Sewing Projects

The background.

I grew up watching my mother sew. She made a good bit of our clothes growing up, especially church type clothes. I hated it! During my teenage years, she would frequently suggest that I learn how to sew. However, this was not even a small desire of mine. I could do the basics: sew on a button, hem a pair of pants. What more did I need to do? I certainly did not want to make my own clothes, much less anyone else's. So I passed.

Well, back in June or July of this year, 2008, I decided it was time for a new hobby and sewing sounded quite fun. Over the years, I have grown to love homemade items and desire to be more efficient with my purchases/consumptions so I thought sewing may be a great way to do this. Basically, I wanted the ability to create very unique apparel and gifts.

I called my mother and asked if I could use her machine for a while in order to give sewing a try. She had no problem with that as it was tucked away under her house, obviously not being used. She gave me a brief lesson on how to operate the machine and I left her house with the machine in tow hoping I could teach myself to sew. And I must say, I picked up on sewing much faster than I anticipated and I absolutely love it!

The blessing.

Sewing has really been a great creative outlet for me. For a few years now, I have pushed my creative desires/hobbies to the side. I stopped taking pictures on a regular basis, I listened to less of my preferred music (folk & singer/songwriter type stuff, I guess you could say) and more to mainstream crap (though not all is crap), I quit watching indy type films which I love, and more. Why? Well, a lot of reasons: time, school, work, relationships, rose colored glasses, etc. It is very unfortunate that I let my creativity and my hobbies fall away, but I am so glad that I am once again nurturing this side of myself. I must say, it is stronger than it ever was before. And I am loving it!

The projects.

My first project was a dress. It turned out much better than expected though not perfect by any means. I still have some work to do on it so I do not yet have any photographs of it.

The following photos are from more recent projects.

This is an apron I made from scrap pieces of fabric. (I apologize for the poor picture quality). I had actually cut the fabric for a skirt I was going to make. However, I decided that I did not like the fabric for this particular skirt so I started playing around with different ideas for the material and settled on an apron. I started just piecing the apron together with no pattern and no set design in mind, which was a little scary but I had nothing to lose. I was merely making it for the sake of making something, anything, as I desperately wanted a sewing project.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

Since Jessica is having a baby in the near future, I had a great excuse for making some gifts. I made 4 burp cloths and 6 bibs. After Christmas, I plan to make a small play quilt with the remaining fabric.

The material I used is Woodland Friends, designed by Kate Honarvar for Timeless Treasures Fabrics. I just love the material. Jessica and Brian are very active in the outdoors and I thought this would be a great fabric for thier little Logan. But, when I learned of Brian's fascination with owls I definitely couldn't resist this fabric. (I had originally purchased some Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar fabrics for their gift, but my machine broke days before the shower so I had to put the gift on hold. Blessing in disguise I quickly realized.)

Aside:

I have decided to make all my Christmas gifts this year so I will post pictures from those in late December!