First Sewing Adventures

After our family reunion, my Mom was in town for a little while longer. I think she was feeling bad that all her time was being occupied in Salt Lake, so she offered to come down for the day and help me make a maxi skirt I had told her I wanted her to make for me while she was here. We started out at Joanne's looking for some material and other supplies. All of their knits were 50% off! I found one that I thought would be a good weight knit for me (not too clingy, while still not too heavy). It was a nice khaki color I thought would be good for the summer, and also for upcoming family pictures.

We came home and got started. My mom gave me a little rundown of how my beautiful machine works (I've forgotten a bit since the class I took in CA last year). We looked through my friend's tutorial, and got started on making a pattern. We just did a pattern for a quarter of the skirt (or one half of a front/back piece) and cut the fabric that was folded in half. It worked out well. Once all the pieces were cut, I got to sewing. (My mom wanted to take pictures along the way. I think she was so proud her daughter is finally taking up with her love of sewing! Please excuse the quality of photos as most were taken in bad lighting with an iPhone.)

Owen wanted to get in on the action. He was pretty excited about the sewing machine, noises, and all the buttons.

I think it was a really good project to start on since it was just straight lines and really simple.

Here is the finished product. It's awesome because it's stretchy and will grow with my expanding belly, but I'm also hoping to be able to wear it after my pregnancy too. Yay for versatility!

One showing the yoga waist band. There's a little bit of puckering because it's smaller than the hips of the skirt, but it's really not as bad as this picture makes it look. 

And one more for my mom:

I love it so much that I want to make more. So I went back to Joanne's (sale was still going on) and bought two more colors in the same fabric - a heather grey and pretty, dark red. This time I want to make them with ruffles. My mom is super excited that I want to make more and use my machine. I do hope this is just the beginning of a long relationship with my sewing machine. I think I could really enjoy making different clothes or decorations for my home. However...I'm just going to have to figure out how to keep Owen out of things. My silly little goose is just far too curious. Especially with the shiny, sharp, magnetic pins...