Guest Blogger: Erato

So while Clio is (was) in the UK, I was invited to guest blog about my first sewing project!!! So here goes:

If you’ve been following Clio’s blog she’s already posted pictures of the pattern we were working on to make our pajamas. If not, you can read about it here and see the fabric we used here.

Sunday was the day we had set aside to really make some progress on our project. We had previously traced and cut out our pattern, added seven inches in length to the legs of my pants, (Yes, seven!) pressed the fabric and pinned the pattern to the fabric. We met for a quick dim sum and then got to work.

Now it didn’t seem like a lot to do or very complicated. Cut out fabric, sew the four pieces together (two pieces for each leg) add elastic and hem. Now, I should have been tipped off to how tricky this would be from my previous lessons. For example, pressing the fabric doesn’t mean ironing it. It means picking up the iron and pressing it down on the fabric to get out all the wrinkles, not sliding the iron along the fabric to get them out. I after about four or five hours hard at work okay, there may have been quite a bit of gabbing, gossiping and caffeinating) I was burnt out. We decided to wrap up after I had completely fudged my elastic casing and all of my stitches had to be ripped out. We left the pants still needing elastic and hems.

Monday I got home, still feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sewing fest from the day before. There had been so much to remember and I was still a bit discouraged by my elastic casing. So I puttered around the house avoiding the project until I really had a chance to see how much work we had done and how little was left. I decided to give it another shot and was pleasantly surprised when 45 minutes later I was wearing my new pjs!

All done sewing and ready to hit the hay.
Notice the lack of visible ankle!!!

I haven’t told Clio this, yet, but I was so proud and excited of my Pjs, on Wednesday I came home from work and made a bag for my shoes. I carry my real shoes with me to work in my purse and wear my Fit Flops. This used to mean I had a pair of shoes in a plastic Rite Aid bag in my purse at all times. Now I have cute little sack with handles to put in my purse. No more crinkly plastic bag sound every time I take out my wallet.

Bag, purse, shoes.

I winged it, so I wasn’t sure what stitches to use for the handles and despite my best efforts it may be a bit trapezoidal, but I got in some good practice and it does the job it was made for. Hopefully when Clio is back we can hit the fabric store again and help me pick out a nice easy pattern for my next project!