Back Stiching

I came across the term back stitching while attempting to figure out where the hell I went wrong on a few sewing disasters. Not wishing to be laughed at further (as you can guess this is a frequent event) I hit my favorite Google search bar. Okay fine, let's be honest I used swag bar to search for Google. I have a secondary hobby as a cheap skate but that has little to do with my sewing. I kept coming up with cross stitch terms. I know I can't sew my way out of a pillow but I am positive that I have not been trying to cross stitch this all this time. I caved and asked the heifers. (Insert their laughter) I will pay them back some day, maybe with some ex lax cookies. 

Back stitching: reinforcing your seams at the start and end of your seam. Yay!!!! I now had a definition. Can you guess my next question? What the hell does that have to do with me and my current disaster? (Some more giggles, ex lax may be to good for them) and I was pointed towards YouTube. Thankfully a couple of them also own the same machine as myself and were able to walk me through this learning endeavor. Seamy (for the new readers, Seamy is my seam ripper) and I have been getting along famously but neither of us felt up to the task of once again undoing all the seams. The fabric has to have a fall apart limit somewhere right? So we have moved on to our next Disaster. January is dedicated to (drum roll) Pillows!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow I'll be updating with my brilliant discovery of Sewing for Dummies and Sewing for Dummies Patterns.

Finished!

The naming of the seam ripper.

I had this self chuckle last night while using my seam ripper. Anything, that you spend a reasonable amount of time holding, you should at least know its first name. I'm getting pretty darn friendly with my seam ripper. I have spent more time with it in the last three days then I have my husband. I think he's starting to get jealous of all the attention it's getting. I sat there while undoing my project (again) and thought of different names for it. Fixer of doom, sounds like I spent to much time playing Skyrim last month and well I did but that's beside the point. Pedro was to cliche'. It finally came to me. Seamy. I am naming the little guy Seamy. He's going to be my best friend in the next few months. 

Now that I've filled you in on the official naming of my seam ripper, bet that is 3 minutes of your life you want back, we'll move on to project details. About darn time, huh?  (giggle)

So the silly burp rag is finally finished. Well okay finished is probably escalating it to a sense that it's done and looks nice. Don't get your hopes up. I'm just scared that if I rip any more seams out with Seamy (like how I tossed in his name?) that the fabric will move out or fall apart in mental fatigue. Though that more accurately describes how I felt after finishing. Hmmmmmmm, either way it's done.

I learned that when leaving a hole to turn a project with curves you don't leave the hole on a curve but on a straight line. Some of you are probably saying "duh" right now and I don 't blame you. It looked like (cover the kids eyes) hell. My darling husband in what I'm sure was an attempt to save money told me to send it to our friend who is having a baby. That would be cruel and true friends would never do that to each other. It will make a great dusting rag though!

As Promised Pictures

Step 1 should have read "grab the rum".

Day 2 started out on a jaunty little step of optimism. We are still on Holiday break so little man and I up and dressed and headed to the store early. I love Hobby Lobby. I have this little girl obsession with all cool stuff that my non creative body could only hope to ever use. I refer to this as my Cinderella Disease. I'm always looking for that magic wand to make my disasters look great. Just a heads up , no matter how much you sit in soot, mice don't talk and magic ladies with wands never appear. Soot is also horrid to get out of of your clothes. I promise it's not worth it.

We arrived at Lowes. Wait, how did I get at Lowes? Darn, should have had that extra cup of coffee. Darn auto driving.  After laughing at myself I pull back out and head across the street to Hobby Lobby. Now that I'm actually in a place that sells what I need we set out to conquer. 

Knowing the attention of the average 3 year old, I set him to looking at the pretty pictures in the pattern books, while I quickly looked for what I wanted. A bib pattern. Something easy. Cute and easy to practice. Do you sense the "duh duh doom" here? Spent a few more minutes picking out some basic fabric and we then paid for our purchases and headed out. We stopped at the store for bribes, snacks, for the kiddo.

We arrived home and after feeding kiddo his bribe...snack...snacks Kass. I set to reading my new pattern. Hmmm, pretty sure I cut along the solid line and sew the dotted line. I raced to the computer. I'm fortunate enough, at least for me, that most of my friends sew. I quickly asked "hey heffers, is that right" and after a few snickers was told yes. 

Pattern cut! That was hard work.  I thought I'd reward myself with some computer time and check in with my little guy. This is the beginning to a very "interesting" day.

Did you know you have to wash, dry, iron your fabric before you even cut it. That is totally uncool. I almost sold the sewing machine right then and there. I do laundry because if I don't we go naked. I'd love to do that in the hot southern heat but I don't wish to go to jail. I'm not even sure if our iron is still around or if we ditched it in those days after my husband got out of the military. I found the darn thing hiding in a closet. Poor guy was probably terrified about coming out of retirement.

(several hours later)

Fabric washed, dried, ironed (long sigh) and cut. Happy Dance!!!!!!!!!!!! Time to sew...... I'll save you a lot of reading and just post some pictures. It wasn't pretty. I used that handy seam ripper I bought knowing I'd need it and try two was not any better. In a desperate attempt to save my project I showed it to the friends I call heffers. After much laughing and snickering, they pointed out that it should have been sewn inside out and then turned and finished. (head smack) We all agreed that maybe if I had started with rum then those curved lines might have came out better.

 

Christmas arrived in the form of a sewing machine.

My son started preschool this year. I was totally ready to to be a house wife of leisure. Husband at work, kid at school, I had this whole bon bon , book reading lifestyle planned. The first month went great. The second month I caught up on my reading. The 3rd month arrived and brought with it the first stirrings of boredom. I cheerfully ignored those feelings for a few weeks. Month 5 I wanted a toddler apron smock and couldn't find any in a size, style or pattern that suited. I started plotting and scheming on a sewing machine. I can eventually blame all this on wanting a toddler apron for my son. Future guilt trip fodder! My husband this year, in what should be a hilarious, soon to come journey, actually listened  to my Santa list and under the tree arrived my new toy.  


Day 1) Learning to thread bobbins and the machine. Sweet, toy unwrapped and now time to play. What? It doesn't come with thread, for the price that was paid, it should have came with gold thread and a dwarf that sews for me. Barring I don't really live in fantasy land , typically, I dragged my son and husband to that scary place called Hellmart...Walmart..must learn to say Walmart. I then bought everything that could possibly be needed. Which is great as a non sewer I think I did a great job getting just the right stuff. Okay , okay you're right I just wandered tossing in random crap until my husband finally got annoyed and stomped off to look at televisions. My cheap side emerged and I chose defeat at this point and dragged him to go pay.

Returned home and tossed the kiddo some snacks and sacrificial father. "Go ask Dad to play UnoMoo". Now that my two guys are entertained in a riveting game of barnyard fun I set down to figure this "bobbin  and thread" thingy out. The makers of my machine have obviously met me in a prior life. Everything was labeled, numbered and came with large follow me directions. Thanks! It made me feel so smart. So machine all threaded and test stitches done and I realized it was bed time! Hmmm this may just be the thing I need to fill some time. 

Tomorrow, I'll be updating how my fabric , pattern, and Hobby Lobby trip turned out.