March 1, 2013

This week has been both awesome for my project, and completely and utterly terrible.

• What I liked:
• I made a lot of cool stuff
• 3 pillows with zippers
• A tote bag
• A sweater for my dog
• A sweater for Andrew's cat
• I've made friends with the worker-ladies at Joann Fabric
• I have something to do when I get bored
• I am getting better!
• In the next few weeks I will probably start making CLOTHES! Wooooo

• What I did not like
• My sewing machine broke on Tuesday
• I couldn't work on anything from Tuesday to Thursday
• I have many battle wounds from my attempts at fixing the machine
• fixing it was possibly the most frustrating thing I've ever had to deal with

I feel like I've made a lot of progress this week and even though I don't really have any talent when it comes to anything artistic, I have actually made it at least look like I know what I'm doing.

Although a majority of this week was a success, I also had a big obstacle. On Tuesday I ran out of thread on my bobbin (the thread thing on the bottom). I attempted to take it out to add more thread and about 16 different pieces fell out of the sewing machine. Of course. After about an hour or so of trying to fit the pieces back together, I was at the point where I was ripping things in half out of anger, slamming things down on the table out of frustration, and accidentally stabbing myself in the finger with screwdrivers. But thank goodness Caroline's mom was there to save the day. She came over and fixed it like 2 minutes flat, and although I felt like a complete moron, it saved a lot of time and REALLY helped. So shoutout to Sandy!

I've learned a lot of basic sewing things this week like sewing hems, putting in zippers, sewing on straps, sizing, and much more. To do this I've been watching a ton of Youtube videos and found a great website to learn the basics and progress with more difficult projects. If you are ever looking to start sewing definitely check this out >>> http://www.marthastewart.com/275336/sewing-basics/@center/326405/sewing-projects

This week I am going to attempt to make pajama pants, which is probably going to very difficult, but I'm excited to see how they turn out! Wish me luck!

February 21, 2013

For my genius project, I've decided to do a mix of fashion design and sewing. I really like this project because no matter how many times I've tried to pursue clothes designing, I have failed. This is probably because I have a broken sewing machine and a lack of talent.

I'm excited to get started on this because if I actually do end up improving, then hopefully by the end I will have some new clothes without having to spend as much money. My grandma was the inspiration for this interest in fashion. I used to sit down with her and watch her sew and I was always very interested but I was always too young or talentless to do it myself.

I will probably start off by doing simple things like sewing straight lines or making a pillow and as each week goes by I'll attempt to create more difficult things. Hopefully by the 4th week or so I will start to make my final product, making a shirt the first week, then a skirt, and so on. I'm a little nervous that this isn't going to work out since I have almost no experience with sewing and my goal is to make a wearable outfit.......... I have pretty high expectations for myself and I know from past experience that I don't have a lot of talent when it comes to artistic things, but I'm hoping everything works out!

As of right now I've just been doing research, hoping to find some good websites or books for tutorials. I've found a few cool websites for outfit patterns, but I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I should probably learn how to actually use my sewing machine before planning to make these elaborate outfits.

I'm hoping to learn different aspects of sewing each week. For example, the first week I could focus on the basics of the sewing machine, such as different stitches that can be used. The next week I might focus more on learning how to sew the hem on things, and so on.

Hopefully within the next few days I will get all my materials together and finally start learning! yay