My favourite notion and the lies that we can get told

Now, to be entirely honest, as a new sewist, I had no idea what a notion was.  After my last sewing course was slightly ruined by the very annoying teacher that spent more time talking about her child than teaching us anything, I got a bit hooked on Craftsy courses.  I can sit and watch them in bed on my iPad and they're really very good for refreshing your memory when you get stuck, and some of them are very cheap.  And the perks of not having to endure the torture of discussing possible secondary school options for a child that is only currently 8 months old.

I spotted a course that looked interesting that was about notions, so I went for it.  At the moment, I'm going for courses that look interesting and picking up a load of tips and tricks.  Well, it was well worth it because I discovered a lot!  Unfortunately it now means that I have a list of things that I want to buy that's as long as my arm, but for some very useful gadgets.  I had absolutely no idea that tailors chalk could come in mechanical pencil form (I LOVE a mechanical pencil!) and something called a magnetic seam guide.  The seam guide on my machine is pretty good as standard seam guides go, but I figured that extra help couldn't be a bad thing.

So, if you're not aware, the magnetic seam guide is a little block of metal with a magnet in the bottom.  You can place the magnet onto your metal plate seam guide on the correct line.  So as here, I wanted a 5/8th in. seam, so I put it against that line.

Now, to the aforementioned lies.  When I first got my sewing machine, I noticed that stitch one was to the left, and stitch two was in the centre.  Using my instinct, I decided to use stitch one for main sewing.  When I went on my last course (with the overly motherly teacher), I took my machine with me so I could get to know it a bit more, and she told me I was doing it wrong.  Stitch one was for zips as it was over to the left, and stitch two was for normal stitching as it was in the centre and stitch one was for zips as it was to the left.  So I went about my sewing using her advice.  It was against my instinct, but she was the experienced one.

A few fairly minor projects went by, and then I started a cushion.  Now I'd made a mistake on this cushion when marking it out, I marked it too small, I'd forgotten to put the seam allowance on, so I corrected it.  Which meant that I had a mark 5/8th in. on the fabric.  I had my new magnetic seam guide and decided to give it a whirl, put it on correct line.  Put the fabric in, butt it up against the seam guide, stitch set on stitch two, and noticed it...  The needle wasn't near the line.  So my instinct gave me a tap on the shoulder.  "How about you try stitch one?" it whispered to me.  So I flicked the dial to stitch one, and the needle moved to exactly where the line was on the fabric.  So therein lies the moral of this story.  Sewing machines are very varied, and while the teacher might know an awful lot about an awful lot of things, they might not know the intricacies of your exact machine.

Luckily, I'd not done any harm.  The dress that I had just started, I'd only just finished the outside of the bodice, so it was just a case just running over it again with the correct seam allowance.  The dress has princess seams, so 1/8th of an inch difference over six seams ends up to be quite significant over the entire garment.  Thankfully I'd messed up the marking up of the cushion!!

Hopefully news on the finished dress soon :)

Wrap up on sewing projects so far (part 2)

So, part 2 on my recap of the sewing projects that I've done up until now.

Dressmaking Course - Crafts Bee in Beckenham
Made this rather snazzy dress. Unfortunately it's absolutely huge on me because I'm quite large chested and the course was only how to make a dress, not how to make one that fits you properly!  The waist really needs some taking in, but hopefully I should be able to take it in soon so it fits.

Cat bed for Newt
I had some extra material from a beanbag project that I'm working on (post to come later when I actually finish it, soon hopefully!)
I cut out a couple of ovals, and a couple of inch wide strip that went round the circumference of the ovals, sewed them together and filled with beanbag beans.

Even fitted my first zip without any assistance!

My cat, Newt seemed really quite pleased with her new bed  :)

With any luck, my next post should be a proper one, as I should be nearly finished with the beanbag.  Fingers crossed! :)

Wrap up on sewing projects so far (part 1)

I've not really had this blog in mind when starting out with sewing, so a lot of the photos are of end projects rather than step by step. So I'm going to do a quick run on my projects so far:

Beginners Sewing Course - Crafts Bee in Beckenham

Cute little cushion as a starter

Awesome tote bag that I adore and use everyday

And it has an interior Hulk pocket (not a pocket for a Hulk, but a pocket with Hulk on)

First sewing machine project at home

Sewing Room Curtains

Wrist Pin Cushion

I got the kit from eBay but the material wasn't to my taste, so used a Kath Kidston fabric from Ikea

Sewing Machine Cover

Ironing Board Cover (can you spot my sewing room theme yet?)

One more wrap up, then I should be all caught up :)