A Love Affair With Sewing

About a year ago, I talked my dad into buying me a sewing machine as a late birthday present.  I immediately ordered the machine and waited the two days for it to arrive (I LOVE Amazon 2 day, free shipping!)  🙂 I have been sewing every since…

Sewing is really not a mystical activity that requires being taught by someone older and wiser than you.  You can teach yourself to sew!!!  When I bought the machine I had basically no idea what I was doing.  I still don’t really know what I am doing most of the time!  At the beginning, I had a few things that I wanted to make and I found instructions online.  I followed those instructions as closely as I could.  Sometimes the instructions don’t explain everything.  The first time I watched this video explaining how to make an infinity scarf the woman in the video reminded everyone watching to back stitch at the start of sewing.  Back stitch a what?  So…I googled it 🙂  Watching this video made the instruction to back stitch make a lot more sense.  Anyone can make almost anything they want by just learning the basics of a sewing machine and then having some enthusiasm and patience 🙂

The first thing that I attacked was a tablecloth project…besides a pair of my husband’s pj pants that I basically made even worse than before I started trying to “fix” them…hehe.  I didn’t wash the fabric ahead of time so the tablecloth ended up shrinking a bit and doesn’t fit the table as well….I also ran out of fabric and had to buy more part way through the project…I also started putting the fabric together initially in the wrong way, causing the seam to be very very visible.  Other than all of that though ( 🙂 ), the tablecloth is totally rad and I love it!

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Next I decided that a DIY holiday gift was in order.  I had been eyeing a quilting e course online from my all-time favorite blogger and decided to go for it.  I picked one of the projects, a quilted-foldover clutch, and dove in!  The step by step instructions were really straight forward to follow and Elise responds to email questions very quickly 🙂  The results are pretty cool…if I say so myself 🙂  At the very last minute, I ran the zipper pull completely off the zipper and needed a you-tube video to save the day.  Everything worked out in the end though!

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Then I took those instructions and modified them a little to make a tote.

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Next I made another item off the quilting ecourse…a quilted triangle throw pillow.  A few months later I made another throw pillow…totally different but using the same skills I had learned the first time.

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Soon after that I made a fun and easy dog bed.  We’ll blog about this project another day too.  It is a really great, on a budget gift idea or just a really great, on a budget thing to make for your own pup!

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I helped a good friend sew some clutches for her sister’s wedding.  A few of us carted our sewing machines all together and spent the afternoon cutting fabric, chatting with each other and with a toddler, and sewing.  🙂

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Lately I’ve been sewing scarves and dabbling in tshirt remakes…I’ll blog more about this another time 🙂

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The biggest project though…and one that took up most of this past weekend, is a quilt!  I’ve been following instructions from the quilty ecourse (LOVE this course!) which has made the project a great, step-by-step adventure.  The course makes a 40″x60″ quilt though and I am making one large enough for our bed (or almost large enough) so sometimes the amount of shear fabric seems overwhelming.  So far so good though!  I’m almost finished! (which is good because then I have a King size quilt to make for a friend’s wedding!)

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Have you attempted sewing as a hobby or household necessity?  A cousin of mine approached me recently and asked if I started sewing because I was married now and feeling the need to be domestic….ummm, no.

I.love.making.things.

Sewing is another craft outlet in my opinion.  I get to make a brand new physical object that gets to be in my home!  I don’t know about you, but that sounds really cool to me.  So, when I got my sewing machine I threw out the window all of the “quilts should look like this” and “everything has to be perfect” notions and have just loved experimenting and creating.

Have you tried any fun sewing projects recently?  Interested in starting sewing as a hobby?  Let us know!