Sew Sew

I've mentioned before that it's been ages since I've last sewn. Well, recently inspiration hit and, bolstered by necessity, I've taken up this craft again. To ease myself into it I began with a simple project: tea towels.

I ordered the fabric from Dragonfly Fabric. They have a nice selection but I found the site annoying to navigate and the shipping took longer than I would have liked. Still I'll probably try them again. And it was better than going to a fabric store.

I washed and ironed the fabric.

My sewing space is a kitchen table we've set up in the basement, which I'm sharing with our printer :) That's my old Brother machine. I mean old as in former, not old as in aged. Despite having barely been used the machine had broken parts and was a major pain to deal with. Even though it has sentimental value as a gift from my parents I decided to get a newer, better, fancier machine...

Behold the Singer 'One.' I already love this machine. The Brother will be donated to Goodwill, where it will hopefully provide someone with training opportunities in repairing small appliances and then can be put to good use again. I think my parents would understand and approve.

After all the delays waiting for fabric, dealing with the problems of the old machine, and waiting for the new machine to arrive I finally got to get sewing!

I measured out the fabric and placed a pin where I needed to cut.

I just made an initial snip and then tore from there, magically ending up with my basic towel shape.

I measured one-inch from the edge, folded, and ironed.

Then folded again to contain the raw edge and ironed again. Pretty straightforward.

Pinned everything into place to make sewing easier.

And got to work! The weird thing was that someone outside was doing some kind of work with machinery that sounded exactly like my mom's industrial sewing machine. Every time I would pause I'd hear the machinery sound--it almost felt like my mom was sewing along with me.

Ta da! I never thought I could get so excited about a rectangle of fabric. But as I said, it's been a while. Also, for the first time I didn't have anyone to ask for advice if I needed it, so this is the first thing I've ever sewn entirely on my own.

I think it dresses up the stove quite nicely :)

I had enough fabric left for another towel, as well as enough to make a hanger for this towel.

The hanger works!

Now that I've returned to sewing, I'm hooked on it. I've got more fabric on the way and my next two projects picked out: a table runner and a tablecloth. I can't wait to get started and I'm looking forward to keeping you posted...

Photos by Whimsy Bower

[Edited to remove old links. Follow me on my official site: AspasiaSBissas.com]