Sewing 101

For my birthday this summer, my parents' generous gift to me was a new sewing machine. I have never been much of a seamstress. Before this summer, I have only done a small handful of projects with a sewing machine. These projects always involved my mother's hands-on help from start to finish, including having her thread the machine, often measure & pin my fabric, and basically think through all the details.

Now that I have two active boys, my mom convinced me that becoming more of a seamstress might be a useful skill. Certainly knowing how to mend clothing would come in handy! The more I thought about it, I became excited about the various projects I could do. 

Since my mom would be visiting for over a week, we figured this would be an ideal time for Sewing 101. My mom, a very knowledgeable seamstress, was a very patient instructor. She helped me learn the ins and outs of my machine. 

Then, we started by practicing basic stitches. My machine (recommended to my mom by my artsy, talented sister-in-law, Sarah) is super user-friendly for beginners. Great suggestion, Sarah! 

 We then tackled a few smaller projects. I hemmed up our guest room curtains so that they no longer hung below the edge of our window ledge. This was gave me good practice in sewing straight hems.

My next two projects involved mending. I fixed up a torn bedskirt and even a rip in our front doormat. My heavy-duty machine accepted this thick doormat with no problem at all. Wow!

The main project of the week was making a valance for our master bedroom. I had found a pattern that I liked on Pinterest, and my mom helped me select a nice, thick fabric. Over the course of 3 nights, I cut, measured, ironed, pinned, and sewed. My mom guided me with advice and encouragement but let me do all the handiwork. One of the last steps was pinning and sewing tabs onto the back of the valance (to allow the fabric room to stick out in a ruffle-like pattern). Since I was on the home stretch, my mom did help with this step.

My dad installed the curtain rod.

And.... tah-dah!! The project was complete! I was so happy with the finished product and proud that I had done it independently on my own machine.

Thanks so much, Mom and Dad, for the practical, thoughtful gift. Mom, you were a great teacher! Thanks for your help and guidance.

Hopefully there will be more sewing projects to come! :)