Not too long ago I posted how reading had become my summer "craft"....well I haven't read all the much since that post (well I have read "The Wednesday Letters" and "What Time Is It, You Mean Now?") and that's mostly because Mom was in town for 10 days. The days we spent at the pool I didn't really spend anytime reading because 1. I was chatting with Mom and 2. it was so damn hot the 50% of our time outside was spent in the pool. One big thing I miss about the Promenade (strange thing to say.....LOL) was that there were no kids at the pool. This meant you could stand in the shallow end and read along the edge. Not the the Blairs! Far tooooo many kinds screaming, jumping and splashing (me and my book) to make it worth while!
My newest craft, for those of you who didn't see my FB status updates over the last 2 weeks is.....SEWING! Mom had brought her machine down to work on some projects on the days that I had to work while she was visiting. We made a trip to JoAnns on Saturday evening to buy some material and a new pattern to make some lounge shorts, Sunday (4th of July) morning she sewed both pairs while I watched and by about 1 p.m. I knew I wanted to buy myself a machine and finally once and for all learn how to sew, have a machine in my possession to practice on and do it right! I did some research on JoAnn's website that night, and of course most of the machines I was looking at online were "online only" lame. This meant Monday after about 4 hours at the pool we made our 2nd trip to JoAnns so I could buy my very first machine (Singer Simple) while my 10% off my purchase coupon was still good. Between that and the holiday weekend sales going on, it came in much under $100 which I was thrilled about! Tuesday so too darn hot to be at the pool so I spent my "personal day" from work with mom in the air conditioning sewing! We had a blast and I was addicted very quickly. During the rest of the week I finished up my first pair of shorts and started making plans for how Mom and I could get in one more trip to JoAnns to stock up on fabric before she left. This trip came on Saturday morning since it was raining. We ended up doing a shopping trip to Target, JoAnns, Michaels & AC Moore which took about 6 hours total (including the driving), about 2 of those hours were at JoAnns looking at material and patterns. Such fun we had! Unfortunately by the time we got home, and got all of our material washed and went through all our other purchases, it was time for Mom to start packing up since we was leaving the following morning.
This was my VERY first completed project on my new machine. They're coaster pads for my coffee table. Learned from them for next time: Need a thin piece of batting, should have made about 1" bigger.
Drumroll please.................first time making anything with a pattern! Very proud of myself, I'm not gonna lie! Looking forward to making more shorts and pants in the future (some also as gifts) it's lots of fun to be able to create something to wear that I can fit to my body (I have to add about 4" to the bottom of a pant pattern, BUT it means I can wear comfy pants that aren't floods!)
Jon also came back on Sunday afternoon and he took me to dinner in Rockville that night, but we got home in plenty of time for me to make a pillowcase! Had a bit of trouble with flannel vs. cotton (slipping around when I pinned it). Definitely learned from my mistakes on this; from cutting off a little too much material to the fact that I should have laid it on the rug to pin, I now know for the future!
Last night I put this on a different pillow that isn't quite as "fat". which makes it not look like I sewed it unevenly! It's super duper soft and I basically want to live in it's softness :-)
Monday morning I came into work and did some online fabric shopping with JoAnns and Hancock. Can't wait for the shipment to come in so I can get it washed and get to JoAnns for some thread to start more sewing! Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend to work on the projects that I already have material for at home ready to go!
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