First Adventures in Sewing

Last Valentine's Day, John surprised me with a new sewing machine - a Husqvarna Viking Emerald 118, to be exact.  Since then, I'm sad to say it received no use.  Even though my mom crafted amazing Halloween costumes for me year after year, I have no experience using a sewing machine and really wasn't sure where to start.  During their last trip down to visit, my mom sat with me and showed me the very basics, like how to prepare the bobbin and get the thing to work.  I finally felt like maybe I could make something, but with so many other projects to attend to, my sewing got put on the back burner once again.

On Friday, I decided enough was enough.  It was time to face my fear and finish up my end table/pet bed project I started a month ago.  That night, I managed to drag John out to JoAnn Fabrics (yeah, that's what we do on our Friday nights now...) and we picked out a fun cotton striped fabric with colors to complement the table, some stuffing, and matching brown thread.  Then Saturday I headed up to my mom den to get to work on the cushion.  Since I was still pretty leery of my less-than-novice sewing skills, I also picked up some cheapo scrap bin fabric to do a test run to avoid messing up the pretty stuff.  The sewing gods were smiling down on me because my little test sack turned out great and I found the confidence to go on.

My test stitches.

And now I have a tiny... hamster sleeping bag?

To start on the actual cushion, I popped the top off the table once again (glad I was too lazy decided not to Gorilla Glue it down yet) and used it as a template to trace out the cushion, leaving a one-inch border on sides for my stitches.  A Sharpie pen worked great for this (and I made sure the ink didn't bleed through before going all trace-crazy).

After my hexagon was all traced out, I used my Fiskars rotary cutter to cut the first panel out.  The rotary cutter worked amazingly and I was left with nice, clean lines.  I probably should have used a cutting mat underneath it, but luckily, it didn't leave any marks on my incredibly expensive and fancy IKEA table.  Using that panel, I flipped it over, lined it up as best as I could to match the stripe pattern, and cut out the second panel.

First panel = template for second panel!

My panels all ready to go and the neato cutter... and possible celebratory pizza cutter??

With the panels cut out, I carefully went around and pinned them together so they wouldn't go scooting around when it was time to sew.

Little pins all lined up.

At long last, it was time to get down to sewing business.  Thankfully, it actually went super quick and I went right around the piece, making sure to stop and lift up my foot at each corner and pivot to continue on, and of course, leaving a small bit open for a stuffing portal.

My glorious stitches.

After pulling out all the pins, I snipped off each corner tip to remove excess fabric and prevent bunching in the corners to keep them nice and pointy.  Here's my finished empty cushion sack:

I honestly couldn't believe how nicely it turned out and ran down the stairs to proudly present my handiwork to John... and I had to iron down the seams, anyways, to get a nice finished product.  Back up in my den, I stuffed the cushion until I had this puffy guy:

And yes, it took a grande Starbucks and a large Diet Coke for me to power through this project.

Then I just had to sew up the last bit by hand, which took longer than sewing the rest, I think.  I passed the time by pretending I was on Grey's Anatomy and just finished another amazingly revolutionary yet controversial surgery.  Instead of a McSteamy or McDreamy by my side, though, I only had... McKitty? He's still very handsome, though. :)

Me-ow!

To finish it off, I gave it a once over with the lint roller to remove all the little stray stuffing bits and I was done with my first sewing project.  I think it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

And there he is in his home.

I seriously doubt any pets will ever use it, but John assured me it's nice enough that he would use it himself if they don't.  He's such a nice husband.  If nothing else, it was a quick and easy introduction to sewing for me... but now I have sewing fever and have all sorts of projects mulling around now... Can you say custom dog outfits?  I kid... :)