Quick Stitches

Sewing the Bias Tape

One of my new year's resolutions was to sew more and since Jan first I've managed to finish four - yes four! sewing projects.

For being one of the slowest sewers I know,  this is unheard of.

There are two main contributions to my productivity

  1. I bought a 6-foot folding table, which means I no longer has to do all my fabric cutting/set up on the floor. I also means I can leave my stuff out instead of having to pack it up between sewing sessions (thanks to a very gracious Mr. Cleaver, since my sewing nook is in our bedroom).
  2. I have embraced the quick & dirty sewing project.

I'll admit that I have a strong preference for garment sewing over craft sewing, particularly if that garment comes with a large number of pintucks/pleats/darts/gathers/buttonholes or other lovely details that inevitably make the project take forever. That said, of the four projects only one was a garment (which I'll post about in a few days - let's just say today is my MIL's birthday and we're celebrating later in the week due to the crazy weather we're having).

The other included a cheery bunting and table runner set for my pie potluck.

Triangles all made!

The bunting was roughly based on this tutorial, while the table runner was improvised to use up all (and I mean all) the scraps from the bunting project. The with the runner I threw my perfectionist tendencies to the wind and eyeballed and zig-zagged my way to a cute little decoration.

Table Runner

My quickest project was this 5-minute flower brooch I whipped up last night on a whim and that totally brightened my day today as I wore it.

Gingham Brooch

Of course all this rapid-fire sewing wasn't without its trials: I broke my seam ripper a few weeks back, so any undoing was a challenge and there was a lot of undoing because my sewing machine seems to be firmly set against doing anything other than a straight stitch in a forward direction - any attempts to back stitch or zig-zag generally were followed with bobbin-rethreading and mild curses.

I'd take any recommendations for possible repairs, but this may be a sign that it's time for me to upgrade from my little $78 dollar sewing machine. So I'll also take any sewing machine recommendations. :)

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