Sewing 101

Okay, so the cake was a hit at the party. At the last minute, I finely crushed some pecans and covered the pink frosting area so none of it showed anymore. Everyone ooohhh and aaaahed when the waiter brought it out after dinner, so I guess it looked good enough. I am sure the dim lighting and the candle helped. Everyone thought it tasted really good and not too sweet, since I did use less sugar. One disturbing thing that happened was that the wait staff helped themselves to the cake without asking us first. I thought that was pretty rude. Someone said that there was 3 slices leftover after all the guests were served, they gave us one extra slice and kept the other 2. I saw them merrily chomping away at my cake. We decided not to say anything and offered the last slice to our waiter. My friend said that perhaps I should take it as a compliment. (We ate at Kum Gang San, a Korean barbecue restaurant on 32nd Street. Be forewarned that they might eat some of your cake if you bring one).

Last weekend, I got to play with my Hello Kitty Sewing Machine again. I am still teaching myself to sew and I have been pretty happy with my efforts.
I made this pin cushion with a piece of scrap cotton for the top and craft felt for the bottom. The scrap of button fabric came from reprodepot.com, it was a freebie they enclosed with my order.

Travel Pouch, from Last-Minute Fabric Gifts. I am so thrilled with the results of this pouch. For someone who is a beginner sewer, I am not sure what made me think that I could sew a zipper. In my mind, a zipper would be a very advanced project. I had consumed a large amount of caffeine and it was 12am on Saturday night. I was wired and wanted a challenge.I followed the instructions very carefully and reread things 2-4 times since I got confused at times and was so scared I would make a mistake. BUT, everything worked out. I sewed a ZIPPER!!! I felt like I conquered something huge! I was giddy as I ran downstairs to show DH and demonstrate my zipper by zipping and unzipping it. He was playing with his new X-Box 360 Elite and managed to pull himself away from the TV screen to look at my zipper sewing. I realized that it was just a tube of fabric with a zipper, so it may not look too impressive yet, so I went back upstairs to assemble the pouch together. It was a bit nerve wracking when I had to cut the zipper because I had never done that before, but the rest of it came together pretty easily. I used a Japanese cotton fabric that has little Fugus (blow fish) on it. The inside is lined with a medium weight solid color cotton fabric. This project is listed under the 1-2 hour project category in the book, but it was a 4-5 hour project for me. I learned so much making this pouch and the end result was totally worth it.

I haven't gotten enough courage to make my first quilt yet. Not quite sure what is stopping me, but it's probably a mental thing. Instead, I decided to sign up for my first sewing class at Purl Patchwork. I am taking Introduction to Machine Piecing and Quilting. We will be making a baby sized quilt. I am so excited!



Recent fabric purchases from Etsy seller, Starlit Nest.