I'm Sewing!!

My first pillowcase dress!

And..... the back.

I find that What About Bob? quotes work for many things in my life. Like, with sewing. Thanks to Lorraine, my mother-in-law, who generously gave me her sewing machine, I've been taking a couple sewing lessons at JoAnn Fabrics. And the first time I put two pieces of fabric together and successfully put them through the machine and sewed them together, I had a hard time keeping my giggles to myself during the class, because all I could think of was the scene in What About Bob? where he tries sailing- "I sail! I'm sailing!!" As he is strapped to the mast of the boat... Don't know what I mean, here's a clip. And for the love of Mike, please don't tell me you've never seen the movie. It's classic.

Anyways, that is EXACTLY what I thought when I first started sewing. I'M SEWING! Turns out, I have to do more than just strap myself to the sewing machine. Sewing, I have learned, is HARD! Ginny, if you are reading this, I had flashbacks to the time we took tap dancing in college together and everyone in the class had experience except us and the teacher kept having to stop class and explain things to us. Both classes I felt like I stepped into an Advanced Physics class or something, instead of sewing. And I sucked at physics in school. Reading a pattern, figuring out how something is constructed, is a whole new way of thinking. I made some pretty bad mistakes. Like, my first class was making a bag. I accidentally sewed the top closed and left the bottom open. In case you are wondering, yes, yes it is embarrassing to ask for help with that! The second class was making a child's pillowcase dress. Oh Em Gee. It took me 3 solid hours, and I had to start over twice. I think next time, I'm definitely bringing a flask of something with me to get me through the stress. It was so worth it though. To bring home something Sadie could wear, completely homemade. And she loved it! (I may have started crying if she did her toddler "I don't like it!") I am hoping that with experience and a little alcohol, I can overcome the stress and really start to understand patterns and construction..... and enjoy it. :) In the end, it was a triumphant feeling to show that cloth who's boss and, after trial and error(s), actually do it!

My "Hipster Bag". After using a seam ripper to open up the top,

and then close the bottom up. :)