparkling new ones.
Next came the Adirondacks. I have four of them and just two cushions that include a back and seat all in one. I cut the cushions in two so that now I would have a seat cushion for all four chairs. I again measured, cut, sewed, and stuffed and was pleased to have cushions for all of the chairs. With the leftover fabric I created a tablecloth so now everything on my deck blends with a cheerful, new cover. In a matter of a few hours I had renewed my vow to shop locally, washed, cut, sewed, stuffed, and now I can enjoy a fresh look and feel at a minimal cost.
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