Weddingbee Blog

On my birthday in November, I got a birthday gift from Mr. Guinea Pig, and boy oh boy was I excited: I got a sewing machine!

(Brother CS-6000i)

When I gushed to my friends about how excited I was that Mr. Guinea Pig got me a sewing machine, most of them looked at me suspiciously. As one (male) colleague put it, “He got away with giving you a sewing machine as a birthday gift?! That’s like saying, ‘honey, hem my pants, iron my shirts, and I’d like a souffle for dinner’.” What?! He went on to say that his girlfriend would kill him if he got her a sewing machine. I pointed out that I had pretty much straight-up asked for one, but that left most people unconvinced.

I was truly surprised at how many people thought this was some kind of secret plot by Mr. Guinea Pig to turn me into ’the perfect housewife’ who stays at home keeping the house sparkly clean, cooks a piping hot dinner every night and sews all our clothes after we get married. Come on folks, I’m a scientist! Generally people don’t slog through 6 years of grad school to get a PhD for the fun of it, you know! And Mr. Guinea Pig doesn’t think that suddenly when we get married I’ll give up the ’facade’ of grad school to stay home! Seriously?!

(Side note: there is nothing wrong with being a stay-at-home mom/wife. My mom didn’t work for many years while my sister and I were growing up and I think we probably turned out better because of it. But I am not cut out for that.)

(From this article, and she’s wearing our wedding colors! Ha.)

At first, the reaction to my excitement about sewing made me a little insecure. I started thinking, ‘Oh no! I do love to bake. I knit all kinds of stuff. I’m making hundreds of origami flowers. I love to vacuum. And now I can’t wait to sew! Am I just one giant old-fashioned stereotype? Should I give up on science and be a housewife?’ But of course I realized—NO WAY, I was being insane! I’m just someone who likes to make useful stuff. No more or less than that. As a physics major in college, I liked to assemble electrical circuits (which at the time was useful), and this is no different. I like making pretty (useful) stuff now, in large part thanks to our upcoming wedding. In fact, the wedding has certainly inspired me to be even more crafty than before!

And thanks to the numerous blogs out there (to mention only a very few), I know that a whole lot of people are crafty. Waaaay craftier than me (i.e. many of the Bees!), and a lot of them have a job while they create on the side! This realization made me feel a little silly for my earlier insecurity, and made me want to smack some sense into my friends and colleagues! So, I want a sewing machine. I bet they can’t re-cover their sofa on a whim. But I can! And I should be proud of that!

I can’t wait to put all of my crafty skills to use even more for our wedding. I’m considering making my bridal shower dress now that I know I am actually capable of sewing things! And I know that the most important thing to Mr. Guinea Pig is that I am happy, whether that involves making a new throw pillow cover every day, or doing a very complicated experiment in lab, or just sitting back and relaxing while he makes dinner (my favorite). I’m just a scientist who likes to make stuff!

Do you have a serious crafting habit? Have you ever gotten flack about it? Has your wedding inspired you to pick up new skills? What are you making for your wedding?