Tuesday 16 April 2013

my birthday present

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was a very spoilt girl this birthday! My husband and my family pooled their resources and gave me my dream sewing machine!

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It’s so pretty and fancy and I never thought I’d own something like this. When Pete not so subtly asked me in the leadup to my birthday what I’d be looking for in a sewing machine, I said one that sews without skipping stitches, eating material, randomly snapping needles and actually does more stitches than just straight stitch.

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And he chose the Brother NX-400. This machine has nearly 300 stitch types, it threads itself, you can use it with our without a pedal, it has a whole bunch of different feet, including one for buttonholes, and which lets you actually sew a button on, it cuts the thread when you are finished sewing, you can lift the foot using a lever with your knee so you can leave your hands on the fabric, and you can even design and program your own stitches! I’m a little bit in love.

I’ve been a little addicted to playing with it and have done more sewing projects in the last week than I have in the last year! It’s so much fun to use, and it’s really got my creative juices flowing. I have so much awesome fabric stashed and I’m loving watching the pretty material turn into useful things right before my eyes.

Here are a few of the things I’ve been working on…

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A skirt for myself. I haven’t made myself clothes since I was pregnant with Mayana, and I love this one. I used the lovely heavy kind of linen fabric I’ve had stashed for a while. Love it!

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And of course I had to make Mayana one too! I absolutely love hers. I accidentally made it more high-waisted than I intended to but I’m glad I made that mistake because I LOVE how it turned out. And I also feel compelled to mention that I did not ask Mayana to pose that way, she came up with that all by herself…

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This was a gorgeous quilt panel that was given to me about three years ago. I had no idea what to do with it until I glimpsed a cute alphabet book on Pinterest and felt a flash of inspiration. I’m so happy with it! I love the colours and illustrations of this fabric, and I think this was a good use for it.

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And finally this little experiment. My first foray into proper patchwork. Also inspired by Pinterest (don’t you just love that place!). It’s a little bit wonky but I’m pretty proud of my first attempt. I really enjoyed doing this, and learned a lot along the way. I have an idea of what I’m going to do with it but I’m not totally sure just yet… you and I both will just have to wait and see!

So I am LOVING my new machine, and the world of possibilities it has opened up for me. I’m really enjoying creating so many things lately – not just sewing but crochet too. I’ll have to do a post about that sometime soon because I’ve been challenging myself a lot with designing things and making my own patterns and I’m really excited by it.

Do you have a creative outlet? I’m the sort of person who dabbles in just about anything, I’m not happy unless my hands are busy. What projects do you want to tackle next?

2 comments:

  1. Your patchwork looks great! I LOVE Maysi's skirt. It is so wonderful with the high waist - very stylish! And your skirt looks great too! I definitely want to get into some sewing when I get home.

    I have one big question though - when do you find the time to do it? I feel like I never have enough time for creative things!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks T!!
      I do it.. when I can! Reuben still has two big sleeps a day which is helpful. And for his afternoon sleep I settle Mayana with an independent activity or ask her to have a rest too and I get things done then. Otherwise I do it at night when they are in bed. Pete puts something to watch on the iPad and comes and sits next to me so we still get to spend time together.
      If I could I'd do creative things all the time. I guess parenting is a pretty creative thing to be doing though!

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Thank you!!

 

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