Learning to Sew

On my dad's last visit to Oklahoma he brought my mom's old sewing machine. This is a piece of machinery that was very near and dear to my mother. Anyone that knew mom knew what an amazing seamstress she was. Of course, as a kid, it's wasn't "cool" to have hand sewn clothes. It sounds much better to respond with GAP when asked where you got your pants. Thankfully I've grown up and gained an appreciation for the effort and attention to detail a hand tailored item requires. But I didn't truly "get it" until I tackled my own piece. So back to the beginning...dad brings this machine and we set it up in the guest bedroom. Jeremy swears I'll never use it. It's just another space-taker-upper. But this past Saturday I got the motivation to make a handbag, something simple to start with. So we load up Ellia and head to the fabric store. Jeremy agrees to wait in the car and I'll just run in. Now you have to understand that growing up I spent LOTS of time in craft stores like JoAnn Fabrics so navigating this store shouldn't be an issue. But the moment I stepped into the store I was overwhelmed. So many patterns, fabrics, threads, buttons, snaps, snaps to attach to snaps....WOW, where to begin? After searching through some books, I selected a pattern and was lucky to stumble upon some great fabric. Alright, I was ready. That evening, while Ellia napped I pulled my pattern out. WOW #2, I completely forgot how much time it takes to pin and cut out the necessary pieces and more importantly, how mind boggling the illustrations on the instructions are. I get the general idea and it makes more sense in my head than what I see on the instructions. So I skip the pattern. The past three evenings have been filled with sewing and ripping out seams, replacing machine needles, threading and rethreading the machine. I told Jeremy that even if the bag turned out to be absolutely hideous that I had really enjoyed learning the basics of sewing. And feeling a little piece of mom inside me.

So....here it is.



It even has a lining with pockets!



I think it turned out pretty good and mom would be proud. I'm ready for my next project.