Sewing: A New Obsession!

In March, I took a three week sewing class.  It’s been something I’ve wanted to learn for many years, but never seemed to make time for.  I loved Home Ec. class in Junior High, when we got to learn cooking and sewing.  When I saw that an adult sewing class was being offered at a local children’s sewing school, I decided that it was my chance.  It was also a “get Mommy out of the house” project.  A chance for me to do something other than take care of my son, which had pretty much been my life 100% of the time for the past 5 months.  I certainly love that, but I knew I needed to learn how to be away from him, and he needed to be okay being away from me. 

Brother CS6000-i

Since taking the class, I bargain shopped for a sewing machine and have enjoyed practicing and learning new techniques.  My first project, for the class, was a pair of pyjama pants. They didn’t fit me well and had to be shortened into capris because they were too short for me.  Flattering, they were not!  To top it off, they fell apart after wearing them a couple of times. I’d say that project was a total fail. Luckily, I’ve had some successful projects since then. 

 

 

My second project in the class was a purse.  I use it all the time as a mini diaper bag. I love the material. 

 

 

At the same time, I made a pillowcase.  Now that I see the picture again, I think I need to make some more of these.  It was a super easy project that gave me a chance to learn about my sewing machine.  I made it a little too long, but since I guessed what measurements to use, I think it turned out pretty good.  Plus, the pillow doesn't inch its way out, because it's extra long.

My first big solo project was a fun one.  We were going to a birthday party and the theme was a princess party.  Since it was April, it was hard to find a costume for a baby, so I thought I’d make one.  It was a challenge! I made a pattern, by tracing the outline of one of his onsies and designed a tunic based on that sizing. Then, I looked on Pinterest for some ideas.  It was really fun to make and I was able to learn some new techniques to create the tunic, belt, and crown.  I think Little C had fun wearing it too. He was all smiles when he had it on. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make his Halloween costume for him this fall.

 

Since then, I’ve been making a lot of baby stuff.  I thought sewing would be a nice way to make personal gifts, and a way to make some fun things for my son.  They’re also small projects, which give me the chance to practice, and I can do them during nap time.  Here are some of the projects I’ve made:

taggy blankets, soother/toy tether, bandana bibs, stroller lap blanket

My absolute favourite baby project is the bandana "dribble" bib.  I've made a ton of these! I found the pattern on Pinterest and love it.  Instead of having a snap or Velcro to attach the ends, it uses a single button hole on one side, which you pull the other side through.  It’s really easy to remove, and there aren't any scratches from Velcro, which has been a problem for my son. They're great for teething babies! Here is the link to the pattern: http://leafytreetopspot.blogspot.ca/2014/02/free-pattern-and-tutorial-baby-dribble.html

back of the bandana bib

 

My big sewing goal is to make a quilt. Any quilt would do, but I saw a quilt on Pinterest made of outgrown onsies. It was kind of one of those crazy quilts – random size pieces, no real order, fun stitches. I loved it, and thought it would give me an excuse to keep some of Little C’s outfits.  I had recently packed some of his outgrown baby clothes away, and it was a major boo-hoo task.  (Why is it so hard to pack away outgrown baby clothes? It’s not like I want him to stay a baby forever... although it would be nice if he could stay little for just a little longer though...)

To start practicing for a baby outfit quilt, I’ve been working on a simple quilt.  I found a pattern on Pinterest (here is the link: http://neverenoughhours.blogspot.ca/2010/08/fat-quarter-baby-quilt-tutorial.html) and have been working on it on and off.  There's good and bad to this quilt.  The good? It's been fun and I've been learning lots. It has also been a budget quilt, so a great one to start with, in case I mess it up! It's made of fat quarters, which I was able to get really cheap.  I am using a piece of leftover flannel for batting, and got a piece of fun fabric for backing at a good sale.  It is probably costing less than $15.  The bad? I've got a lot to learn! Sometimes have no idea what to do. When I start to get stuck or frustrated, I take a break. Currently, I’m at the quilting stage and on a break. I feel like it’s turned out pretty well up to this point, and I really don’t want to mess it up.  It’s a bit scary.  Because I have zero hand sewing skills, I’m trying machine quilting.  My hope is to eventually try some hand sewing, but not yet.  This is what it looked like when I made my “quilt sandwich” with the top, batting (I used a piece of flannel), and backing. It doesn't look like much now, but hopefully (fingers crossed!) it will come together soon.

 

So there are the highlights of about four months of sewing adventures.  I feel like I’ve accomplished quite a bit, considering I have a baby to take care of. I still have a lot to learn! I’m always looking for new ideas (thank you, Pinterest!) and will continue to work at getting better!

Allow me to introduce myself.

A scatterbrain. Yup, that's me. I could blame it on being a new mum, but I've probably always been one. I've been called ditzy, flakey, a daydreamer, but I think scatterbrain is the best term for me. My focus is always scattered among many things. My brain is anything but organized, and I can rarely sustain any amount of concentration. Currently, I am in the final months of maternity leave, so my brain bounces between baby, hubby, household stuff, hobbies, pets, health, the future, the idea of going back to work and not being with my son 24/7, and so on and so on. It's pretty much non-stop.

Sometimes I'm pretty good at hiding it, but other times, not so much. My keys are always lost; my desk at work is always piled high with a variety of piles representing all the things I'm working on; my brain is always going a mile a minute, with a to do list that not only never ends, but sometimes feels like it never gets started!

The fact that my brain can't focus on anything for the long term means that I've never stuck to anything for the long term, and I've have never really found anything that I loved. As a child, I did two years of piano, clarinet, and tap & jazz.  As an adult, I tried Nordic walking and completed two half marathons. (Hmmmm, there seems to be a theme of twos here.) I tried going to the gym. I've dabbled in photography and like to scrapbook (although I prefer to call it fancy photo albums, because my "scrapbooks" are basically a bunch of pictures, some writing, and stickers.... oh, how I love stickers... but now I'm getting off track.) I've taken jewellery making, card making, and knitting classes. I've tried to learn new ways to cook. I guess I like to try new things. I never thought this was strange. Well, that is until my husband informed me about a year or so ago that I didn't have a hobby. I tried to argue, listing off all the things that I did, but he was right. I didn't really have a hobby. I kind of wanted one.

At the time, I was also going to be a mum in a few months. The pregnancy brain may have contributed to this mini-life-crisis. I felt like mums needed to have hobbies... and skills. Not practical skills like how to feed, change, or generally keep a child alive. (I knew I'd figure that all out!)  Not super-power skills. Mum skills, like cookie baking, clothing mending, crafty skills. I thought maybe I could find a hobby that would also let me learn some of these magical mum skills.  I wanted to by THAT mum - the mum who makes the best treats, can make the cool Halloween costumes, organize the best birthday party, and make summer vacation a blast! I knew I needed to get to work. (Again, pregnancy brain may have had me even more scattered and not really thinking rationally!)

And so my adventure began. I decided that I wanted to learn some new things. I was in search of not only a hobby. I needed to sort out my scatterbrain and focus.

So how did my scatterbrain lead me here? Good question. I've always toyed around with the idea of starting a blog. (And by toyed around, I mean that I've planned it out a million times in my head, trying to figure out what I would focus on, the title, etc.  Just one more subject to take up space in my brain.) It's not like I want to be famous, or have a lot of people follow me (although a few would be nice), but I do have a couple of reasons:
1) I like the idea of adding something to the "big conversation" - I'm certainly not going to add anything life changing, but maybe I could find some fellow scatterbrains like me. (Let's band together and find focus! Or just add more scattered ideas to each others minds.)
2) I'm a teacher. I often teach writing, and yet I've never really done any "real" writing. I've never taken the jump to sharing anything I've written, even though I force my students to. I'm not really confident in my writing, but I always want my students to take a risk, so it's time for me to do the same. I've been working on my writing (with my students, as they work on theirs) over the past few years and think I've picked up some tricks, so we'll see how it goes.

So, with this blog, I hope to practice my writing and step out of my comfort zone, possibly find a few more similar minded folk, and keep track of my ever-changing hobbies, in hopes of finding something that will stick. Hopefully keeping a blog is step 1 in helping me find some focus, even if only for a few hours a week.

So, here it is. I'm blogging. I'm a blogger? Well, we'll see. Maybe this will be my new hobby... Or maybe it will just be one more scatterbrained idea! Either way, it will be an adventure!