Say It Ain't Sew

That's right y'all...I finally put my Kenmore sewing machine to use!  And  when it was all said and done, I was smiling like a kid on Christmas!  I won't give a "how-to" because I know I wasn't all that at all technically savvy with my machine, but I'll show you a few milestones along the way!  First stop, Joann's; where I bought 3 yards of fabric thinking it would only make two pillow covers when it will probably make at least five!

Definitely made me feel better about making them rather than paying $20-30 per pillow (or pillow cover if you check my favorite places to shop like West Elm or Etsy).  While I was there, I picked up some thread, bobbins, and pillow inserts--duh!  Time to try this bad boy out!

My first task:  to thread my bobbin.  I'm not gonna lie, I had to Google it.  And then, I had to YouTube it.  That's right, I had to learn to thread my bobbin from a YouTube video.  Why oh WHY did I not pay more attention in Home Ec?  The point is, I got it threaded and here is my glorious achievement: 

 

Next on the list, thread the needle.  This was surprisingly easy since my machine had the task completely numbered with diagrams.  Whew!  That was a lifesaver.  However, I still felt the need to take a picture of accomplishment #2: 

Now that my machine is loaded and ready to use, I feel comfortable going ahead and cutting my fabric (after I washed and dried it to preshrink it!).  I used this amazing tutorial to come up with my measurements!  And yes, that's a tape measure next to me.  And I'm cutting my fabric with kitchen shears.  I have no fancy-schmancy equipment for sewing since this is my first stab at it. So, I use what I've got because that's how I roll!  I usually try to wait about a month to see if my new interest will be an ongoing interest before I invest in anything other than the necessities.  It saves me lots of moo-la from not buying stuff for hobbies that barely make it out of the gate!

 After I cut my fabric, I followed those handy-dandy instructions on the tutorial and sewed my first seam.  That's right...I sewed a straight line!

 It only got better from there and I ended up with a pillow cover.  Yep, I sure did.  And I don't know that my smile could have gotten any bigger.  The mister thought I had had a few too many when I came into the living room, holding my pillow like a prized possession.  But I've never been so proud!  And here was my mess to show how hard I'd worked:

Notice it was daylight when I started and the sun is now completely gone at the finish line!  Needless to say, my stresses and couple of hours worth of work to make a pillow using a "How to Sew a 5-Minute Pillow Cover" paid off and I'm hoping to cut the next pillow project down to 30 minutes.

That's a good lookin' pillow, if I do say so myself.  Now that I'm confident in my new-found sewing abilities, I'm off to buy more fabric and can't wait to show y'all my baby-step sewing accomplishments!