Sewing with Erin

I am not a seamstress. I have a mother who can sew beautifully. I left home not knowing a stitch (pardon the pun) about sewing anything. It's a big regret that I have. When Abby was little, I thought I had the time and energy to learn how to sew something basic. I took a community sewing class and learned a few things, bought a used machine, and made a few sundresses for Abby. I've sewn a few baby blankets, a few burp cloths, hemmed some items. Nothing big and nothing with a real amount of difficulty.

Not too long ago, I saw some beautiful quilting projects that my friend Vickie had made. I became utterly jealous. I begged her for some lessons. She agreed. We've been meeting up on a monthly basis and she gives me some lessons, pointers, and a break from my kids. We usually go to dinner, take a field trip to the quilt store, and then start on our projects. We sew into the night and a few times into the early morning. My first project was a table runner. It was blocks sewn together with a boarder and then I attempted to "stitch in the ditch" to give it that quilted look. I got thinking that I knew what I was doing and wasn't so careful with my seam allowance and my ironing. Needless to say, it didn't turn out looking so pretty. It's in a drawer now. Maybe someday, when I've quilted something beautiful, I can pull it out and have a good laugh over my first mistakes. For now, it will stay buried in the drawer.

Since I've dusted off the sewing machine, I've attempted a few other projects. The first (which I have no picture of) was an apron. I saw the pattern, loved it, found some adorable fabric and decided that it was do-able. Simple stitching, a little elbow grease and wha-la, I would have a cute apron. My first apron took me about 4 hours. I, again thought I knew what I was doing, and ended up having to take it apart. Several times. In the end, even though it had a ton of mistakes, I sent it to my friend Janelle for her b-day. She is a REAL seamstress and she probably had a good laugh over the sight of it. But, I knew that she would appreciate my attempt and would wear it proudly anyway. (She probably should make herself a button to attach to it: "I didn't make this")

My second attempt was another of the same apron, in the same material, for my sister in law's b-day. She is NOT a seamstress, so she has no idea where all the mistakes are. Nice! I may have looked like I knew what I was doing! I even attempted to add a little bling to it and made a cute flower to pin to the top. The apron turned out pretty cute and I cut my sewing time (including cutting) down to about 2 hours.

My cute sis-in-law, Allison, modeling her new apron.

Flower I constructed for the "wow" effect...

These are the first of many projects on my list and I'm sure that there are many more mistakes to come. But, I do get a little sense of satisfaction knowing that if there is ANY need for a dang cute apron in the world, I am certainly capable of lending my services. Of course, it would have to be this same pattern....or I'd be in trouble.....