Matchy Matchy + Sewing Machine Sadness + Delancey Progress

Z and her new doll on Christmas, with polka dots in abundance.

My Amazing Mom was having sewing machine issues recently, but took prompt action, got her machine serviced, and all is well. She's been making some ridiculously cute matching outfits and accessories, all drafted from scratch with paper patterns of her own design.

Z and her doll "Howie Bowie Wowie" out for a winter's stroll in matching duds

My favorite so far is this beautiful original design with matching headband—I believe this is an African wax print fabric my mom picked up at Sew-Fisticated Discount Fabrics in Boston.
 

Christmas outfit designed and sewn by my mom: the girl version

And the doll version...

And there's a lot more! Each of these has a girl-sized equivalent, though I don't have all the photos handy:

She's also been sewing matching outfits for Z and her 3-month baby cousin, R:

My own sewing mojo is not so strong at the moment, however...

Goofy and overly confident late-night sewing selfie, right before sewing machine disaster struck

 So right before I got my carpal tunnel last October, I was about to make a Cake Red Velvet knit dress (naturally) but first I wanted to finish my third Cake Hummingbird. I was tired, it was late on a work night, but I had my spelunking sewing headlamp on (one of my favorite non-sewing sewing tools) and I was in the sewing zone and...

And then this happened. Whatever "this" is:


And it's probably still sitting inside my sewing machine cabinet that way.

And then I got the carpal tunnel. And then after I recovered from that, a newfound food-allergy-free baking and cooking obsession.

I know nobody wants to read posts in which people apologize for not sewing or not blogging, but that's not really my point. My point is: why am I always so scared of my sewing machine? I'm sure it's probably 10 minutes of me tinkering to figure out the issue. Or if necessary, a trip to the shop. But somehow that tiny hurdle seems insurmountably annoying, so much more so than, say, making my own fruit leather from scratch.

Knitting is not so daunting, equipment-wise—in addition to those chartreuse Knotty gloves I mentioned before, I'm finally back to putting the finishing touches on my Delancey cardigan—just have to do the edges, button bands and shawl collar!

I am NOT going to think about weaving in all those ends. And I have made piece with my paltry three sweaters per year knitting average (counting baby sweaters). Can you spot which color of discontinued yarn I lost on a plane?