Last night I went to a sewing class at Homemade London. It was a beginner’s class on how to use a sewing machine, because my lovely mother bought me a mini machine for Christmas and I haven’t yet used it owing to Fear. This may come from the fact that the last time I got any kind of sewing machine, somewhere back in the far reaches of a Christmas Eve when I was maybe about eight years old, I promptly fell on it and broke it. There I was all giddy about it and within three seconds of removing the wrapping paper I had crushed some fundamental part of it rendering it useless. I did not get a replacement and that was that. But here is my chance to redeem myself, twenty+ years later. I’m just giving myself a fighting chance with an expert’s help.
The shop was very cute and you walk in to a table full of machines and someone offers you a cup of tea. And there were donuts and other goodies, so what’s not to love about that? We went through threading the machine and winding your bobbin up, and then we were off practicing on scraps of cotton. I was going very slowly because speed seemed like a bad idea, but I mostly managed to sew a straight line. And then we started to make a little bag, complete with ironing lines in the fabric to make our sewing straighter. This worked well in theory but then I was in charge and it all went a bit wrong. I managed to rectify it a bit but there is a wonky line of stitches. Still, for my first go I don’t think I did too badly:
I also got two hours of their sewing cafe time with the class, so I can go by again with some fabric and use their machines to work on another project. I may attempt a cushion cover next, and then hopefully will know enough to try quilting. But let’s not got ahead of ourselves.
Tags: crafty
