Yes, I’ve been away for a few days. Time gets away from ya when you’re having fun, I guess. However, things slowed down just long enough for me to once again remind myself how much I suck at sewing. I can do many things. Sewing is not one of them.
It all started with a simple pocket calendar. My days are filling up way too fast, and I wanted something to bring with me that would help when making plans on the fly. That expression makes me feel cool. Like “I should be wearing Ray-Bans” cool.
I placed it into my purse (camera bag is standing in for purse in this pic), and you can see what it did. It disappeared. My purse is black, my phone is black, and my calendar is black. No way was I ever gonna find that thing. Huh…that’s an easy fix. Just sew one yourself. Enter attempt exhibit A:
I blame it on the fusible webbing. It was too thick and made my seams all wonky. Thick webbing is no good for a girl who doesn’t know what a straight seam looks like in the first place. Okay, get rid of the webbing. Attempt Exhibit B:
Woops. Apparently, even without the fusing, you still have to measure correctly. It was too flimsy, and the calendar didn’t even fit into it! As you can imagine, bad words started entering my mind. Words that your dad used to use when his favorite team lost or when he’d hit his head on the hood of the car while fixing it. Yeah, those words.
Time to regroup. Some retail therapy would help. I purchased some thinner fusible webbing ($1.99/yard) and some new fabric. Surely, that would do the trick.
Hey now. This might be something I can deal with. If you squint your eyes and dim the lights just right, you’ll never notice the fact that I must have sewn it with one hand.
If you put the calendar in there and wave it around really fast in your hand, you’d never be able to tell that it’s slightly a hot mess. Me likey. Total cost? Well, it would have been free had I done it right the first two times. I paid a few dollars for the fabric since I needed so very little of it. Not bad.
You’re wondering about a tutorial, aren’t you? Even after all those exhibits, you wanna know, “How’d she do it? How did she pull it off?” Don’t look this way. The best (and easiest) tutorial I found was over at Crazy Mom Quilts. AmandaJean knows what she’s doing, and her pictures are good!
Off to do another project–no sew, of course!
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Haha, I’m right there with you!
But aren’t you proud, it does look good! I have made several attempts at sewing a simple bib! Each time i fail I just remind my self that I’m learning and improving. Happy sewing!
(Just A) Girl, I hear you! I like the “idea” of sewing, but when it comes down to brass tacks and putting that idea into action, it ends up with me swearing (literally and figuratively), to never sew again. I can’t tell you how many times the words, “This is why I don’t sew!” are uttered at each new attempt. I still love your little on-the-fly calendar holder though. 🙂
I know how that goes. It’s because you didn’t have the right fabric all along! That’s been my absolute favorite fabric for the past year. The finished product looks great!
That is gorgeous fabric! Who makes it? Do you know where I can buy some for my very own?
Thanks!
I found it at hobby lobby. They recently made it possible to buy online, although it’s a tad more expensive than the stores. Here’s the link.
http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/apt-serendipity-paisley-fabric/
Next time – take your nail polish and paint those black plastic casings. Use really bright colors. Problem solved.
I even got a bottle with a nozzle used for painting flowers on nails and used it on my (black) keyboard to make some keys stand out.
Nail polish! THAT’S an idea!
You’re hilarious. I love the fabric you chose (for all 3). You WILL look snazzy waving that thing around, even if you’re not wearing Ray-Bans! 🙂
It looks great! And those first two “Exhibits” might be good for something else, and even it they’re not they were good practice!
When I started I had three rules:
1) I have to be able to finish the project in 1 afternoon/evening.
2) Only learn 1 new skill/challenge at a time. (and difficult fabric totally counts.)
3) If I get frustrated to the point where I start making avoidable mistakes (stupid mistakes, not “oh THAT’S how you do it” mistakes) stop, breathe, get a glass of wine, try again. If i’m still frustrated, set aside for a day.
With those 3 rules, you’ll learn in baby steps and get lots of little projects done that encourage you with progress! Oh, and if you’re easily frustrated you’ll get to drink lots of wine. 🙂
Vianki–that’s a great idea! But you’re right…I’d be drinking a LOT of wine! 🙂 Thank you for your advice.
Sewing and I don’t get along very well either. Mainly because I’m a perfectionist and my sewing skills are kind of sad:) I have made stuff more than once before too…but I’ve also given up because it didn’t work out the way I wanted the first time! Yay for you for sticking it out until you got {sort of} what you wanted!
Oh, girl, I feel your pain! I really, really WISH I could sew–but I’ve never wished it badly enough to actually learn how to do it. I think you did a good job considering you’re not a seamstress! Your seams are straighter than mine would have been! (Here’s one thing I do that helps whenever I do break out the sewing machine–I put strips of tape on my machine to guide me along. I use painter’s tape so it won’t mess up my machine (not sure why; it’s not as if my machine were valuable). Whenever I figure out how wide my seam should be, I put a piece of tape across the machine, all the way from front to back, so I’ll have a line to guide me. Otherwise there is NO WAY I could sew anything even close to a straight line.)
This post cracked me up! Love the finished product 🙂
I give you mad props for that, and 3 attempts!!! I think I would have gotten as far as buying tge fabric, pondering it for a week or two, then passing the project off on a friend or my drape lady, LOL!
Hey—I think you did a great job and you can say now tha you do sew!!
Melinda
I think you did great. 🙂 I am going to try to sign up for a sewing class soon. This is on my bucket list!
Oh brother! I’m smiling while reading this post. I’m getting only slightly better with my sewing but around Christmas time I had bad words with my sewing machine. As of right now we are no longer speaking to each other and it’s on it’s way out ready to be replaced. Hoping I won’t have words with my next machine and my sewing gets better. Can’t wait to see your next project 🙂
I am a sewer and think you did a great job! It takes practice… don’t give up!
I LOVE it. You did a great job; I agree with you on sewing but I keep trying!
Thanks for the link to the tutorial, I love the fabric you chose.