finally sewing

When my Grandma Leila passed away in January, I asked if I could "inherit" her sewing machine. I have many happy memories of sewing with Grandma throughout my life and now I'm ready to try some projects on my own. Grandma was always gracious about letting me sew some of my own things on her machine and I thought it would be no problem for me to jump in and start sewing! However, I realized once I had the machine in my house that while I was allowed to sew seams on my own, Grandma always had the needle threaded and the bobbin wound before I showed up to "help." I've had the machine in my possession since May, but it took a couple of months for me to find the time and patience to sit down with the instruction manual and figure out how to set things up, but I finally did it!

There are quite a few projects from the RVA Autumn class that require the use of a sewing machine so I've been sadly putting them off. But Leila has been taking longer afternoon naps lately so on Friday I found myself with a couple of breast milk and poop-free hours and I spent them with my (new-to-me) sewing machine.

I found an already-loaded bobbin in Grandma's supply chest, so that saved one big step. Once I followed the instructions to thread the machine and the tiny needle, I found some scraps of material that I'd saved from the embroidery hoop frame project and ran some test rows of stitches. So far so good!

I was feeling pretty confident now so decided to dive right into an actual project! I can't tell you what it is (never know who could be reading this and Christmas is right around the corner ...) but let's just say it's for a "domesticated lady." I was able to get one half of the project done before Leila woke up and finished the rest of it during Saturday nap-time. I am so thrilled with the finished product! I know the recipient will love it ... here's just a sneak peak :)

And something else fun - I found the sales receipt in with the instruction manual and other brochures for the sewing machine and realized that my Grandma bought it just a few weeks after I was born! That means that this is the machine she used to sew dresses for me and my dolls when I was little. And now I'll use it to sew dresses and doll clothes for my little Leila.