Sewing Like Mom

April 30, 2011

Thursday, April 28th was a very important day in Abbeyland. The Fed-Ex man had a special delivery...can you guess what it was!? A brand new sewing machine- of course! This year, Easter was extra special when Mom announced that I would be getting my very own sewing machine...maybe she just wanted hers back.

I have had my eye on one specific machine for a long time before. I didn't know I would be able to call it my own this soon. The new machine came in a bright shiny box and had "Hand Picked By Martha Stewart" written on the front. This means it has to be good, right!? After all, Martha knows ALL!

I proceeded to tear it open and set it up, and eventually realized that with her sewing machine, I also returned all of Mom's thread. Unfortunately this meant that all of the sewing projects that I was gearing up to start had to be put on hold for a few more days. Fortunately, Mom and Dad are in town for the night, so I'm hoping to reel Mom to Joanns tomorrow to buy some thread and bobbins for the machine. Then we can get to sewing!!

More updates on my sewing projects to come. In the mean time, I'll be learning how to use this new thing. It's big, it's pink, and its all mine! What should my first project be.....

Ta Da!!

April 8, 2011
"Take Me To the Beach" Beach Bag

A client of mine brought in a great beach bag today to the gym. I loved the shape and design so I wanted to replicate it the best I could. I went to Jo-Ann's to look for fabric and found the perfect "beach" bag fabric to use. Since I decided not to use a store-bought pattern, I used newspaper and cut one out myself. After a brief "how-to" chat with mom, I was off! She explained to me the best way to cut the fabric- using the crease. She also gave me the newspaper idea. It worked great!

First, I measured and cut out the newspaper. I used the crease to fold it and cut it all at once. This way, I know my sides are even. I also left room for my 3/4" seam. 

The cut outs for the outside and inner lining of the bag.

After pinning and sewing the outside shell of the bag, I ironed the seams down so the bag does not bunch. Not shown- I measured the outside edge of the bag and attached a 5" banner around the bottom and sides to give it a base.

After sewing the outside and inside lining of the bag I put them together. Next, I pinned the top of the bag together and made a 1/4" seam at the top to connect the inside lining to the outside of the bag. I left the ends open and cut out a 5" wide piece out of both fabrics to use for the strap. Next, I sewed the strap and turned it right-side-out.

The strap was pinned to the end of the bag and sewn on. Almost done!

Marrin watched over me the entire time...she made sure I didn't make any mistakes.

 Last but not least, I added a big button to the front! All done!

Now all I need is a beach vacation...

April 3, 2011
Summertime Purse

My parents came to visit this weekend and my mom brought her sewing machine for me to use until Easter. We decided that this would be a good weekend to start my sewing adventures.

Mom brought me her Singer Sewing Machine, and also brought all of her "scrap" pieces of old material, both new and used, most of which were previously used for other projects. along with the scraps of material, she also brought buttons, needles, bobbins, pins, thread and scissors...you name it...it's sitting on my kitchen table! It has been a long time since the I used her machine, so I knew I needed some practice! And that's exactly what we did. Mom and I sat and went over everything from threading the machine, to measuring the sewing widths.

After the sewing refresher course from Mom, I was off! My first project...a purse! I dug around in the scrap bag and found some bright blue flower material with yellow for the bottom. I got the idea and design for the purse from my book "Simple Sewing", by Lotta Jansdotter. Mom gave me tons of helpful hints and she also showed me how to avoid making mistakes with putting it all together. Since we didn't use a pattern, we measured everything, and eyeballed the dimensions for the size. After about 1.5 hours, my bright blue and yellow purse was finished!  I love it, hope you do too! Thanks for the help, Mom!

 Mom lining up the material, still trying to decide how big we want the purse.

 

Getting ready to start sewing. The bottom strip of the purse is pinned to the main body.

 

 Sewing the bottom tab to the body of the purse.

Finished Product!!

 It's reversible too, orange on the inside!