05.04.10 - my first attempt at sewing

I have sewed before. I do know how to use a sewing machine. Basically.. Okay, okay, I took home ec once in 8th grade, but I think that's still better than nothing! Anyways, apparently I thought this was enough to get me by, but alas it was not. So here's a recap of my weekend:

Saturday: woke up to leave town and noticed a garage sale going on next door. HAD to check it out, obviously. Found a SEWING MACHINE FOR $10!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's TEN buckaroos. I immediately claimed it and started looking through the $1 clothes rack. I found an old muumuu type dress that had a cute pattern, hoped it would fit decently enough, and bought it. Left town 10 minutes later. Therefore, I did NOT get to play with my new toy until Monday..

Sunday: spent the day in San Antonio with Joel's family. Secretly wished I was back home to start my sewing project.

Monday: drove back to Lubbock. Spent the entire ride wishing I didn't have an officer meeting for my sorority bc I really wanted to play with my toy.

Monday night: FINALLY broke out the sewing machine! After taking a good look at it, I realized it is much older and in much worse condition that I originally realized. I think the excitedness of finding a sewing machine for $10 somehow made it look 20x better than it actually is. Here's a pic of the old girl.

Helloooooo 30 year old sewing machine!
 
I started by trying on the old muumuu. Please ignore the facial expression (I was talking to my sis on the couch) and the hair (I'd been traveling all day).

Luckily, it fit PERFECTLY in the shoulders! This was awesome because I really don't know what I would have done if it didn't (since I'm not a true life seamstress like Miss Marisa over at New Dress a Day whose blog I have become obsessed with). I was planning to chop off the length, add a belt/sash, change the neckline, and add pockets. BUT I discovered that it already has pockets! Awesome. My sister gave me the idea of making it a tank top dress, which I think is a fab idea. I was going to wait until I got a seam ripper, but those sleeves just had to go! Looks like I'll need to do some touch up work on the sleeve hem area..

Say goodbye to a good 7" of length!

And say hello to my new belt/sash :)

Next, I pinned down the hem and the new neckline.

Normally, the next step would be to sew down the new hems. Not for me. Instead, I replaced the pins with safety pins. You see, the regular pins kept pricking me when I would try on my new dress, and this was just not acceptable.

The hems still need to be sewed down, but for now, simply being ironed down is a-okay with me :)


And here's the (mostly) finished product! Still have to sew down the hems, but that seems like a minor detail at this point :)

Also, see that flower in my hair? That's a headband I made last night. I know it doesn't match but I like it so it stays :)