woohoo!

Yesterday, I finally managed to get some time to myself and managed to finish not just one, but TWO sewing projects. These are pretty much my first attempts at sewing (not counting an ill-fated attempt to sew a dress back when I was 16 or the apron I made in 7th grade home ec). Both projects were pretty easy in the grand scheme of things, but it did take me a while to figure out how to use my sewing machine. In my own defense, my mom gave me her machine last year and I hadn't had much chance to play around with it yet.

The first project is a little blankie for E. I noticed how much she likes to play with the tags on her toys, so rather than spend money on one of the overpriced Taggie-brand blankets, I thought I'd try and make one on my own. I figured it's only two squares sewn together with a little ribbon sandwiched in between, ho hard can it be? The answer is, it actually can be pretty hard. When all is said and done though, for a first attempt, it turned out pretty well, especially considering that I took it apart two or three times because I couldn't get the tension right (that's what I get for being too lazy to test on scrap). I think I also kind of made it more difficult than it needed to be by buying the nice minky-style fabric as opposed to plain old fleece. It was very slippery and hard to keep lined up, even with pins. I also discovered that it's a lot harder than it looks to sew a perfectly straight line. I'm sure the next one I try will be better. Even though I only bought a yard of fabric, I think I have enough to make 5 or 6 little 12"x12" blankets.

The second project was a little more difficult. It's a needle roll for my double-pointed knitting needles loosely based on this pattern. Besides having a lot more pieces to deal with, this also required that I measure out what size I wanted and make a paper pattern. Not quite as much ripping this time around, although I still wish some of the seams were straighter.


Here's another picture of it, unrolled. I should also mention that I ambitiously started this after finishing the blanket Sunday evening. I became a wee bit obsessed and ended up staying up till about 2am working on it. I got most of it done last night and finished up the top flap tonight.