My Very First Sewing Project

This is photographic proof that I did in fact sew something. It was much more tedious than I ever expected, what with all the pressing, measuring, cutting, pinning, and stitching/re-stitching. And I swear, I thought I was going to wear out my seam-ripper! I had to re-stitch a lot of the quilt because I had either stitched the wrong sides together or hadn't sewn it in a straight line. But it was all worth it for my niece Violet! I was so emotionally invested in it, and I worked like mad to get it done. I'm so glad I had such a fun project for my first sewing experience!

I bought a "quilt-kit" at Joann's which was super convenient and which I highly recommend because it had 6 pieces of fabric that all matched and went together beautifully. It saved me the hassle of measuring at the fabric store and the time of having to pick out coordinating fabrics. As my first step, I ironed all the creases out of the fabric.

Then I set to work cutting most of the fabric pieces into 7 1/2 x 8 in. squares. I also cut the side strips and back lining out of two other pieces of fabric.

Here are my squares all ready to be sewn together.

Next, I sewed 3 squares together into a row. I did this with all of the squares.

Brandon even tried out sewing! I think he liked it too!

This is a finished row. I then sewed all 4 of my rows together.

Next, I sewed the chenille sides onto the finished block of squares.

Then I pinned the front of the quilt to the back and made sure that all the sides were exactly even before I sewed them together. Then I just flipped the quilt right-side out, pushed the corners out and hand-stitched the closure.

And Viola! The finished project!

Today, I pulled out several clothing items that I've been saving for someday when I had a sewing machine. Many of them need to either be repaired or taken in a tiny bit and I haven't been able to wear any of them in years.

I also bought a pair of jeans on sale at Nordstrom's while I was in California and rather than paying the $15 charge to have them hemmed at Nordy's, I decided to take a risk and try to hem them myself! I may be crazy, but I figure that if I screw it up, I can always take them back to the store and pay to have them hemmed. But I might as well try, right?! (It helps that the jeans are skinny jeans and have navy blue thread so if the hem isn't perfect, it will be very hard to tell.) I'm going to try to get to these projects this week, if I'm successful I will practically have a whole new wardrobe!