more sewing practice

I also whipped together a couple of wine bags. This was fun because I had to make a lining. It took me about 45 minutes to understand what the instructions were telling me to do. I only hope that the bags get reused over and over. This makes me what to sew some produce bags for the grocery store. I just need to find the right kind of fabric.

Sewing class #2

Today I took my third sewing class at sew crafty. (http://www.sewcraftyhouston.com/) I must stress what a great little place this is and so conveniently located! This class was to make their tote bag. This is normally offered as a large class, but in the second class I met a nice woman, Angie, who suggested that maybe we take the class together as a 2 hour private lesson. This was a great idea. It saved us each $5 and also gave us a chance to get to know each other better while having more one on one time with the instructor.

After 2 hours I managed to make a tote bag. Now Matt is joking with me that I am now going to make tote bags for everyone in my book club.  Probably not, but I will make one for my ravelry yarn swap that is coming up. What fun!

Book club

I have a lot of friends who like to read, in fact, most of my friends are avid readers sometimes consuming books like someone would consume a chocolate bar. After some conversations with a few of these friends, we decided starting a book club would be a great way to meet new people and also have a little social time with a nice group of ladies. In February we started a little book club. This included 4 of us- 2 geologists, one geographer, and one educator. It was a little meeting at my house, but we quickly realized it was a nice event. The first book we read was 'City of Refuge' by Tom Piazza. This was a great first book because we all had some interesting insight to bring to the discussion.
We all have pretty busy schedules so it took us until April to get to the next meeting. For the next one we read, 'Let the Great World Spin' by Colum McCann. We also added 2 new readers to the group! It is growing and getting more organized. This month we have read 'Oh Pioneers!' by Willa Cather. Our meeting is this Sunday and I think it will be great to see what a group of strong, highly independent women thought of Alexandra, the main character. It seems so rare to see a strong woman being highlighted in an early American novel. I think at this meeting we will try to get a little better organized, by making a list of books we want to read and setting a monthly rotating date. I think with 5-6 people we can do this and not be too worried when someone misses a meeting.

So in the midst of getting things organized (and me trying to practice sewing), I decided to make everyone a clutch. The cool thing I discovered is that a book fits perfectly within the clutch. So I decided to make everyone one, put inside it a bookmark and a pencil, and say 'happy reading'.
Since I am new to this sewing things, I should say, this is an easy first project and quite a lot of fun. I just wanted to share the steps and hop that others like me can learn to that sewing is not so scary afterall!

Materials:
1/2 yard fabric
1/2 yard fusible interfacing (heavy duty- like Pellon)

1. Cut 2 rectangles (any size, I used ~12 by 20.5 inches) and place them right sides together. Iron straight. Then pin down all four sides, keeping a small hope on one of the short sides to enable to stuffing of the interfaceing. Cut the interfacing ~3/4 inch shorter.

2. Sew 5/8 seam on all sides,remember to leave that 3-4 inch opening.



3. Using the opened hole, turn the project right side out and iron flat. Roll the interfacing and insert it into the project. Flatten it out and iron.

4. Now take the project over and stitch a straight seam across the short side with the hole (~3/8 seam allowance)

5. Then fold the short edge up to create the pocket and stich down the left and right sides.

6. Finally, take to ironing board and iron the flap down, and the back. Over time the clutch will flatten out.

In the end you have a colorful array of bookclub clutches.

Crafts I am learning

Well about a year and a half ago my mother got me a sewing machine. She has sewn most of her life and I remember her making my sister and I matching dresses for easter, dresses for my aunt's wedding, and little odds and ends. More recently she has taken up quilting. She started taking quilting classes in Russellville, Arkansas in order to meet some people and try a new hobby. Her quilts are pretty cool and I became enthralled by the history of quilt making and the process. This inspired me to learn how to sew myself. What is weird is that as a child I showed no interest in sewing so my mom never showed me how. So even though she ha this great skill I never learned it. Which brings me to the sewing machine. I expressed interest in learning how to sew and having a machine so as a graduation gift my mom got me one. Needless to say it sat in a box for about a year. Honestly I was scared of it. Knitting with needles was one thing, but a large mechanized needle seemed like another.
So I signed up for a "getting to Know your Sewing Machine" class at this cool local sewing business called Sew Crafty. They offer classes and have materials for knitting, sewing, felting, etc. It is a great neighborhood business. The class was great. I learned not to fear the machine by learning how to thread it, wind the bobbin, choose feet, change them, and practiced different stitches. After I completed this class I decided to try one of their make something sewing class. This class was a 2 hour class to make a clutch. So I signed up and Tuesday night in 2 hours managed to make my first thing on a sewing machine! It is isn't perfect, but it was fun to do and made me realize that sewing is not as scary as I thought. The next class they offer is a class to sew a market bag. I hope to sign up for that and have just as fun.