January 5, 2010

Back in the (sewing) saddle again


I'm a lucky girl. I really am. I have the nicest family ever! My childhood was the kind that will NEVER inspire me to moan away on some shrink's couch and my parents do wonderful and sweet things for me, just because. Like load an entire house's worth of furniture and belongings into a Uhaul and driving it halfway across America so that I didn't have to bring a baby home to an empty house. Or driving themselves halfway across the country through the snow for Christmas so that we don't have to haul two kids on an airplane during the holidays. Or my mom might just buy a sewing machine for me one day and have it sent to my house. Eek!

Needless to say I'm a little bit excited to have a beautiful new sewing machine to put in my (hopefully one day finished) new studio so I can sew and make away. For now it's sitting on the dining room table while I learn all the cool things that have been added to sewing machines since I bought one almost 14 years ago. (Yikes, cant believe I've owned ANYTHING for 14 years!)

So last night I sent the kids off to bed and Will off to play basketball and set about trying out my new machine. After trolling the Internet for something I could make with scraps I came across this tutorial on sewmamasew.com. I didn't have interfacing so skipped the scrap bag and was short on the base material so the pocket is shorter and fastened at the front, but after an hour I had a handy dandy weighted pincushion with NO NASTY BOBBIN TANGLES on the back of the fabric. Amazing. I cant really remember the last time I sewed something without taking the bobbin out at least once to untangle it. Heaven.

Today I found some fabric for the bench (which is now stained but not polyurethaned) so next will either be that or the hemming of the table runner which has been sitting on my table - a big chunk of fabric with the raw ends tucked under - for weeks, or the skirt, humm so many choices.