New Sewing Machine

For Christmas I requested a sewing machine which surprised my husband a bit but he joined forces with my inlaws and we went shopping and found a sewing machine in our budget.  It sat around in its box for about 2 weeks while the bedlam went around me and then it came out and I have been so happy and excited by it I have been sewing away.

Here was my first crafty item I made.  A crayon roll, I had made a couple in the past so had had some practice and I was pleased how well this one turned out.  Plain but useful.  Here are some blogs that show you how to make it Nested  and  The Pleated Poppy

Project 2 I cannot show yet as I have not gifted it yet.  I am pleased with how it turned out, very easy and I made less mistakes making it then I did making project 3.

Project 3 is still a work in progress but here is today’s part of the journey.

I have a pile of old sleeping bags the children have outgrown which are not in good enough shape to regift but I didn’t want to throw them out as they hold such good memories (part of me wants the ones that have gone out the door back now I have things to make out of them – anyway I digress) so I was thinking what could I make out of them that was simple.

SO what do I do?  I go to google.  I wanted to make a cat and found lots of great ideas but some required things I didn’t have (quilt foot) so I found this cute little thing –  Hedgehog softie and I tried my hand at tweaking it my way.

Attempt 1

I forgot to leave the opening in the right place (the middle) and instead left it down the bottom, I also put the ears on the inside not the outside and forgot to sew on the facial features and put the pocket in upside down so now there are 2 pockets.  I sewed it close without stuffing it.  Perhaps I can use it for my ipod?

Attempt 2

This one I forgot the pocket, one ear didn’t get sewn in properly and not sure what else went wrong – the face was ok but did it in white so it doesn’t really show up.  Oh yeah and I seem to keep pinning the templet upside down on ALL my attempts!  You think I would learn – I put the face on the patterned bit and the body on the plain so when I am sewing and halfway through I realise so I start improvising!

OK Attempt 3 which has a few too many mistakes but Emily loves it and straight away took it and started cuddling – even before I finished sewing it up.

She looks pretty happy with it, she took it to bed so there is no close up which is just as well.  So I finally sewed on the face in different colours, tried to do it on the machine but didn’t work so well so I ended up hand sewing the mouth.  I now realise why the pocket is double up material and should be put on upside down.  The tail didn’t get sewn on while I was sewing it together so I ended up sewing it on when I was sewing up the close after stuffing ( I also tried doing this on the machine as was too lazy to do it by hand – next time DO BY HAND!)

But it is soft, squashy, lovable. I wish I had a photo of Emily wearing the sleeping bag now to put next to it 😉