Mason and Walker are both proud Camp Ondessonk Lodge members. Recently, they reminded me that there is such a thing as a lodge arrowhead. To earn this arrowhead, the boys each need to attend a lodge reunion weekend, do a few service projects at camp and make 40 lodge sashes.
Mason wanted to make his lodge sashes while Walker was away in California. Unfortunately, we didn’t really get moving on it after Walker was already home. Wouldn’t you know that once Walker heard of Mason’s plan, he jumped on the bandwagon?
This is the story of how we attempted to make 80 lodge sashes in a week. The first step was to read the camp’s tutorial. We borrowed a blue sash from a friend, grabbed one of our red sashes and went shopping at Joann Fabrics for 25 yards of fabric and the necessary thread. We diligently prewashed the fabric and I started cutting.
By the end of the day Sunday, I had cut out the 80 sashes from the cotton/polyester blend fabric. The next step was to fold in the edges 1/4” twice and top stitch. Getting a precise double fold 1/4” seam was harder than I expected. Folding the fabric in was a pain. I read online several options and tried doing a 1/4” guide seam as a folding seam. That added an extra step, used up a lot more thread, and added a lot of time to the already daunting task of 80 sashes. It would have been worth it if it had worked.
No matter what I did (changing needles, rethreading the machine, using a different foot, pulling my hair out…), I could not sew a seam that did not pucker. This was just the preliminary guide seam. When I actually pressed the double fold edge and sewed the edge seam, our problems doubled. I had sashes that puckered and were too skinny. What to do?
Monday morning I hightailed it over to the sewing machine store with the fabric, my machine and my sob story. The ladies there gave me some good suggestions, sold me some sharps needles and some 1/4” seam tape. The 1/4” tape worked like a charm but it was highly cost-prohibitive. They said that my problem was likely the cotton/polyester fabric. Dope! I had chosen that because I thought it would be easier to work with than 100% cotton.
After weighing pros and cons, Tuesday I went back to Joann and purchased more thread and 25 yards of 100% cotton fabric. I came home, prewashed the fabric and enlisted help. My goal was to involve the kids as much as possible because I did not want to make 80 lodge sashes for them while they hung out and played video games.
I cut 80 sashes once again and started making a sash. I could tell after just one that things were looking up. Walker was enthusiastic about getting his arrowhead and therefore, he took an active role in sash production. I didn’t have to ask twice to get him to iron. He set up a work station complete with Grey’s Anatomy and spray starch and ironed away.
The sash making process took several days but here are the highlights.
Initially, I envisioned the kids doing all the ironing and me doing the sewing. It turned out that ironing was the hardest part of the job. A precise 1/4” double folded edge was crucial so I had to take on that part of the job. I taught Walker how to sew the long straight seams. He also learned how to chain piece the short edges that got flipped to become the points.
He sewed almost all of the red sashes and did a great job. I sewed all of the blue sashes and the final cross over seams on both sets to finish them all up.
About midway through the sash project, we redefined our goal. Because Walker had been in lodge longer than Mason and had already completed all the other requirements for the arrowhead, we decided that the first 40 sashes would be his to submit.
Cutting the total in half really lightened the load because even with as much help as Walker contributed, 40 sashes was incredibly time consuming. I spent hours at the ironing board and then hours at the sewing machine. Camp drop off is tomorrow and I just finished the last one under the gun at 10 PM tonight. Whew!
The next 4o sashes will happen but I’m just not sure when. In the meantime, we will rest happily having 40 ready to go with us tomorrow. Heepwah!
I have no words but “oh my!”
This is impressive!