I Made a Thing!

No particular reason. I just wanted to. I want to become more comfortable sewing things, so I figured a pouch would be a good excuse to get behind a sewing machine. I used this tutorial from Very Shannon (but got a tip on how to do the zipper in two swipes instead of four. I could do it again, but I can't explain it).

It did the trick! I now feel pretty comfortable with the sewing machine at my local yarn/sewing shop (It's a super fancy one, too!). If the desire to make my Washi Dress strikes sooner than my mother's sewing machine arrives in my possession, I feel confident that I can camp out at the shop and get it done.

It took me three hours to make. I would imagine that that's a long time for something so small? John was depending on me to take him home, but it was difficult for me to gauge how long this would take (thank goodness he had lots of reading to do!). I thought an hour or two. Of course, the fact that I cannot measure correctly or cut straight or sew straight or follow directions doesn't help!

I bought some super cheap fat quarters at JoAnn's and decided not to worry about perfection or economy. I'm happy I made that decision. I tend to be perfectionist about new things. I only took out two seams. One was because I forgot to reset my basting stitch back to a normal stitch and also didn't sew very straight and the other was because I forgot to leave myself a hole to turn everything right-side out. It's a little home-ec.-y, but I'm still proud of it. I'm really glad I set out to make a small project by myself before trying the dress. I would have made a huge mess of that thing. I might try a few other small projects before the dress just so I feel more confident or to cut me down a bit if I'm feeling over-confident.

I also made this really cute owl for my office-mate's new son. Here is the project page with all the details so I don't end up with a book here. John insists I make another, so there will be a post about an identical owl in the future. ;)

Are you knitting along with the Olympics? I'll share my projects next week, but I'm curious what you are making! Or have made! Links to your blog posts are always welcome. :)