Second sewing machine adventure of the year

Here is my greatest recent accomplishment:

A hem. It's not much to brag about, except that it's the only thing I've gotten finished in what feels like a very long time.

I ended up making this dress shorter by over three inches, so it was definitely necessary - obviously I bought it knowing it would be unwearable if I didn't hem it. After dithering for many weeks after buying it, I decided that yes, I wanted to try to do it myself rather than taking it to a dry cleaner. A little bit of research led me to believe that the best approach, with my very simple sewing machine, was to use the reinforced straight stitch and a jersey needle. And, it worked! It's still got enough stretch that I don't think the hem is going to break, and it's exactly the length I wanted, and it's even. What a surprise!

(Mostly) finished product!

This is how I spent my Saturday afternoon. Now my bag is finished! I'm very happy with how it turned out, over all. I decided to lengthen the straps by a few inches, because I knew I wouldn't use a bag that I couldn't carry on my shoulder. I also added an inch to the height of the bag... but failed to account for that when I was sewing the straps down, so I had to do a little hand-work to make it looked like I wanted it to. I was really disappointed when I realized what I did, because my moment of "oh my god, I sewed something perfectly!" turned out to be so short-lived (and incorrect). But I'm okay with it now. I'm still considering taking it back to the height the pattern meant it to be (hence mostly finished product), but for now I'm letting it sit and I'll see what I think about that in a few more days.

Here it is!

This is the height that it will be if I correct my mistake/failed alteration. I feel like maybe the proportion of different fabrics looks better this way, but I'm not positive.

I just love the way these three look together.

Bag preview!

I spent the afternoon sewing a mock-up of this six-pocket bag pattern from Better Homes and Gardens.

This was the stuff that made me hate sewing when I was younger: all the preliminary work, the measuring, the pressing and unfolding and re-pressing. Sewing is too mathematical and unforgiving for me, but every now and then I really want to make something. My mom, whose hobby of choice is sewing, taught me the basics and tried to get me to understand "measure twice, cut once." I hated that saying.

Now that I'm a little older and slightly wiser, I can admit that it's probably better to take your time and end up with something nice, than finish as fast as possible but be disappointed with what you made. It also helps that the fabric I'll be using was bought for me in Japan, so if I mess it up, there's no going to the store to buy more AND I'll be ruining something that was meant as a present!

I'm very proud of myself for getting through a complete mock-up. I'm not even sure this is the pattern I'll end up using - I will at least increase the size by about 10%, if I do - but I'm so excited that in three and a half hours of work (including a whole range of setbacks and confusion about everything from how to thread my sewing machine to OMG MY NEEDLE BROKE) I have this little proto-bag.

By the way, I know I made a mistake with the raw edges on the exterior pockets. It was an obvious mistake but, yes, it's another reason why it's good to make a mock-up first. Mom was right (as usual).