Demystifying the Bobbin

Last year for Christmas, my secret Santa sent me a sewing machine.  I have been dying to get into it, but I didn't have anywhere to set it up, given that my craft room was an absolute pit until the recent upgrades.  I'd been sitting around saying, "I want to start sewing.  I want to get out the sewing machine." but with school and choir and whatnot, even though I had the space, I didn't have the time.  Finally I decided I needed to open it because I just needed some stress relief.  So one fine night I broke the machine out of the box.  I didn't want to bid 2013 adieu without having sewed something, anything.  Plus, it's on my bucket list to learn to sew.

The first test of course was to figure out how to thread the machine.   I could have asked any of a number of people to help me learn to thread it, but ultimately, I really wanted to learn to do it myself and generally I find that when people teach other people how to do something, they actually do it and the learner observes.  And I don't learn that way.  I learn by doing.  So I was determined to do it on my own.  I cracked open the box and got that first whiff of plastic and metal and Styrofoam, and it was nearly a religious experience.  I immediately fell in love with a piece of machinery.  This sucker holds possibility.  I can make things. 

So after unpacking everything, I found a Quick Start guide and tried to follow it.  It told me about winding the bobbin, and to be honest, I had no idea what a bobbin was for or what exactly it did.  But I wound it.  The first issue I had was that the directions showed putting the thread through the bobbin and then clicking it into a little channel.  There were no words, only pictures and every time I tried to click the thread into the channel, the thread broke.  I couldn't figure this out (directions with only pictures also mystify me, which is why whenever I buy furniture that is "some assembly required", I call my friend Andy to come rescue me.  Although to be fair, I did build my bureau single-handedly, which is pretty stinking impressive).  Eventually I realized that the thread is supposed to break, not click, but it was very perplexing for a few minutes and I probably wasted half a yard of thread trying to figure it out.  Once I got the bobbin wound and in place (again, with it broken off into a channel), it was time to thread the machine.  I have done this before--when I went to get my MA in rehabilitation of the blind, we had to thread a sewing machine, but it was under blindfold, which is very different than when you can actually see it.  But it was a fairly simple process except at the end, when I had to try and use this little arm to swing the thread in towards the needle.  In the end, it turned out to be a needle threader, and so when I realized that, I gave up and just threaded the thing by eye.  No problem at all.  I tested out the machine by sewing a line of stitches down a piece of fabric, and it seemed to be working, so I surmised I was ready to go!

In the past, I've made pillows under my mother's supervision.  They've turned out well--I made huge pillows for my bed in my dorm in college, and I've made some throw pillows and some Christmas pillows.  But I wanted to go beyond that.  So I decided to consult my Pinterest board of "learning to sew" projects.  I had pinned a project some time ago called "Fat Quarter Bags", which appealed to me because there wasn't much measuring involved, and numbers just do my head in.  I thought that this would be a great thing for me to try that would break me out of the pillow genre and into something more interesting.  The bags are found on the blog Diary of A Quilter (who also own the picture).  In reading the post, it appears she made a new and improved tutorial, but my link is to the tutorial I used, and I found it was fine except for one teensy little issue, which I will tell you about in a minute.

Anyway, so I settled on making these bags.  I had a ton of fat quarters that I got on sale and had just been sitting around, so I chose a couple of them and some ribbon.  I followed the directions meticulously, and it took nearly two hours, but I finally had this:

Not bad, right?  Yeah, except the one issue!  I put the handle on inside out.  Grrr.  I was so miffed.  The bag is sort of reversible except that you stitch it shut on the inside and that stitching is visible.  So I decided to make a second bag with the handles on the right way.  Only, I was out of that particular ribbon, so I had to use a different ribbon.  And it took only about 30 minutes this time before I had this:

But this is a bit of a cheat, given that the ribbon is two sided.  But what the heck.  Both the bags look great.  I offered one to Leah, but she wanted to pick her own fabric so she decided I should make another one.  Well, after making 3 of them, I was something of a professional.  I started experimenting a little bit with adding a pocket to the front, but clearly my measuring skills need work because the pocket was so narrow it's not actually good for anything, but it was worth trying.

Then one morning I was working on schoolwork and I heard little footsteps coming down the stairs and I heard, "Mama!  Where are you?"  So I told Leah I was working on schoolwork and she said, "I thought you were making bags!"  I said I was doing a paper and she told me "YOU NEED TO MAKE ANNA A BAG!"  Anna is her BFF at school.  So I said I would be happy to make Anna a bag when I had a minute, but it turns out that wasn't good enough.  So it was 8AM, and we leave for school at 8:40.  But I acquiesced, mostly because I wanted nothing to do with my paper at that point.  Leah picked Anna's fabric and handles and I whipped up the bag while Leah went about her business.  I told her it was done and asked her if she was going to give it to Anna, and she said, "No, it's for Christmas".  Grrr.

So anyway, then I got into a debate with some friends on Facebook.  They were convinced that this could not be easy.  That I had magical bag making hands.  That I knew how to sew.  That I was holding out on how hard it really was.  So my friend Melissa came over to see Leah in the Christmas pageant and me in the Christmas concert and she asked if I would show her the craft room, which I was happy to do.  The topic of the bags came up again and I told her I could have her making a bag in 15 minutes.  She accepted the challenge, and sure enough!  She made a bag!

I posted this on Facebook and people still refuse to accept that it can be that easy.  Oh well. I promise it is.  I have no superpowers.  It's just an easy project and great for beginners!  Come over and I'll prove it to you.  I'll call my infomercial, "You too can make a bag in 15 minutes and just FIVE EASY STEPS!"

Anyway, so the idea came to me with these bags piling up and Leah wanting to give Anna one for Christmas that I should give them away as Christmas gifts.  Leah and I have been very lucky to find the ladies at Hospice at this time in our lives and I thought it would be nice to make a goodie bag for each of them for the holidays.  Leah has a lovely counselor named Belinda, whom she and Dot dubbed "Miss Window" in an hilarious exchange during a car ride one day, While Leah was in with her every week for 4 or 5 months, I would sit in the lobby and chat with Miss Pat, the receptionist, who is an absolute ray of sunlight in this world.  And my own counselor, Gloria, is the kindest, most gentle and compassionate human being I have ever met in my life.  So I decided to make each of them a bag and fill them with good stuff.

Last year, I had made each of the ladies a lemon sugar scrub, which they all loved.  I still had a few mason jars left and decided this year to make cucumber mint sugar scrub.  And then I decided to sew something extra and I found a tutorial for therapy sacks at Creative Outlet Designs.  So it seemed fairly simple, a miniature version of making pillows.  I had some essential oils from last Christmas, when I made simmering jars as a gift, so I dug those out and got out some fabric I had from a non-sewing project for birthday gifts for a couple of Leah's friends who had birthdays in the past year.  The fabric was very cheerful and I used tangerine oils because according to the label, it is "cheering" as well and I figured after working with the dying and bereaved all day, you could probably use something cheerful.  I used wheat on the inside, although I will use rice in the future because the wheat I could find is kinda pricey!  And the sacks came out beautifully.

So, I packaged everything up and voila!

Printed off a little poem with the pillows and used scrapbook tags and stickers for the scrubs.  We had a party for Gloria the Friday before Christmas since it was her 73rd birthday, and as a birthday gift, I also gave her a big jar of homemade salsa.  Each of the ladies was very moved by their gift, but given what they have done for us in helping us move forward from what I consider my life's stopping point, there isn't enough nice I can do for any of them.

I also made a sack for myself--I love heating it up in the microwave and then sticking it by my feet in bed.  I keep warm all night like that.  Once Leah got wind of that, she wanted one as well, so I made her one too.  So a couple of friends asked for therapy pillows themselves when they saw the pictures on Facebook.  So I agreed to make one for a friend who is struggling with family issues right now, like I am, and one for my friend Elizabeth who I have mentioned several times on this blog already and who I also can't do enough for.  Then I had the brainflash that if these were so popular, I should put them to good use and so I offered that if anyone would make a donation to the Norrie Disease Association and then let me know, I would make them a therapy sack as well.  So far, only one person has done so, but it's a bit more than they had before and I do have enough fabric for 2 or 3 more pillows in the same material as the Hospice ladies, so if anyone wants one, just say the word, make a donation, and a sack is yours!  (I can also make them in more masculine material if you're a guy) I'm just about out of tangerine oil, but I have lots of lavender and I can get more tangerine or other scents if anyone wants something else.

Finally, I got brave and decided to put the machine to some practical use by hemming two sets of curtains.  Downstairs I put up a curtain to hide The Dumping Ground--Leah's pile o' toys.  I just used a couple of cheap bedsheets, since I didn't sew at that time, but they were far too long for what I needed, so I decided to hem those.  They came out fine.  Then I decided to hem the bathroom curtains.  I had found a couple of sheer panels after we re-did the bathroom, and they were perfect in that they matched the floor and also let some light into our upstairs hallway which looks like a cave, so I got them, but they were far too long.  Every time the windows are open, I'm afraid they'll blow into the toilet!  So I decided to hem those a shorter length and I was very pleased with how they came out as well. (Although you can't see the floor in this picture, it has giant polka dots on it that look like huge soap bubbles.  Hence, the dotted curtains are a perfect fit.)

For Christmas this year, my secret Santa sent me book of quilt patterns, so in 2014, I hope to complete my first quilt.  I have a number of friends who quilt and who assure me it's no big deal.  I hope that proves true.  I will be so proud of myself if I figure out quilting even a simple quilt.

So there you have it, my first sewing post.  I'm beyond proud of myself for learning this much so far and feel hopeful that I will find more new and easy things to become more experienced!