Sewing Sunsets

So far, we have talked about the tailor’s ham (shown below):

And we have talked about the seam roll (shown below):

Today I want to show you the tailor’s clapper and point presser.

It is a rather funny looking tool, but it comes in oh, so handy when pressing sewing projects.  The bottom, which is rounded, is the clapper.  This is used to help flatten seams or areas of a garment that you want to lay flat, such as the edges of a collar.  When pressing, right after you lift the iron, you kind of hit the garment with the clapper and leave it there for few seconds or so.  This action holds the steam and heat in and helps flatten the area you are pressing.

The top pointed part is great for pressing points of collars.  Since this is a small seam, it’s hard to press without the use of the point presser.  Place the collar over the point presser (wrong sides up) and press the seam open.  I like to turn it over to the right side and press there as well.

As you know, the secret to sewing well is good pressing, and these sewing tools are essential to help with that process.

Happy Sewing!

This blog is mostly dedicated to sewing, but from time to time, I will be talking about dementia because I am on that journey with my mom right now.  Unfortunately, for the past few years, I have had to watch my mother decline due to dementia.  When we first started this journey, I thought that dementia simply meant memory loss, but I soon learned that is not the case at all.  It is so much more complicated than that.

My mom has dementia.  I’m not really sure what type; one doctor said that she has Alzheimer’s, but there are over 70 different causes of dementia.  Personally, I think my mom has vascular dementia, or perhaps a mixed bag of Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia, although her symptoms lead me to believe it’s the latter.

In my mom’s particular case, she has behavioral issues that surfaced one year ago this past December.  She woke up in her wonderful assisted living facility and didn’t recognize her own room, her own belongings or any of the staff members.  Ironically, she did recognize me when I arrived to visit.  She had been residing there for fourteen months at that point so this was highly unusual.  At first we thought it was a medical issue, and that was partially true.  However, it soon became clear that my mom had progressed to another stage of dementia.  At that point, it became clear that we had to move her to a locked facility, which we did, and shortly after she adjusted, she fell and fractured her pelvis.  Thankfully, re-entry into the locked facility went well after hospitalization and rehab, and we had a period of relative stability.  Until this past December….

My mom had started refusing to get out of bed, refusing her meds, and often refusing food as well.  Because we knew she had an ongoing UTI (urinary tract infection), and three antibiotics had not cured it, the decision was made to put her on Hospice in early December, 2011.   Since that time, she has had many behavioral issues–biting, hitting, scratching, refusing to get out of bed, refusing to allow the hospice aide to shower her, refusing food, and usually refusing her medicines.  This behavior isn’t every day or all the time, but each new day is truly a new day regarding her behavior.  Some days, she is pleasant and smiling, giving out hugs and kisses; other days, she exhibits the undesirable behaviors.  Thankfully, hospice has provided a topical gel that helps calm her down. Due to her symptoms, I now have to call the facility before I visit to see what kind of mood she is in, and if it is a bad day, I can’t go visit.  These days, I am lucky to actually see my mom twenty minutes a week.  I try to go visit twice a week, and about ten minutes is all she can handle.  If you have ever walked in these shoes, then you know how painful and heart wrenching it is to watch a loved one go through this horrible disease.  Sometimes I think the disease is harder on the family members than it is on the one who actually has  dementia.

Because this journey through dementia is so difficult on family members, I would like to encourage those of you who are fortunate enough to be spared to find a way to encourage someone you know who may be traveling on this same journey.  The caregivers are the ones who will need the most encouragement.  If you think about someone who is a caregiver for a dementia patient, give them a call, or offer to do something for them.  Sometimes, all we caregivers need is a hug, or someone to listen to our sorrow and pain; we don’t really need anyone to do anything necessarily, but just being there is a great gift.

If you know a caregiver for a dementia patient, whether or not the dementia sufferer, is placed, please take the time to give the gift of just being there for the caregiver.

As you know, when sewing, pressing is a very important process.   Pressing during sewing construction makes your project look better, and it looks more professional as well.  There are several important tools that help with pressing.  One is the seam roll, which I showed you in the last post.  Today, I am going to talk about the tailor’s ham, shown below.

The tailor’s ham is useful for building in shape into the garment you are sewing. These seams tend to be a bit larger than the seams that are pressed over a seam roll. Pressing over a seam roll implies pressing seams open, or to one side if you have serge finished the seams prior to sewing construction. A tailor’s ham involves seams such as princess seams, collars, and sleeve cap seams .

It is so important to press your projects as you are sewing them, and having these sewing tools in the sewing room helps with that process.   I have one or two other tools to show you in the next few posts.  The list of sewing tools that help with the pressing process is not complete here, but these tools are probably the most common for the home sewing enthusiast.

Happy Sewing!

Since it’s been so long since I have blogged regularly, I thought that we would start with a review of some sewing tools.  The picture below is a picture of a seam roll.  When you are sewing a garment, it’s always important to press as you go since this makes your sewing projects look more professional.

If a seam will be exposed, you should always finish the raw edges of the seams first.  This prevents raveling, and also just looks nicer on the inside of a garment.  One way to do this is to zig zag around the raw edges prior to sewing the garment.  If you are a more experienced seamstress, you can also serge around the raw edges.  When you finish the raw edges in this manner, you then press the seams flat, just as they were stitched, first.  This helps to set the stitches in the fabric.  Then, you press the seams open, which is where you can use the seam roll.  When pressing the seams over the seam roll, this helps eliminate the edges of the seam showing through to the right side of the garment, and also helps provide some shaping.  The shoulders of the body are round, so it makes sense that the shoulder seams should have some shape to them.  ( I hope this makes sense to you.)

Happy Sewing!

Although last year was extremely stressful, I managed to do a lot of sewing, and in the process, I learned something new with each project.  I sewed children’s flannel pajamas and bathrobes, and also made some quilts for my grandchildren.  I’m really not very good at quilting, but my family seems to like my creations.

Lately, I realized that I have missed sewing little girls’ dresses and after I finish my current projects, I hope to sew some dresses.  In the past, when I have planned to sew, real life seemed to intervene, so now I’ll just say that I hope to sew.

As  I continue to blog, I also hope to review some basic sewing tools, and techniques with you, as well as sharing my sewing projects.   Sharing my sewing projects will be tutorials of sorts.

Stay tuned for more sewing news.

Happy Sewing!

It has been way too long since I posted anything on my blog. Unfortunately, the reason for this is that my mother has dementia, and the past year or so has been especially difficult.  Her disease has progressed, and she is now on Hospice care.  This past summer, I had to make the difficult decision to stop all aggressive treatment for infections, and focus on comfort care.  Due to her behavioral issues, this is the right decision.   If you have any experience dealing with  a loved one with dementia, you understand how much effort and emotional energy it takes on you.  This is the primary reason that I have neglected this blog for so long.

Although I haven’t posted on this blog for a long time, I have been sewing, because it is my stress reliever.   Now, I am trying to start moving on with my own life just a little bit, and I hope to be able to blog more regularly.

My plan is to review a lot of beginner sewing techniques, and share sewing techniques with you as well.  I think that that when we sew, we always learn something new, and that makes it fun.  Over the holidays, I began exploring quilting again, and had lots of fun!  I’m still not very good at quilting, but all the “practice”  I got over the holidays made it fun!

Happy Sewing!

Anybody who has a family member with Alzheimer’s or any type of dementia knows how extremely difficult and stressful caregiving can be on a daily basis. This is especially true when a dementia patient has to go to a hospital or rehab setting because the environment is unfamilar to them, and they may initially act out because they can’t communicate their needs and feelings adequately.  Unfortunately, too many staff members at hopitals and rehab centers are not trained and don’t know how to interact with these patients properly. Recently, my own mother was a patient at a local skilled nursing facility, and this is exactly what happened. 

Before she was admitted to the facility for rehab, I informed the staff of her behavioral issues and was always assured that they could handle it.  They couldn’t!  On the first day of therapy, they seemed surprised and angry that she acted out, and tried to leave the building in her wheelchair.  I had told them that!  The way they handled the situation was to drug her with a drug that really isn’t advised for use in dementia patients!  In fact, from my observations, this particular facility seems to always want to give Ativan rather than working with the patients/residents to resolve behavior.

This facility also managed to lose her hearing aids, and the administrator seems to think that my mother, the dementia patient, should be responsible for keeping up with hearing aids and such.  Actually, because once again, the Almight Dollar is more important than a human being, this director refuses to pay to replace them because my mom might have put the hearing aids in a tissue box or something.  Yeah, that’s a possiblity, but CNA or a nurse could have laid the hearing aids on a table and forgot to put them in the proper container, and then perhaps the staff member placed a newspaper or magazine over the hearing aids, and housekeeping threw them away.  For some strange reason, many of these facilities that provide skilled care don’t ever want to take responsibility for very necessary items like hearing aids, glasses, and dentures.  To me, it just makes good common sense that when encountering any elderly person in this setting, the staff member needs to notice which of these adaptive devices the patient has, and document that.  In fact, for some odd reason, these types of facilities never seem to have a system in place that would reduce the loss of such necessary items.

So….. I have yet another battle on my hands.  This time, if the administrator is smart, he will go ahead and pay the $972 that it will cost to replace them.  Before June 12, 2011, the hearing aids are covered under warranty except for the deductible, which is the above amount.  After that date, the cost is $3,888, so if this adminstrator is not very smart and continues to fight me, he will be paying closer to $4000.  Of course, I’m sure he thinks that I’ll give up and go way, but I won’t—my mother has the right to hear and have a better quality of life, and she needs hearing aids for that!  I will fight hard fow what is best for my mom.

Oh, yes..the name of this facility?  Good Samaritan Society, Denton Village.

I had really hoped not to have to go this far, but at this point, I’m left with no choice.  My mother’s well being is too important!

It has been way too long since I updated this blog, but there is a good reason for that.  Unfortunately, my mom has Alzheimer’s and this past year–especially the past few months–have been extremely difficult!  This past December, my mom woke up and failed to recognize her apartment or any of the caregivers at the Assisted Living Facility.  She had lived there for about 14 months at that point.  My mom had a UTI, which often causes increased confusion in dementia patients.  Unfortunately, even though the infection was treated, it became clear that her disease had progressed.  And my mom became a wanderer, which required a move to a locked unit. 

My mom had barely gotten used to the locked facility when she fell and fractured her pelvis on both sides, plus she had another UTI. That was her third hospitalization in about three or four months.  Due to the fractures, she was sent to a skilled nursing facility for rehab.  That turned out to be a mistake in so many ways.  And it brings me to the current hearing aid war that I now have to rage again!  It seems that facilities do not want their staff members to take any responsibility for necessary adaptive devices like hearing aids, glasses, and dentures.    Apparently, this particular skilled nursing facility thinks that the dementia patient should be responsible for these items.  Of course, that is ridiculous! 

When I discovered that once again, a facility had lost my mother’s hearing aids, I addressed the proper personnel, but as usual, the management ignored me.  I wrote my concerns on the proper form, and also wrote a more detailed letter.  After giving them time to respond, and getting no response, I left a message on the adminstrator’s voice mail.  As usual, my concern was ignored.  Today, I decided to e-mail this person, and got a response.  Of course, he doesn’t want to take responsibility for lost hearing aids–it always seems to be the patient’s fault.  Upon admission, I was required to document exactly what personal items were brought into the facility, and it is clearly documented that the hearing aids were brought into this particular facility.  Of course, I was given the standard–and tired–line of them not being responsible for such items.  However, if these places had some simple systems in place to ensure that these items are handled properly, it would greatly reduce such incidences. 

Let the hearing aid war begin again!  This nursing home admistrator will soon learn that I never give up!

Since my fight with the hospital is finally over, I’ll soon start sharing my sewing projects with you here.   In spite of all that’s beeen going on lately, I have been doing a lot of sewing.  I had a little girl’s dress pattern that I had never made before so I made a cute holiday themed dress first, but I plan to make another dress from this pattern soon, and of course, I’ll share that with you here.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com

I am happy to report that Denton Regional Medical Center finally decided to do the right thing and pay the entire cost to replace my mother’s hearing aids.  While she was hospitalized there a few months ago, her hearing aids were lost, and it is my belief that a hospital employee mistakenly threw them away.  At that time, I told the employees that I expected the hospital to pay to replace the hearing aids.  What I did not expect was the battle that I had to endure in order to get the hospital to do the right thing.  My poor mother has suffered without her hearing aids for three months, and because of that, she is going to have to get used to them all over again–just as if she had never worn them before. 

Hopefully, this episode has taught Denton Regional, an HCA owned hospital, that they need to have specific policies in place for keeping up with things such as hearing aids, glasses, and dentures.  Maybe Denton Regional Medical Center will now implement some new guidelines for their employees in order to avoid situations like this one in the future.  I am just glad that this battle is over and that my mother will now be able to hear. 

Now I can return to sewing and will be able to share my sewing projects with you here in the near future.

Happy Sewing!

www.sewseamless.com