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Saturday, July 7, 2012

I am addicted...to sewing!

For my birthday Aaron let me buy a used sewing machine off of Craigs List. It is a Singer 7422...not the best but not the simplest either. I have to say at first I was scared of it. I mean really I had never sewn anything but a button.

My first challenge was learning how to thread the machine. This seams seems (I know bad joke) easy, but if you are not familiar with a sewing machine it can be difficult. So anywho, after reading the manual and watching some YouTube videos I got the machine threaded and I picked up the bobbin thread. (threading the bobbin was a whole other adventure) My first project...bean bags.

The bean bags turned out terrible...I mean real terrible. My seams were not straight or even...it really felt like the sewing machine had control not me. They are so bad...I wont even show a picture... I will leave that to your imagination.

So then I made a pillow cover for Parson. It turned out okay (after all it is a square). I even got "fancy" and sewed velcro on one end of the pillow case so I could remove it and wash it.


After this success...I got brave prideful in my sewing abilities and decided to make a pull on cloth diaper cover...HA who was I kidding. It took me two sections of the PLU fabric before I even cut the pattern right. The finished product was a little crooked in places but was functional and it did not leak! After a few washes the casings that held the elastic for the leg holes began to come un-done. My next go around I am going to use a zig zag stich instead of a straight stitch to see if that holds better.


My next adventure was a team effort. My two of my girlfriends from MI came to visit and we decided to make maxi skirts. Oddly enough...they were pretty simple. After the first two skirts (which we made to big) we got the third one perfect. I ended up adding a slit in the back of mine because I did not make it wide enough at the bottom. All three skirts turned out super cute, mine is in the picture below. I made the elastic at the top way to big so instead of sitting under my bust it sits more at my natural waist. I am to scared to take it in...so that's a future project. 


Next was pillow covers. We are in the "lets get our house market ready...cheap" mode. So I made some pillow covers for our bedroom. Again turned out pretty good if I do say so myself...but again its a square :P


The thing I decided to try today were bibs. Hold on to your hats folks because second to the diaper cover...these things are hard to make! The first one I made (pictured on the left) turned out really tiny...like for a brand new newborn tiny. So I tried again. The next one turned out bigger and probably would fit an infant for awhile. The bigger one did not fit Parson but he is my little chunky monkey...so I don't use him for size purposes often. The tiny one is just a simple bib with fleece batting in the middle. The second one I tried to get fancy and did some flower/leaf stitching across the whole bib. Both of them have velcro closures. It turned out pretty cute...it has a quilted look to it. I am not good at these yet....my bib bottoms are not round or even at all :S 


My goal here is to get good at this...real good. Like I could open a store on Etsy good...but we are a loong way away from there.

Practice makes perfect right?

Love,

Patty






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