Esther Chilton

It’s Friday and time for my guest writer slot. This week I’m welcoming back Jean Harris. She first appeared in this slot a few weeks ago with her super piece, A Safe Place, and then more recently with another gem, Green Fingers. Here’s another of her gems to enjoy:

Stitched Up!

By

Jean Harris

Oh, how I laughed when my neighbour brought me a pair of trousers to take in and a skirt to take up. She’d heard I was a dab hand with a needle and thread, you see.

Well, I am – just not when it comes to clothes. I can count the squares of a cross-stitch kit and go back and forth across the aida all day long. I can even use wool and craft creative cushions, though I must admit putting the backing on the cushions poses a few problems. But no one sees the wonky back, do they?

“I’ll pay you to do it,” my neighbour said, a little unsettled at my response.

I thought back to when I’d sewn a new set of buttons onto my husband’s shirt. I’d managed to sew them on an equal distance apart – sort of. Well, I thought it made the shirt look rather distinctive. Not that it stayed that way for long as the buttons pinged off one by one.

It was just as well that I wouldn’t accept money from my neighbour for a favour as I think it would be me paying her for a new pair of trousers and skirt, rather than the other way round.

I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t ruin her lovely linen trousers and smart skirt. Could I?

The problem was, I’m a bit of a sucker for helping people. You might like to say I can’t say no. Or maybe it’s just that what I’m thinking actually comes out of my mouth as something completely different.

Either way, I found myself sitting with sewing box at my feet and scissors, skirt, trousers and thread at the ready.

I hadn’t known my neighbour all that long. She’d only moved in last year. I wondered if she was the sort to take umbrage if something went wrong. I’d seen all those programmes on the T.V. about neighbours who turned nasty and I didn’t fancy cameras camped out on my doorstep, thank you very much.

Though I have to admit I was quite proud of my effort at taking in. I was sure I’d measured, pinned, sewn and cut in all the right places. It was then that I realised she’d told me the measurements in centimetres and not inches. She had definitely lost some weight recently, but as I held the trousers up, I realised that she hadn’t quite gone down to a size eight. Maybe if corsets came back in…

I put the trousers to one side and started on the skirt. I took it up with painstaking precision. It looked pretty good, though I wasn’t sure that my neighbour would appreciate the giant stitches here and there. It wasn’t my fault. Well, if the material hadn’t been so thick it would have been all right. Besides, white stitching on a plain blue skirt added a dash of colour. I’d run out of blue and she did say she wanted it as soon as possible.

And as soon as possible it was done. Both trousers and skirt, one taken in, one taken up – perfectly. She was delighted with the results. Thank goodness a sewing shop has opened up in town. Though I’m keeping my fingers crossed that my neighbour doesn’t bring me anything else. It could prove rather costly. 

Jean Harris loves reading and always enjoyed writing at school. Now she’s retired, she’s decided it’s time she started writing again.  

 If you’d like to be included in my guest writer slot, please get in touch: estherchilton@gmail.com. Poems can be up to 60 lines and prose 2000 words. If you’d like to add a short bio and photo, then great.