Have You Made Your Bed Today?

Well, did you? Did you make your bed today?  Now what does that have to do with sewing? That is exactly what thirteen teens thought when I asked them the first morning of their sewing camp at the Fairfield Woods Branch library.

Naval Admiral William McRaven, ninth commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command, told thousands of people at the commencement of the University of Texas on May 17, 2015, "Make your bed every day!"

To have a navy seal admiral tell you to make your bed is even more alarming than a motherly-type woman at a sewing class.

This was the first of his ten tips to the graduates. He said, “Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.”

The little things in life do matter.  Sewing is the prime example.  Everyone wears clothes that were made from thousands, and some millions, of tiny little stitches.  We all take them for granted, well unless, you were not wise and pulled that bobbin stitch and the whole seam unraveled.

Each teen in the sewing class learned that each stitch mattered.  If they went off track, they could see it.  They could visibly see when their item had some misaligned seams or if the seam was too tight to allow the elastic to slip through easily and then they had to use their seam rippers to start all over again.  It was a lesson well learned.

This lesson is important in our day-to-day lives.  We must learn to complete the little tasks well so we are ready for the big tasks.

So have you made your bed today?