My new love

I am soooooooo not girly.  I don't get pedicures more than once or twice a year, I rarely wear skirts (though do skorts count?  I do love my green skort.), it takes me less than 15 minutes to take a shower and get ready to go to even the fanciest of parties (because the most makeup I ever wear is mascara and I have lost the ability to style my hair in any fancy way), and I haven't worn heels regularly since I quit work to have kids almost four years ago.

I am, however, kind of crafty in some old-fashioned and distinctly feminine ways.  I love to crochet (even though I don't do it much anymore), I used to love to do counted cross stitch when I was younger, and I have a not-so-secret desire to learn to sew.

I can sew straight lines like crazy, and I have sewed almost all of the curtains in my house.  Curtains are easy -- they have lots of straight lines, don't need to withstand going through the washing machine very often, and you can whip up a valance with a minimum amount of material.  I would love to learn how to make more fun things for the home though.  Things that involve scary aspects like -- gasp -- zippers.

My mom taught me some very basic sewing when I was in middle school (we made a super cool crop top), but I haven't attempted anything wearable since then (unless you count aprons).  When I was in my third year of law school, I was bored one day and bought a cheapie sewing machine.  I have used that for the past decade even though it skips stitches and has an almost incomprehensible instruction manual.  What I needed was a new machine that actually worked well so I could embark on new adventures competently.  I was through pining after the sewing skills of my Aunt Janet,  Corey's Granny Kappy, and my sister-in-law, Jessica.  After consultation with Janet and Kappy, I found a great machine on sale.

Check me out sewing with my new machine that Corey and the kids got me for Christmas!

Yes, I had a little help finishing the t-shirt blanket I started for Corey when Charlotte was a baby.  He has a RIDICULOUS number of t-shirts, and the only way he will part with them is if I sew the pictures off of them onto a big piece of fleece and create a memory blanket for him.  I had a horrible time doing this with the old machine because of the stitch-skipping issue.  It was a whole new deal with the new machine!

I do prefer to sew without a toddler on my lap, but we had just found out that Petey Pie had a broken collarbone and I couldn't say no to his requests to sit on my lap while I sewed.  Thank goodness he took a nap soon after and that Corey didn't mind me sewing while he watched Michigan State play in their bowl game.  Yes, I have to sew at the dining room table because there is no other place to set up the machine in this tiny house.

My next projects will have to be featured in a later post, because they're still in need of a little tweaking.  Let's just say that Peter's room will soon no longer have mismatched valances still featuring the nursery colors.