Success!!

On Monday I went to Joanns!! There was this super nice lady who helped me find everything! She suggested I make a circle  skirt which I decided to make with this black and white fabric. I also really wanted to make a T-shirt so I got this blue fabric for that. She helped me pick out the right needles and she even showed me this mini sewing machine that I might want to try out! I attached a picture of the things I got below:

It ended up being 50 dollars which my mom was not very happy about...

On Monday night I made my first garment!! The lady at Jo Ann's told me how to make a skirt so I measured my waist and cut it, which was really easy, but then I had to make the waist band. That was a little more difficult.. I had to sew a cover and then turn it inside out and put in the elastic. It sounds easy but it's harder than you'd think. Then I had to actually sew the band onto the skirt. That was even more challenging ! To be honest I didn't look up that many tutorials on how to do this (which I now regret) but I just kind of winged it. It turned out pretty good! It would have been great if it fit... I must have measured the waist band wrong because I couldn't get it on! But here's a picture of my skirt!!

I realize my mistake as I'm typing this... I measured the smallest part on my waist when you are supposed to measure the biggest part. Good thing I know that for next time! I'm gonna sew a new waist band and see if I can fix it! I also learned that it's absolutely terrifying when you lose a needle on your bed.

A slow start

At the beginning of this week I didn't really get that much done. I was busy and my machine is still broken. My English teacher gave me a great idea to go ask one of the nice ladies at Jo Anne's store to help me learn how to use a sewing machine. I haven't gotten the opportunity to go yet, but I definitely want to go see what they can help me with.

Im also planning on getting the machine alanna let me borrow fixed so I can work from home as well. We scheduled a day for alannas grandmother to see what happened to it. As of right now, I haven't made much progress this week.

I'm thinking I might do some sewing by hand in the mean time just to practice and get a feel for how everything works, and so I have something to do until I get a sewing machine I can use. If I do it by hand, I'll need to start with something simple. Maybe a pillow! I'll do some more research and start as soon as I get the chance!

My sewing disaster!!

I recently found out that my friend Alanna has a sewing machine! She was kind enough to let me borrow it, so today I went to her house and got it from her. She even let me use some of her thread!

As soon as i got home, I got a scratch piece of cloth and tried to start practicing. First of all it was a hassle to even thread the machine. I couldn't find all of the loops that the thread goes through. I called Alanna and she helped me find them all and I started sewing! I sewed one line and as I was taking the fabric from under the machine, all the thread just came out! I was very confused. As it turns out, I just forgot to pull the lever that puts the foot down. Also, one of the thread guides you have to put the thread through went inside the machine! Neither of us were sure how or why that happened, but I asked Alanna if I could continue with out it and she told me to try it.

Time for my second try! I put the same piece of fabric under the needle and pressed my foot down on the pedal. I sewed a line again and this time when I was done sewing it I tried to pull it out and it was stuck! I had to somewhat take the machine apart to fix it! It was very difficult to put it back together but I finally got it! However, after all that, I realized that I couldn't even continue now because the broken thread guide was the reason for this whole debacle. So for now I can't keep practicing until we get the machine fixed...bummer.
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 Alanna and I are going to plan a time with her grandmother so we can try to get the machine fixed.  I hope it wasn't anything I did and I hope it will be repairable. I'm a little upset that I now have to wait to continue my learning, but everyone experiences bumps in the road sometimes.

 So, I guess there's no such thing as beginners luck, but I will definitely try again and hopefully I can get the hang of it.

Genius Hour

Over the next 6 weeks I am going to ask myself, can I learn how to sew? I chose this topic because I love to make things for myself. Also, I think sewing is a great skill to have. You never know when you'll need to sew a button onto your shirt or fix a hem on your pants. 

One obstacle I have to face is finding a sewing machine. As far as I know, no one in my family knows how to sew. I'll have to look around and maybe even buy my own machine. To do so wouldn't be a waste of money because if all goes well, I will continue learning and practicing, even after this project comes to an end.

Ultimately, my goal with this project is to be able to sew my own clothes. I think it would be awesome to strut around in my original, hand made clothes. I also want to be able to fix my own clothes if they rip or something falls off. I will give my best effort and hopefully i will be successful.

Can I learn how to sew?