When Social Sewing Goes Bad (and more dates)

So, we had our February Social Sewing day on Saturday. However, not all went to plan, and neither myself or the darling Kat actually got to do any sewing. Wanna hear why? Then read on! If not, scoot on down to the bottom of this post for new Social Sewing dates (or go to the Social Sewing Page)

So, picture this. After a quick stop at Rathdowne Fabrics on the way, we're arriving at GJs for our day of sewing. I'm upstairs in the work room starting to get ready, thinking about how much tulle I'll need to buy for my crinoline, and I hear a shout come from the stairs. "Rachel, can I get some help" I hear coming from Kat. I go over to the top of the stairs to give Kat a hand, assuming that she just needed a hand carrying things up the stairs (she is 30 weeks pregnant after all).

As soon as I see Kat though, I see not all is well, she's a bit laid down, a few steps up the stairs and unable to move. I quickly grab her bags out of her hands, dump them at the top of the stairs and come back down to help some more. Her dress was caught on her sewing machine case (one of those wheel-y ones, like a wheely suitcase but for a sewing machine). I unhook her dress and take the case, and then we discover that she'd cut her leg.

I'm frantically trying to get someone to help us out, and Mel comes to help us, and flags down some GJs staff for help too. By this point I had actually looked at Kats leg and was in proper panic mode; she hadn't just scratched her leg, or even cut her leg, there was a massive gash up the inside of her left calf!

The scene of the crime, with Sarah, Oanh and myself keeping Kat company

The staff at GJs were absolutely amazing, and within a few minutes an ambulance had been called, a clean cloth and gentle pressure applied to the wound, and everyone was pumped full to the brim with Adrenaline! By this point we'd worked out what had happened - the base of Kat's machine bag is slightly broken, and there was a piece of metal near the bottom that had moved out when she picked it up, which it turns out was incredibly sharp!

It didn't take long for the Ambulance(s) to arrive (an ambulance, and also one of the MICA paramedics). The paramedics were fantastic, applying a bandage to Kats leg before driving her to the hospital. Now, I wasn't about to let her spend the day at the hospital on her own, so I went with her to keep her company.

A fuzzy pic of the ambulance ride

We arrived at the hospital at about 11:15, but didn't get called in to see somebody until about 2pm. Thankfully I had put my knitting in my bag for Social Sewing, so while trying to keep Kat company/entertained/distracted I had some knitting to do.

My waiting room knitting

However, as the injury was her leg, we then still had to wait until a bed was free for them to do the actual stitches. Finally at about 3:20 a bed was available.

Finally, a bed!

After what looked like some very painful injections with local anaesthetic, and two layers of stitches! Including 10 stitches in the outer, skin, layer we were finally able to leave! (While I do have pictures of the unstitched wound, I will be kind to your sensitivities, and won't post them here! I believe Kat may be posting a pic though, so if you're interested look out for that on her blog!)

Stitched up!

We got a taxi back to my place, where many of the social sewing ladies were waiting to see that Kat was OK and to return us our stuff (that had been unceremoniously left at GJs when we departed in the ambulance).

Trying to improve the day, we then all gorged on some of my home-made ice-cream, Kat was picked up by her husband, and the rest of us chilled in the pool for a bit.

The day wasn't a complete wash though, while at Rathdowne Remnants I got the following lace (some regular, some stretch) to use with my #sewingdare; yes, I am determined that me-made undies will be in my not too distant future!

My #sewingdares lace

Aaaand, what I promised right at the beginning of this post, more Social Sewing dates! While I was at the hospital, Mel was kind enough to book in some more dates for social sewing up until June. This means that the upcoming dates we have booked in for Social Sewing are as follows:

• Saturday 16th March 
• Saturday 20th April 
• Saturday 18th May 
• Saturday 22nd June

These dates, along with all other Social Sewing information, are listed on the Social Sewing Page of my blog.

If you're in Melbourne I hope to see you at one of the dates! I promise, Kat's injury really was the exception, usually the events are incredibly safe!