Posts Tagged: Tension


21
Jun 09

I’ve Always Fancied Myself a Sewer

That’s Sew-er.  Not sewer…sue-er?  Strangely, as I was typing out the title to this, I got the giggleswhen I pictured people not understanding what it meant.

Sew-er.  As in with a machine.

In my head I can whip up a beautiful outfit, gorgeous bags, and my unborn daughter’s wedding dress.  In real life, however, I just learned the difference between a zig zag stitch and a basic running stitch last night.

A couple of weeks ago, after my dad dropped yet another load of my teenage stuff from his house to my house, I unearthed a forgotten Brother sewing machine I had purchased at Walmart about 12 years ago when I was around 14 years old.

Oh yes, 14 years old.  I had never sewed in my life at that time, but the bug hit me bad and I wanted desparately to learn.  I ended up making oneill-fitting sleeveless blouse (which I threw away 3 years later) and a wierdly shaped pillow (out of the same ugly paisly purple material the blouse was made from).  After that, the sewing machine sat under my old childhood bed, sleeping with the dust bunnies for the past decade.

Since then, I’ve handstiched a couple of odd things, but never got around to learning much more about sewing.

That is, until yesterday.

After re-discovering my sewing machine, I came online determined to learn how to thread the bobbin (something my mom had previously done for me years back) so I could get my Tshirt quilt finished that I started 7 months ago (and didn’t want to sew it by hand – something that I didn’t think of until I finished cutting the squares!).  Upon the thrill of finally learning how to thread the bobbin and set the tension so the upper thread didn’t break, I slowly dipped my toes into the waters of the addicting sewing machine whirl.

Today, my tshirt quilt sits almost finished (I have to attach an old sheet to the finished square front for batting, then another old sheet for the back).   I’ll be posting photos when I finish. :)

After the soaring victory of being able to piece my tshirt squares together in record time, and inspired by the recent recycled pillowcase fanatic Betz White, I fiendishly dug through our linen closet in search for the perfect pillowcase to practice on and set to work.

I ended up with a nice little pink 2 pocket apron (which I gave to my mom) as well as a cute little reversable tote bag purse.  It has a total of 7 pockets (inside and out), 2 top snaps, and plenty of room.  After Jack and I leave the library Monday morning, I may just head over to the Goodwill and see if they have any cute vintage pillow cases for me to practice more on (because, you know, we kind of need the rest of our pillow cases to sleep on).

Reversable Pillowcase Totebag by you.

Reversable Pillowcase Totebag by you.

Reversable Pillowcase Totebag by you.

Reversable Pillowcase Totebag by you.

Reversable Pillowcase Totebag by you.