And the Sewing Begins!

I DID IT!  I started sewing!  To say I was nervous was an understatement but I persevered!  I began by winding my bobbin again with black thread, and then threading the machine.  This was much easier than the last time I did it and needed no assistance via videos!  I was proud (proof I’ve actually learned something in this)!  After finishing the cutting stage, I needed to pin all my shirts and material together – shirt, black flannel, plaid flannel.  The goal was to purposely mismatch the flannel pieces so that it doesn’t HAVE to be perfect when I sew it together.  If it is purposely mismatched, then less mistakes can be made!

I finished cutting.  Now I had to pin!  Thank goodness, my mom showed up to help!!

However, as I began the sewing process, it began clear that it didn’t matter if I tried to mismatch them or not, the plaid is square and it matches anyways.  Just the colours of the lines don’t line up and I am fine with that!  I think it creates character, and I really did not feel like attempting to line up the plaid in a way that matched on the whole quilt.  That would take much too much patience, planning, and perfectionism for this girl!

After sewing together 3 rows of squares and realizing the pattern on the back with almost always line up despite my effort to have them not line up…

So on I went, pinning my squares together.  After a couple, my mother showed up to assist me in the process and to hang out with me while I sewed.  She is just as interested in this project as I am at this point.  My mom helped me pin the shirts to the flannel and after a while, we fell into a pattern of her pinning the shirts together, while I sewed the squares.  I am actually impressed with how easily I managed this week.  I watched this video for a refresher on using the sewing machine and to help me sew the corners, and then I was set!  I have used a sewing machine before, so I understood how the whole thing works, so I just needed a little reminder on the basics.  I knew I needed to create 1-inch seams (as decided previously) around my shirts, so I had a lot of room for error.  It was nice to have that reassurance, and after the first couple of shirts, I was rolling.  Sewing, pulling out pins as I went, lifting the foot, making sure the needle stayed in, turning my material, and continuing to sew.  My lines were even straight thanks to my painter’s tape I had placed on the machine to keep me in line!

I managed to get through three rows of shirts rather quickly, thanks to my mom’s help of pinning the shirts!  I hope to finish the other three rows this week and then begin the real task of sewing it all together!!  I’ll have to check out some resources for how to sew the seams together, without going over the ruffles I’ve created.  I might also have to trim the edges of my squares…I don’t know if I want 1-inch ruffles all the way along the quilt yet or not, so that will be this week’s task!

What do you think?  Should I keep 1-inch ruffles or downsize?  Keep in mind, this means more cutting for me…