Disaster!

One week from today, my little Sugar Pea starts a part time early childhood enrichment program, or "Big Girl School", as I've termed it. Many exciting preparations have been made, including the purchase of her very own Hello Kitty lunch bag, which she calls her "kitty purse". Daily, she stands at the back door, kitty purse in hand and asks, "Ready go school?" After nearly two years of non stop, round the clock Mama/Baby time, the change of pace will enrich the both of us, I think. The transition is, naturally, bittersweet for sentimental ol' me, so to mark the momentous occasion, and to foster more excitement and positive associations for my little girl, I decided I would sew a super duper extra special blanket for her school nap times, made with the fabric of her choosing. Now, my little dumplin' has grown quite fond of Matryoshkas, also known as Russian nesting dolls, or "Open Babies", if you will, ever since I purchased a set at a garage sale several months ago. Since then her Nana has thrifted another set for her, and she is becoming quite the Open Baby aficionado. Well, we searched high and low for some fabric printed with these little dollies to no avail. When my search took me online, I was equally disappointed with the lack of Matryoshka themed fabric currently available for purchase, especially considering their recent popularity and crafty interwebs fad status. I finally tracked down some pretty cute yardage by Heather Ross for Free Spirit over at Sew Mama Sew. I called Sugar Pea to look at my computer screen, not saying a word. To my delight, her little eyes got wide, and she smiled at me saying, "Open!" Well, you know I ordered a yard and a half, and would gladly have ordered her up a couple of ponies too, just to see that look on her sweet little face. My intention was to create a simple "quilt", backing the fabric with a piece of fleece and then hand tying it at intervals with embroidery floss.
Fast forward to last week. After prewashing our special fabric, the fleece, a yard of some yummy polka dot fabric I was hoarding for something special for myself, and various pinkish clothing items, I threw the whole mess in to dry and didn't even think about it until the next day. Walking by the dryer later, I noticed a little piece of something odd on the floor. It looked black. It looked burnt. It looked like fabric. I picked it up and turned it over, and to my horror saw my delicious pink and green, now black, polka dots staring back at me. My heart sank as I opened the dryer to find this:


...a blackened, twisted, god awful disaster. The fleece had melted, fusing itself to the charred polka dot fabric and one of Sugar Pea's nightgowns. My new favorite summer blouse had three irreparable burn holes, a pair of my pjs had bits of hardened plastic from the fleece stuck all over, and, while mostly unharmed, our precious Open Baby fabric had several burn holes smack dab in the middle.


I'm torn between being sick over the loss of fabric and clothing, and being eternally grateful that the house didn't burn down. We're still not sure what caused the incident. I have a feeling it was a combination of our old dryer's "low" setting routinely reaching 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit and some fleece of inferior quality. Not wanting to drive the fifty miles to Tulsa to a proper fabric store, I was forced to settle for the baby pink offerings of the mega corporate retail giant we all know and hate. One more reason not to shop there. I have since ordered some fleece in a much more pleasing shade of fuchsia from a delightful etsy seller, thankyouverymuch. There are no further dryer incidents to report. Now I'm off to attempt to salvage the Open Babies and craft something resembling a blanket from the uncharred parts of our special fabric. Wish me luck.