I told you in my very first blog post that I can’t sew.  I received a sewing machine as a birthday gift when I was in high school, and I had lofty dreams of designing my own clothing and bedding and anything else that had to do with a sewing machine. I bought material to make a flared skirt rather similar to this:

I began my project with some help from my mom, and soon discovered we needed help from an expert (Expert=Aunt/Quilting Goddess). Something was wrong with my machine — it kept jamming. We’d re-thread it and it’d jam again. I gave up. The green linen scraps of fabric of what would have been the world’s greatest skirt still sit in a tote of high school belongings somewhere in my garage. Eventually, we sold that sewing machine at a garage sale. Since my high school days, I’ve grown as a crafter and as I’ve also told you, I dabble in a lot of different things. But I’ve never been able to bring myself to go through with the purchase of a sewing machine, especially not being certain I’d ever figure the darned thing out.

Last spring, amid wedding planning, my lovely mother- and- father-in-law bought me a sewing machine for my first Mother’s Day. I believe the exact words spoken were “I can’t believe you don’t have one with all the other things you do!”  Together, with my MIL’s help, I began my first sewing project: a ring-bearer pillow.

It was certainly not perfect but it did the job. I thought I had it down. I bought a ton of fabric to do a few big projects — namely, covering our couch pillows and creating a dog bed. Then, a few weeks later I tried sewing something else and I failed. It kept jamming on me. I was sewing-machine cursed.

This past weekend I brought the machine back to my MIL. She walked me through everything again. I think I wasn’t snapping in my bobbin all the way, and probably not threading my needle right, either. I set to work on a few projects I originally planned to “make” her do for me….and guess what? I succeeded!! LOOK! I CAN SEW!

I did some decorative stitching on my stepdaughter’s Valentine’s Day shirt (excuse the wrinkles — oh, and the fact that I haven’t posted a blog about it yet. I have to take a photo of her modeling it!):

(See the boy’s Valentine’s shirts by clicking here.)

And some more decorative stitching on a special to-be-revealed-soon project:

 I also had a thrift-store sweater that was too big in the waist, so I took it in using some tips from the Adventures in Dressmaking blog. (I profusely apologize that I didn’t model for you, bedhead and jammies and all.)

*Sigh of relief!*

I CAN sew! I realize these are very easy projects but considering it has been about ten years since I “quit” sewing, I’m excited. 

Next sewing project: recovering my fairly ugly couch cushions.

When did you learn to sew — and did you run into any common problems?