I bought my first sewing machine back in March and haven't made very much. I could count on one hand the things I'd made. They were mostly square. I bought it because I had seen some fun crafty things that looked simple enough, if I just learned how to sew. I don't really care to make clothes. I'll leave that to my Mom and my sister. They are much better at it. (And I'm totally cool with that!)

I signed up for a sewing course online a couple months ago and it just finished. They had 27 projects, plus videos to teach you how to use your sewing machine. Like I said, it just finished and I had only made the first project. It was napkins. My machine has been giving me a little bit of trouble lately and so it's hard to get motivated to keep going when it jams all the time, but this weekend I was determined to start on project #2, a gift bag. Typically it takes me at least two weeks from start to finish to make anything because my children do not like it when I do things just for me. Someone ends up in my lap or needs me to fix the movie or get a snack or wipe their bottom. While most of you are finishing your projects in an hour or less, I'm not.

Saturday morning I cut out my fabric and that afternoon I sewed it together. The whole thing. I couldn't believe it. (Maybe kindly threatening Christopher during Sophie's nap should become a habit....) And today during nap time I cut out AND made the next project, a shopping bag. First time I have ever cut and sewn a project within 2 hours. A miracle. I'll be quiet now and just show you the photos. I had bought most of these fabrics to make pillowcase dresses for Sophie, but she is not the least bit interested in wearing one so I decided to use it for myself instead of buying more. Here they are:

One sided napkins with a zig zag stitch. They also teach you double sided with ric rac between, but I don't have any ric rac and don't want to buy any right now. I had a little trouble with my machine jamming so it was a real challenge to get these done.


The gift bag. I don't like the way that she wanted the ribbon installed because it doesn't make sense to me. It's supposed to close at the top and then the ribbon comes out of a "button hole" that you hand sew AFTER you have folded it over and sewn together the top part. I prefer to have some trim above the ribbon part. But we live and learn new tricks and then adapt to what we prefer. Right?


My shopping bag. This was something I've really been wanting to make. I learned how to do the little rectangle with the "x" in it to reinforce the handles. She even taught a little trick about how to do this an easy way. I think we now have our new library bag! (I haven't set foot in the library since the little threatening letter I got a few weeks ago about books that were a week overdue.)

I'm looking forward to my next little project and feeling much more comfortable with sewing. Especially since my machine sews with much more ease than it started out. (It didn't want to pull the fabric along and you can't sew if the fabric doesn't move!) Not sure what changed, but I'm glad it did. Hope you all had a great weekend too. We are about to head out down to some water. Not sure if it's next to our house or on the other side of the bay but we are getting out!