Learning to Sew

I nonchalantly mentioned to my mom that one day I'd like a sewing machine and to learn how to sew. It's one of those skills that would be so beneficial to know how to do. Well little did I know that mom was already looking into a new sewing machine so that she could do some machine quilting. Since she was getting a new machine, she gave me her old one!

After going out and getting a super cute sewing box and all the necessary sewing essentials, I still wasn't sure what my first project was going to be. Then it hit me- the traditional second anniversary gift is cotton. I would make Eric a t-shirt quilt of our old high school t-shirts! 

This was quite the daunting first sewing project, so mom helped me out a lot. She cut all the t-shirts down to size and attached a backing to all the shirts so they would sew together easier. It took a bit, but we finally settled on a pattern that we liked. 

Then I was off! (Confession: I did practice sewing two scrap pieces of fabric together first to get the hang of the sewing machine.) I was so nervous as I sewed those first two squares together, but with a little patience and a lot of slow and steady sewing, I got my first row done, then the second row, and the third, and etc.  

  

Then it was time to pin, pin, pin. At least my pins had pretty, colorful heads- I was about sick of them by the time I was done!

It took literally all day (and a few frustrated stitch ripping and re-sewing moments), but I finally had the whole quilt sewn together. I called it quits that night and decided to finish the quilt on another day. 

Sewing day two! Mom had ironed all the seams out, as well as got the back of the quilt cut to size. We cut the batting to fit the quilt, then laid the t-shirts on top of it. Then was the daunting task of tufting the three layers together. The needle I used was huge, but it would have to be to get that yarn through its eye. My poor fingers were hurting by the time I was done with this.  

The last thing I had to do- sew the backing into an edging around the entire quilt! This was probably the part I disliked the most. To start with, there was a lot of quilt and a lot of weight to be pushing around and holding up. All three layers added up to a thick quilt- at least for my sewing abilities. Even though mom and I pinned the edging all over, the fabric kept pulling, causing puckers and not-so-straight lines. Mom had to redo a section where the fabric had pulled so much that when I sewed I didn't even catch the t-shirt. Luckily she was able to fix it without anything being obviously noticeable. 

And here it is-the finished t-shirt quilt! It's not perfect by any means, but I made it. That has to count for something, right?