Years ago I used to sew, quite a bit.
I had a year of Home Ec (back when they still called it Home Ec) in junior high and again in my senior year of high school. I continued to sew here and there over the years – mostly curtains, tablecloths and Halloween costumes for my oldest son. Eventually my son realized all the other guys were dressing up for Halloween as “cool dudes” like Buzz Lightyear and mom was making him into things like a giant M&M, a baseball and a cow. That was the end of my costume sewing career. I didn’t even attempt to sew for my younger son, he is much pickier than his big brother. 15 years after my last sewing stint, my beautiful Princess arrived. A girl! Since she was born a little over a year ago, my mind has been filled with images of lace, ruffles, bows, tulle…frothy, girly concoctions just flowing off my sewing machine and into her closet. Recently I began to bookmark every frilly little girls clothing confection that I saw on the internet. I bought patterns. I oohed and aahed over dozens of etsy listings. It was time. Time to bring my poor neglected sewing machine down from it’s corner of the entry closet and give it a place of honor in my craft corner of the sunroom!
For my first “warm-up” sewing project, I chose to create a cover to protect my sewing machine and make up for all the years of neglect. I chose this tutorial because it seemed quick and easy and I loved the shape.
Did I mention it’s been close to two decades since I have sewn anything?
I should have chosen a plain, square pillow as my first back-to-sewing project!
It didn’t really take me that long to make the cover but I made so many errors and rookie mistakes.
I used this fabulously sturdy and lined drapery fabric that I received for free. (Stay tuned for an upcoming post on how I score free stuff!). Yes, you read that right. Lined. As in two layers. I instantly made this project much harder than it had to be by using two layers of fabric; However, the problem was not with the fabric – or the machine, the tutorial, the thread or any of the other things I was cussing at while sewing. The problem was my arrogance. I learned a lesson in humility working on this project! Despite my sewing history I am basically a beginner all over again, a lesson I learned the hard way.
With this project, one of my biggest mistakes was not giving myself enough seam allowance. The inside of the cover is the stuff nightmares are made of! I pinked the seams as best I could but it’s still a mess in there! And nope, I didn’t take photos. Trust me, you don’t want to see how badly I butchered this!
It does look kind of fabulous from the outside though!
You can rollover the image with your mouse to see the before/after.
Yep, stripes. One of those rookie mistakes I mentioned. Stripes are unforgiving to the inexperienced!
See the ric-rac? I had to add the red ric-rac because my tension was off and I really messed up my stitches but I was too frustrated by that time to rip it all out and start over. Isn’t that why ric-rac was invented anyway? To cover the goofs?
I love that this cover has a hole for the handle so I can carry it with the cover still on.
Even if making that handle hole made me cry like a baby. I’m over it now and loving it.
Always a glutton for punishment, I decided to use my leftover fabric to make a matching cover for my Cricut machine. Do you think I learned my lesson and changed my approach? No, of course not!
I’m stubborn and since the sewing machine cover was lined then by-golly, the Cricut machine cover should match!
Today, I begin my next sewing project and I plan to approach it with a lot less swagger! Here’s a sneak peek:
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