My very first sewing machine!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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I’m getting my very first sewing machine in three weeks time – yay :slight_smile:

A little background – I don’t know how to sew.

I failed the sewing part of home economics at high school.

My mum has bought herself and new sewing machine and has decided that due to my impeding motherhood I should now learn to sew, thus she is sending me her old machine.

Luckily I share a house with my SIL who loves to sew and has lots of friends who love to sew, hopefully together they should be able to make the machine work and teach me what to do.

The machine I am getting is a Husqvara Orchidea and from mums description sounds mighty impressive, more bells and whistles than you can poke a stick at.

It does embroidery which is very cool, my SIL suggested we could label our towels so we know who’s is who’s. I thought I might label the cleaning rag’s B for bathroom and K for kitchen.

What else can I do? This is very exciting – NEW TOY :smiley:

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oh wow congrats! i have a sears kenmore sewing machine which i like, i mainly use it for alterations. right now im altering my leather pants and am quite pleased that i havent broken the needle yet. but yours does embroidery? thats neat it must have lots of bells and whistles then. :slight_smile:

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What else can you do? What else can you doooooo? The lady who is pregnant (yes?) gets a brand-new sewing machine that does embroidery and asks, what else can you do?

Geeeeeeeez… " :rolleyes: "

:smiley:

Um, hint–baby quilt? Wall hangings? Cute lil bibs?

Google “baby quilt pattern” and stand back. A baby quilt doesn’t have to be a fully-stuffed “puffy” quilt–it can be as simple as a sandwich made of two layers of cloth, one of which is embroidered with your choice of Husqvarna embroidery motifs, with a layer of flannel in the middle instead of quilt batting, which tends to be hard to cram under the presser foot anyway.

Sample website.
http://www.freequiltpatterns.info/

Google “baby wall hanging pattern” and stand back.

Same idea as baby quilt, only you hang it on the wall, and can be much more free-form (Winnie the Pooh, zoo animals, etc.)

Google “baby bibs pattern” and stand back. Yes, you do use them, when you start feeding solid foods, they aren’t just for 1950s sitcoms.

And something I did with my sewing machine was make crib mattress pads out of a couple of old full-size mattress pads. You know, the white puffy absorbent things you put under the sheet. It simplifies Life With Baby enormously to have more than one or two of these, and they want $$$ at the store for the ready-made fitted ones. Cut up an old garage-sale full-size mattress pad into suitable size chunks (don’t worry about elastic fitted corners to keep it in position, Baby won’t move around that much), sew “bias tape” in your choice of colors around the edges to keep it from raveling (available at Wal-Mart or any sewing/hobby store–it’s just a half-inch wide fabric tape, says “Bias Tape” on the package).

Since you’re a Sewing Beginner, get the widest bias tape they have, it’ll be easier to fit it on the edge and sew it down. And measure the outside perimeter of your pads BEFORE you go down to the store to buy the bias tape–don’t try to estimate it while you’re standing there in the store, 'cause you’ll get it wrong and be off by 50% every time and have to make another trip for more.

It’s sold in “yards”, in the packages, “3 Yards”, “4 Yards”. Don’t worry about having extra because you can use it for other projects, too.

One BIG caveat: I would not advise you to spend a lot of time crafting cute lil dresses or tiny miniature suits for Baby–they grow out of them SO FAST, that it isn’t worth it. If you wanna make frilly dresses or little suits, then start with the Age 2 size, as Baby will wear them much longer. Although even then you won’t get nearly the mileage out of them that you think you should, and you’ll end up giving them, still looking unworn, to a friend or relative.

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…unless, of course, you have six or eight kids, and just keep handing it down to the next kid…

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I have enough confidence in my self to tell the SDMB that I have a sewing machine too. Yes, the president of the SDMB black rifle club is a part time practitioner of the girlie arts :smiley:

Mind you I didn’t say I was good. I can do repairs and make some simple things but I have yet to make anything as complex as a garment. I have a decent but simple machine, a White Jeans Machine. it’s doen’t do everything but will go through six layers of denim or canvas without bogging down.

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My boyfriend and I got our first sewing machine ever about three months ago. We then produced two sets of lined curtains, table covers, upholstery…

Get a general book on sewing, and it’ll give you all the basics. I think the one we got was the Singer one. It worked.

Now I just have to talk the boyfriend into helping make curtains for my office…

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I have to somewhat disagree with MrVisible on one point. A general book on sewing isn’t what you really should get. What you should get is THE general book on sewing. Yes, there is pretty much a definitive guide to almost everything you’ll ever need to know about sewing. It’s kind of expensive(actually not as much as we paid for ours at this link), but it’s well worth it. Check out The Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing. You’re in luck, they’re putting out a new edition THIS MONTH. If you want to have a complete reference guide, this is the book to have. You’ve got people on hand who can give you demos and some guidance, what you need is a complete reference, not necessarially a how-to, although the book does have a fair bit of that as well.

I’ve been sewing since I was about eight, but I never learned as much about WHY I did what I did when I was sitting at a machine as I did from this book. Until that time I was just parroting what I had been shown. Great book.

Oh, one more tip. Buy a really good pair of scissors. I’m talking solid steel with an offset handle from a fabric store. Don’t let anyone touch them and don’t ever use them for anything but fabric. They’ll run you between 25-30 bucks, but they’re worth it when you start cutting along pattern lines and with proper care will last a lifetime. I’ve got a pair that is almost twice as old as I am. DO NOT USE THEM ON ANYTHING BUT FABRIC. No construction/poster paper for a kid’s project, no coupon clipping, especially no leather(trimming belts and such). If hubby tries to borrow them to snip a small wire when he’s working on some project, kick him out of the house. Your scissors are your lifeblood as a seamstress, treat them as such. :slight_smile:

Enjoy,
Steven

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Hmmm, just read a review of the new edition and it seems they’ve made a change you should know about before buying. They’ve removed a section on tailoring. Tailoring is the art of adjusting existing garments, or changing patterns to fit a specific set of measurements. If you’ve ever had a piece of clothing that fit well in most places, but needed to be let out or taken in other places, then tailoring is something you’d want to have a reference on. The older edition of the book, the one we have, is still available(even cheaper!) and has the section on tailoring.

Enjoy,
Steven