I can SEW!

Every lady in my family can sew, but I never learned. Well, I had my reasons. Those big, bulky, can't-move-gotta-stay-where-it-is, manual sewing machines scared me. They gave me the impression that sewing is not a fun skill and definitely can't be a hobby. So I didn't even attempt. But when I saw the sewing machines at Jo Ann fabric & crafts store, they looked sleek and user friendly. One of our friends owned one so I thought I should give it a try. I borrowed it from her and used it to shorten a shower curtain that I wanted to use as a window treatment for our master bath window. For the first time in my life, I tried to stitch. Just a simple straight stitch by folding the curtain to create a rod pocket. Well, it wasn't very straight, but you can't make out the flaws after it is up over the window. The important thing is, it wasn't too hard. I thought I could do this. After that there were few situations where I had to pay a whole lot to make simple alterations to my clothes that made me feel I should buy a cheap sewing machine and learn how to do this stuff. So I added a sewing machine to my black friday shopping list in 2010. I bought a decent model for 70 bucks at Target. It took a while to figure things out, but I am able to do simple things using my sewing machine now. My latest trial, a throw pillow cover.

I had a zebra print remnant cloth lying around. I wanted to try making a pillow cover for the smallest throw pillow I have. Instructions are simple.

• Cut the fabric into 3 pieces. One to cover front of the pillow and 2 for the back, one overlapping the other to create an opening. 
• Stitch the seams of back pieces.
• Place all 3 pieces inside out and secure with pins.
• Stitch all 4 sides and reverse.

Here is the end result.

What do you think? Not too bad for the first time huh? Did you notice it matches our rug?