Sew fun!

An under-appreciated and oft-overlooked skill is sewing. I wish that I had the option to learn to sew in addition to the introductory cooking lessons in junior high home economics. Luckily, I learned to hand sew during arts and crafts in sixth grade (with some tips from my mother) but I never had the privilege of learning to sew on a machine. A few months ago, after much debate and research, and just a few borrowed experiences on my MIL's machine, I bought myself a sewing machine. Out of the box, it was/is so fun to see things come together within hours. I still have much to learn, but I love that the machine sews faster, neater, better, and more variety of stitches than I could ever achieve by hand.

Singer® Touch & Sew (TM) 7462 Electronic Sewing Machine

Recently, rather than dreaming up projects and trying to execute them with scribbled calculations and diagrams, I started to follow the Sewing for Dummies book. I was previously just using it as a reference guide because the projects seem dated and a bit quirky (some pictures remind me of tacky flea market sells). But within the dated projects and mostly black and white instructions, there are a lot of tips, tricks, and basic sewing knowledge to be had. I am slowly cobbling together sewing skills!

Even though things still don't come out perfectly, it is much easier (with better results) to follow step-by-step instructions than to do things my way (at least for now, while I don't have much experience). And I would've never imagined how much goes into getting good results (like the need for ironing before turning a piece inside out). Now the next step is to move somewhere where I can have a sewing room -- constantly moving things onto and off the dining table is getting old.