Bill's Blog

My new job has the perk of access to the hospital laundry service. It’s nice to be able to go to work in “regular” clothes and then change in to scrubs there. Therefore, my partners suggested I purchase scrubs with my name embroidered on it so I could use the laundry service at work.

In the 25 years that I’ve worked in the healthcare industry, I’ve always worn my own scrubs to work and then wore them home. It’s simple laundry, as laundry goes – but there is the concern of germ transmission. I’m not aware of ever bringing germs home to my family and causing them to be sick, but it’s always in the back of my mind. I’ve had several friends that are over-the-top careful about this (even changing clothes in the garage to avoid bringing the clothes into the house). Some parts of the hospital provide scrubs to avoid any issues (e.g., surgery); however ER doctors are usually on their own.

So, when the scrub laundry service became an added benefit to the job – I thought it’d be nice to finally be able to take advantage of this service. My colleagues recommended I purchase 10 sets of scrubs to be sure I always had some available while others were in the laundry service. I purchased the 10 online they arrived within the week. I was excited…except the pants were 4 inches too long.

I decided I could make the long pant legs work with some creative rolling, except it didn’t work very well. I looked pretty stupid with my pants rolled. Embarrassing!

I made the decision to hem all 10 pair of pants. I knew it would be expensive to take it to a seamstress and I didn’t want to ask Linda to take on this big task. So, I determined that I would learn how to do it myself.

I watched about an hour of YouTube videos and talked with Linda about helpful tips. We discussed it with expert sewers – my mother-in-law and a very good friend in the neighborhood. They both offered to do it, but I had resolved that this would be MY project.

The project went well, except our sewing machine began to have mechanical difficulties after the 4th pair. We borrowed a very nice Bernina machine from our neighborhood friend and it went very smoothly after that.

The picture shown is the last leg of my 10th pair. I’m pleased to have added another skill, thanks to the help of a great wife, good friends, and YouTube.