Saturday, March 10, 2012

Sew Busy


If you can remember my post about Christmas, you'll remember that I got a sewing machine from my parents.

While we were with Michael's family the week after Christmas, I was able to use it and learn to love it.  Since then however, it has been in the corner of my front room, in its box, makin gme feel guilty. So today I went on to pinterest and found the directions to a skirt I pinned long ago and pulled out my sewing machine.
This was the first time that I had ever attempted anything like a skirt. Square blankets, pillows and bean bags were the extent of my sewing rĂ©pertoire--until this afternoon!
Luckily my mom thought to give me all the basic sewing essentials. I got out my measuring tape, pins, scissors and a handy dandy seam ripper, cut my material and sat down at my sewing machine ready to begin.
I had to re-thread the bobbin to navy, directions to do such I had to look up in the manual. Then I had to thread the lower and upper mechanisms (again, thank goodness for the manual).  When that was all done I lined up my fabric and pressed down on the pedal only to hear a CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK-CHUNK-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP. "E6" was flashing on the monitor, so I quickly turned to my manual again and found that "E6" meant that there was a tangle somewhere. 20 minutes later--after I took apart everything that could be taken apart--I found there was no tangle.
What was I to do? I called my mom, of course! She told me to take some things apart and clean different areas, which I did, but the dreaded E6 remained flashing on my screen as well as the horrible noise.
To make an already too long story short, I ended up doing what my mom told me to do, only a little more carefully and the machine worked! Thank you, Mom!
Two hours later, this is what I got. It's a little big (I was afraid of making it too small) and I can see two mistakes just looking at the picture, but I'm still proud--and I'm still wearing it to church tomorrow.


It looks long in this pic, but it is actually only about an inch or two below the knee. 

4 comments:

  1. Stephanie looks way cute!! - Steff

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  2. It's cute! I'm impressed! And I went through the same thing with trying to figure out all of the little quirks of a sewing machine. Once you get that figured out it is so much easier! (Especially when you no longer need instructions to thread the dang thing.) I need a new skirt...so maybe I should try making one too. I've never actually made anything for myself to wear yet. You're so much braver than me.

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    1. I wanted a new skirt too... but the real reason I decided to make something was that I wanted to use my machine. So the fabric, zipper and thread actually cost as much as (if not a little more) than a skirt I would buy at Ross (granted, Ross is uber-cheap) but it was fun and I am really proud! You should do it. They had a lot of cue material at Hobby Lobby and now that I know I can make something wearable, I'll probably make more.

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  3. The first time I sewed something my mom had to help me with every step. Good work!

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