In the Loop...

Just call me Susie Homemaker. I finally used my sewing machine tonight (see In Lieu of Flowers...). I had already taken a few steps towards the pincushion by watching part of the set-up DVD, reading through some pages of my sewing book, and clearing a workspace. But, tonight I made that pincushion a reality. It was harder than I thought it would be, but in the end, I’m quite happy with my finished product. Of course, no project is complete without a few bobbles along the way.

The pincushion journey started when I cracked open this book I bought a while back called Sew Everything Workshop by Diana Rupp. It’s a pretty cool book complete with a step-by-step guide to sewing for beginners as well as a set of patterns. The book is very thorough; it carefully describes how to set up a workspace, choose a machine, select fabrics, and much more.

I’m not sure why, but I thought a pincushion was the easiest project. Not so my friends. The easiest project is a white tea towel stitched with varying colorful stitches. That is where I should have started, but I promised you a pincushion. So, I skipped a few steps to get to the good stuff. Just for the record, my next project will be that tea towel. I intend to go back and read the book thoroughly cover-to-cover.

The actual sewing of the fabric wasn’t very hard. Setting up the machine took forever (like 40 minutes). I started by winding some thread on the bobbin that goes inside the machine, which serves as the bottom thread. I honestly had no idea that there were two different threads. After a little time and some searching, I got that bobbin inside the machine. Next, I started the top thread. After a bunch of twists and turns (a lot like a roller coaster), I threaded the needle. The top thread somehow loops down into the bottom thread. This is what caused me the most headache. I just couldn’t get that bottom thread to come up. After some probing, I realized I had taken too many twists and turns on that roller coaster. So, I back-tracked a minute and got it all straightened out. The thread was finally where it needed to be, so I poorly cut my 4” fabric squares and pinned them together inside-out. Next, I got to stitching, flipped that sucker inside out, and stuffed it. After a little hand stitching, my cute little pincushion was complete. I stabbed the pillow full of pins and admired my creation!

After all, if the pins are missing, it’s just a tiny pillow…