The Course That Kicked It All Off

 

For my 30th birthday, my husband bought me a sewing machine.  

I was asking for it. 

No, literally, I actually asked him for it – it’s not like he was trying to drop hints about my level of domesticity or anything.  Sorry, cheap gag.  There’s more where that came from I’m afraid…

So shortly after that, I went on a sewing course with Ministry of Craft in Manchester.

And shortly after that, I spent half my wages and filled half our loft with fabrics and trimmings from our local sewing mecca, Abakhan.

I do have a tendency to throw myself at hobbies somewhat over-enthusiastically, and our loft is littered with the relics of pastimes swiftly thrown aside once I got a) bored, b) found I didn’t have enough time for or c) found I was actually pretty rubbish at.  The ice skates, shall we say, may be staying up there for a while. 

And I don’t usually make New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I found myself drawn to setting a crafty challenge, and here it is.

So over the course of 2011, I plan to make 50 things. Could be anything, but hopefully a good proportion will involve my sewing machine.  Initially I was going to make 100 things, but I figured that even by my standards that might be a little overambitious, particularly given I have both a baby daughter and a full time job.

You’ll be able to see the fruits of my labours here on this blog, my first real foray into blogging (please be gentle!).  I’ll try and share photos and a bit of an explanation of how I made it, and welcome comments and suggestions of things I can make and do. 

Now I should warn you that despite what my Virgo star sign would have you believe, I am far from a perfectionist, and I am also far from being a talented seamstress .  So most of these things will probably be knocked up in an evening, with at least a little reckless disregard for patterns or technique.  But who knows, perhaps I’ll pick these up as I go along – again, comments, tips and suggestions are more than welcome in an effort to smooth out my learning curve!

The picture at the top of this post is the craft project from the course that kicked it all off, which later became Christmas presents for my two lovely nieces in America.  The course was in Free Machine Embroidery, which leant itself perfectly to my laissez-faire approach to detail.  It’s not MEANT to look perfect, which probably sets the tone for things to come…

Wish me luck!