How MacGyver Saved Valentine’s Day

I Love MacGyver. In many ways he’s my inspiration in life.

MacGyver

This year he saved Valentine’s Day.

Not just because he’s dreamy, with an endless supply of girlfriends, and a waterfall of mullet-y locks. His inspirational ingenuity got me out of a tough bind.

I love being creative and making do with whatever I have in front of me. For the past several years, I’ve made it a commitment not to mope on Valentine’s Day. It’s too easy to get sucked into thinking about what I want and don’t have. Instead I’ve purposed to make someone elses day. I’ve offered to babysit for friends so that they could have a nice dinner out. I’ve sent cards to all my rad single friends. Here’s the story of a well-intentioned, sweet Valentine’s gift gone awry and saved by my mad MacGyvering skills!

A little background:

This is my friend, Tracy. She’s rad!

Jingle Jungle 5K

We go way back and have had many adventures together. One of which was running in my first ever 5K. While picking up our packets before race day, we saw these super cute sequined running skirts. Since we already had some homemade bling for the race (it is Disney after all!) we liked the skirts and wanted to see if they’d add to our running ensembles. Only they were $65! No deal.

So I figured I could make one. I’m crafty! I can figure stuff out. How hard can sewing be? I went on a (seemingly daily!) trip to the craft store and picked out these beauties for about $15.

Fabric uncut

I measured, remeasured, and did the math to make my own pattern. I then sat down staring at this terrifying beast. (Play theme to 2001 A Space Odyssey here)

sowing machine

I had a crash course in sewing machine parts, sequencing, and pitfalls and got to work. The only problem was that the fabric that I’d chosen was so porous the stitches wouldn’t hold. And the sequins just sort of gummed in the machine. I did half a dozen test strips which all ended up like this:

messed upA whole lotta nothing.

So I scrapped the sewing machine and pulled out another idea: Safety pins! I liked this because it would still make a clean hem and hide the frayed edges of the fabric. But upon second thought it was a running danger. I’d like to run faster, but not because I had a pin repeatedly poking me in the bum. Plus it actually added a significant amount of weight to the fabric. So I scrapped that idea as well.

safety pins

Next up, my tried and true, MacGyver-worthy, ever-present friend: DUCT TAPE! Tracy introduced me to the joys of MacGyver so I figured this would be a fitting tribute to her. I went to work attaching the panels in sequence.

two panels, duct tape

Then I made the a waist hem and threaded and elastic band through.

waist band

This seemed to be working! The tape was holding at least a against a decent tug and added almost no weight to the skirt. A big plus for me especially while running!

Here’s how it turned out:

skirt completed Oooooh! Shiny!

I liked it so much, I made a second with left over fabric for me!

two skirts

 

I am very happy with the result. I did this, after all, not to make a perfect skirt, but to show love to my friend, Tracy. Valentine’s Day is often filled with chick flicks, tissues, and bon-bons. I wanted to remind my friend that she’s loved, appreciated, and rad. I giggled my way through the whole process, picturing Tracy’s face when she received this crazy skirt and a link to this post in a package with no other explanation. I am happy to share with her (and the world) just how MacGyver saved Valentine’s Day!

Finished Skirt

Pretty spiffy, no?

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