Sunday, September 7, 2014

Sewing Adventures

Last weekend, we went shopping for a new sewing machine.  I was hoping for a Janome, but due to the dealer being closed for the holiday weekend, I ended up at a great sewing store where I fell in love with the Husqvarna Viking Opal 670.



Since bringing the machine home, I've been a bit zealous.  Once I started feeling confident with using the machine, I decided to use my enthusiasm to learn some of the techniques that are rumored to be challenging or seem interesting and advanced to me.  First up, elastic.




I decided to make a plastic bag holder to hang in the kitchen instead of just having a bundle of bags hanging around.  The only problem I experienced was that the safety pin I used to pull the elastic through the casing ripped out just as I got it through the very end.  Fortunately I caught it with my fingers and I didn't have to redo that piece.  I put the end a little further inward for the second piece of elastic.  With this success under my belt, I moved on to buttonholes.




I didn't actually have anything to put a button hole in, so I just took a scrap of fabric and had at it. Other than my initial surprise of the machine sewing the first line backwards to set the length of the button hole, which went past the edge of my fabric, I thought the process was great.  A bit of adjusting the placement for the buttonhole led me to success.

After so much success with my new machine, I decided to get really brave.  My next attempt was going to utilize a pattern and a zipper.






I'm still somewhat astounded by how well this bag came out.  I did get confused with what to cut out for one of the pattern pieces, but once I went to use the piece I was able to figure it out and cut it the way it needed to be.  As for the zipper, I tried to follow the patterns directions, but ended up ripping out the stitches.  I looked at some tutorials online, and decided to try one of those methods.  All in all, I like the way the zipper fit into the bag, but I've made some notes with a few things to try changing up for the next zippered bag I make.  Particularly to stop stitching further away from the zipper pull, so I don't break a needle again.  I'm chalking it up to just another sewing experience accomplished.







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