Early days

After months of deliberation (and saving money) I finally purchased my sewing machine, a Brother XL-2610, which is admittedly a very basic machine. Seeing as how I'd never so much as touched a bobbin before last night, though, that is exactly what I need: simplicity. And now I have threaded a bobbin (thanks in large part to the instructional DVD that came with the machine).

I could, in theory, go into a detailed review of this guy (or you could just go here and see what other people have to say; my personal favourite is the poster who wrote about her "sowing" machine) but let's be honest: I bought this machine because it's got pink bits. The end.

I did some practice stiches, as the DVD suggested:

And then I mended a skirt of mine. Now, the thing about this skirt is, it's really supercute but also has a tendency to be a bit short. So, whenever I stand up, I tug on the back of it to pull it down, for modesty's sake. Since I clearly don't know my own superhuman strength, sometimes I rip the stitching on the gathers. So my first real project was to regather the two gathers I've split in the past (once at Heathrow Airport, which was okay though because I happened to have a safety pin on me and I could close the immodest gap which showed my underpants and once yesterday, after getitng off at Belorusskaya metro station and tugging and then hearing that horrifying "rrrrrrrrrrrip" which caused me to stand on the platform and twist the skirt around my waist to see if I was now a shabbily dressed slut; I wasn't). So I quickly made the gathers again on my machine (mine is on the left, the original is on the right), and all is well again!

My first big project is to take an old skirt I have which I never wear because it's a bit on the long side and use the fabric to make the petals of a tiger lily flower.

After that, I will attach it to a new purple tank top I bought yesterday during Shopping Spree 2010. The plan right now is to attach it by using black thread and sewing in little circles to create the spots of the flower, so the petals aren't completely attached to the top. That will probably change but we'll see.

So, to sum up, this will be a blog I use to mark my progress in sewing. I have four big projects on the horizon (not including the flower one outlined above):
1. making an amazing zipper-pencil-case like Nikki's, which I can't find a picture of on the interweb;

2. sewing a zip in my new giant TopShop bag so I can use it as a fancy-tartan-bag-style carry-on/overnight bag;

3. combining an M&S dress I bought years ago

with a skirt I bought in January so I can actually wear it without feeling like a prostitute;

4. and an apron from the rest of the bits from the skirt.

All I've got are the internet, my machine, and this book which I adore

Time to start on the flower.

PS I don't know how to format this thing so it's a bit weird, I apologize.