I recently decided that I wanted to learn to sew. I have an old treadle machine down in Oregon that hubby bought for me a few years ago. I thought to myself, that at least I could look like I knew how to do something artistic if someone came over to our house.

The fact of the matter is that while my mom is a great seamstress, she never had the patience to teach me. It was another one of those things I figured I just wasn’t meant to do. Then my neighbor stopped by and told me I should come to her quilting group with her. Quilting? No thanks. Those things are expensive, big, and if you don’t know what you are doing, would be a waste of time.  On the other hand, it would be something to do for a few hours a day while the girls are in school, and I could meet some of my ‘neighbors’.

I tagged along with her and had a great time. They were making the cutest little tissue holders. I thought, “Shoot, I could do that”. So I called my mom and asked if she would be so kind as to ship her sewing machine to me for a few months. She laughed. And laughed.  And then said, “I have a machine here that’s never been out of the box I could send you, but you aren’t getting my good machine”. Well, that’s fine by me. A machine is a machine right?

A week later, at the post office, I picked up   he cutest little Bernina Bernette. I love it. The hubby was here and helped me figure out how to thread it (no manual-that’s kind of a big deal when you don’t know what you are doing).  Then I made my very first project he ‘lovingly’ dubbed The Python. Perhaps he will post a picture, but he requested something to go at the bottom of his door to help with sound. I was pretty proud of it.

From there, I have continued doing smaller projects: Mug Rugs, a thread catcher, a microwave bowl, some super easy cloth napkins, and of course, dozens of the travel tissue holders. The mug rug I did for myself didn’t turn out nearly as well as I’d like it to, and I’m tempted to take out the seam along the binding (not a fan of the handwork, I can tell you that), and do it again. I made two for the husband and he gave a great report about using them at work-I’ll let him tell you about it and maybe show off a picture because I didn’t get one of it either. But I put in a few pictures that I did get.

What I am really excited about though, is to make aprons. I love them. I also love fabric. I have quite the collection of different prints already.  My vice seems to be fat quarters, which are pre-cut pieces of fabric that are generally 18”x22”. I tend to gravitate towards those more because they are smaller and easier to work with, especially if you need to cut. I do love the bolts of colorful prints, but the FQ’s can be just as cute, not as expensive, and great for these learning/practice items.

With the internet at your fingertips, the possibilities are endless. There are many crafty people out there, which are willing to share their talent, and patterns to help people like me along the journey of sewing. I try to take advantage of that as much as possible, as well as checking out books at the library.