Saturday, September 4, 2010

New Favorite Hobby

I had my first sewing lesson today from my friend, Hannah, and got to break in my new machine. Thankfully, everything worked smoothly and my bargain buy wasn't a dud! My mom and other friends have shown me how to do a few things on the sewing machine, but I wasn't comfortable cutting patterns and didn't know how to applique. Our first project of the day was sewing my niece, Kalei, a kitty cat for Christmas. I named her "Kalei Kat". I'd say she turned out pretty great!



Here's where the pattern came from.It was also my first experience with elastic. I don't know what I was so worried about. Elastic is easy and fun! I can't wait to make a skirt for myself now!

I was so excited about sewing that I went home and started on the monogrammed pillows I planned to make for Kalei's two older sisters. I used my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot to choose a font and cut out the first letter of the girls' names to use as a pattern. Then, I ironed fusable interfacing onto the back of the fabric, pinned on the pattern, and cut out the letters. Hannah made me a pattern for the pillowcase so that it would overlap in the back like a pillow sham instead of having an opening on the end like a traditional pillowcase. I slowly and carefully sewed a straight stitch all around the edge of the letters since we decided that applique would be too difficult with the curves of the letters. Eventually, the edges will fray and look shabby chic (I hope!). These are so adorable that I want one for myself!

D for Drea

A for Allura


I had a blast sewing and learning, but absolutely no housework got accomplished today. My excuse is that I have a three-day weekend and can make up for it on Monday. We'll see about that. Sky's birthday tent project is calling my name!

4 comments:

  1. So... I can't believe you did all that in ONE DAY. Those same projects would have taken me MONTHS. Months of fretting and crying at the sewing machine and ripping out seams. And then stuffing them in the drawer with three stitches left to sew. Then pulling them out at the last minute because I'm in desperate need of a shower gift or something.

    AMAZING! I'm going to have to call Hannah to come teach me!

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  2. Lol! You can do it, Jamie! My straight stitches are crooked in spots and the cat's arm needs some work, so I've learned that I cannot be a perfectionist at sewing or else I'd never finish anything!

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  3. Oh, those are adorable! I've actually been wanting to get a sewing machine for myself, because I want to sew a quilt and other stuff. Where, pray tell, did you get such a fabulous deal on a sewing machine? I've been checking out Craig's list, but I'm a little scared to just buy one without working with it first. :-/

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  4. Thank you! I got my machine at a yard sale. Thankfully a sewing friend was with me and checked it out before I bought it. We plugged it in, moved all the knobs, tried out the foot pedal to make sure everything worked. Normally I would hesitate to buy something like this at a yard sale, but for $10 I was willing to give it a try since it wasn't a huge investment. I was still nervous about it working once we actually started sewing, but praise the Lord it works great! I hope you find a great machine!

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