Learning New Things

I'm happiest when I am learning. Especially right now, as happy as I am with my life and the baby, there are parts of my day that are monotonous. Like picking up the same toys for the gazillionth time. Yeah. Washing those dishes. How do we manage to dirty so many of them every day? Blah.

This is how/why I have submerged myself into the world of sewing. It is really the perfect creative outlet- there is almost never anything that I am doing that I can't drop at a moment's notice to change a diaper or read a book with the baby, and the 5 minutes here and there that I manage to snatch add up to new clothes over the course of days and sometimes weeks. It's a good trade off. I have to say, though, that just as much as having something new that I made to wear, I enjoy the learning process and adding new and exciting(!) skills to my cache. Each day I am becoming more comfortable with the machines themselves- I think taking apart and reassembling parts of my Singer 66 has contributed to that. I am also beginning to trust my ability to work things out. I am sure there are more mistakes in my sewing future, but that is because I am not relegating myself to square pillows. It's onward and upward for me!

Yeeaah! That is my first bound buttonhole. I am working on Simplicity something-or-other, a sixties pattern for a suit that includes a simple shell that buttons up the back. The directions instruct you to make bound buttonholes. In one sentence. Like it's that easy. Just "make bound buttonholes." My first thought was, "It's a simple shell. Why the hell would I go to all that trouble?" And the answer is because I don't know how to make bound buttonholes. Or should I say "didn't." And it was high time for me to learn. So, I did! This was the first, and the two practice buttonholes after that came out awfully! Then the fourth was okay, and the fifth okay too. So I have done three out of five on my shirt back, and they are all okay! I don't want to puke just looking at them! The gouge-y thing the thread basting has done to my blouse fabric, now that is another story...

Oh well. At least it's on the back of the blouse, right? 

In thrifty news, I found a little baggy of patterns at a local antique mall the other day and they were pretty cheap! It was labeled as "patterns from the 1960s," but had two patterns from the forties, two from the fifties, and two more from the sixties! I will be passing these pretties along (I know, I said that about the box of two hundred and I have barely listed any of those! I need to get to work!) via eBay and Etsy, so if you are on the look out for some vintage pattern deals, check back from time to time. Ta ta for now!