Knitter in the Kitchen

I still don’t have any knitting on the needles. But I’ve been working on something else…

Yup, I’ve been bitten by the sewing bug. I bought the Singer last month so that I could learn how to sew. I am pretty much a complete newbie when it comes to sewing. I took home economics way back in the sixth grade, but all I remember from it was that my teacher raved about Bernina machines. That’s it. I don’t remember a thing about threading a machine, pinning and cutting fabric, sewing seams, nothing. So I picked up a few books to learn the basics.

For my first project, I chose to do a plain knife-edge pillow from Sewing 101. Very boring, I know. It’s like the equivalent of the single-colored-garter-stitch-first-knitting-project-scarf. But we all have to start somewhere, right? I bought two fat quarters of fabric from Joanns and set off to sew. I didn’t run into any problems until after stuffing the pillow form into the case. The directions called for closing the 7” opening by slipstitching, which is supposed to be almost invisible. I’ve never done it before, and I just could not grasp the written instructions in my books or online. I struggled for awhile until I decided to ignore the text and just copy the picture. My slipstitch seam is wonky, but I think I finally grasped the concept.

I’m in various stages of starting other projects. Two are Amy Butler patterns – the Uptown Madison Bag and the Rural Messenger Bag.

I’m also planning to sew reversible quilted placements from Sewing 101 with this fabric:

Um, I think I might have fallen into another addiction here!