Wednesday, October 17, 2012

and sew it goes

My crafting life is about dabbling, trying various things.  It's about variety and a little of this and that.  Except there are somet things I just don't do, which leave gaping holes in my repetoire.  Perhaps the biggest of these is sewing. 

As a kid I knew how to use mom's machine, but never well.  And I hadn't used a sewing machind in probably 27 years.  Until this fall, when I took a 'sewing essentials' beginner class at The Workroom in Toronto.  The Workroom is a great little store with fabric and a number of sewing machines, which you can rent by the hour.  They offer a range of courses, and the starter course is about learning to use the machine, thread it, and basic sewing.

The class was great and we sewed pillow covers.  Here's mine!



My friend and I then signed up for a four session class on following a pattern.  I picked a small square bag (ahem, it is not a purse).  I found it kind of stressful, my attention to detail wasn't great and the lining and outside were hard to match up, but I did it.



What I really gained was the ability to do a little bit of sewing, just the basics, for the odd crafting project.  And a great place to go to use a machine so I don't have to invest in one (or have space for one).

So far I had three little bags, with drawstrings and two fabrics.

One of the best parts is picking the fabric!  This fabulous squirrel fabric came from etsy.



On these two I stencilled a monster to make them more unique.







I pushed myself on the sewing front by signing up for a swap on craftster exchanging little stuffed creatures called Ninni's on a halloween theme.  I made a big, a little, and a ghost version.  The sewing's a bit rough but again the fabric makes up for it.





And finally, I made a couple little fabric dishes following a tutorial I saw online somewhere in my wanderings.  The one with taller sides is a bit better.