thread

My long-awaited sewing class arrived Saturday! Clara and I packed up our machines and set out for the industrial district just east of the Willamette. We met Clara’s friend, Jena, outside and ventured into the fabric swathed warehouse together.

The class was co-instructed by three individuals. We each set up our sewing machines and made sure it was threaded and the bobbin was properly wound with thread. My bobbin ran out, and we discovered that my machine has an ingenious system to fill it up again – without having to remove it from its spot in the machine! I learned that my machine is from 1963, while Jena’s was from the 70’s, and Clara’s from the 80’s. I wasn’t sure that mine would even function properly since it is so old, but it was very well taken care of by its previous owner. On top of that, one instructor explained that vintage machines are often preferable because of their durable all-metal design. The downside to this is that the machine is heavier, but so what?!

We were then given scraps of fabric and we began a series of exercises which would normalize our use of the machine and ease us into healthy habits. The first was to do a simple straight stitch, with backstitching at the start and end to really secure the line of sewing into the fabric. We moved on to corners, free form curves, and circles. We learned how to make a pillow, and then tried the seemingly random task of making a sleeve. Holy moly is it hard to get that one done correctly.

We stayed for about two and a half hours and I feel like that small amount of instruction was an instrumental breakthrough for me. I think I only needed to be shown the basics and now I can rely on books from the library and instructions on the internet to proceed.

And as if one good development wasn’t enough, I later remembered that the woman who had gifted me the sewing machine had also given me a bag full of Singer boxes. I scavenged around our house and found it. To my delighted surprise, inside was practically every attachment ever made for this kind of machine! There were a ton of special discs that can be swapped out to create a variety of decorative stitches, extra machine feet, needles, and bobbins, and a buttonhole attachment. Oh, and retro electric scissors.

I took a trip to Joanne Fabrics that evening to stock up on basic necessities like thread and straight pins. I had a specific project in mind that I wanted to select fabric for (a lined bag with pockets), but their selection of fabrics was overwhelming. I finally asked an elderly woman for help, but she was frigidly cold and mean to me! She tried to snatch my shopping list from my hand and I almost started to cry. Based on the miniscule amount of helpful information she provided, I was able to choose a thick cotton home decorating fabric for the shell of the bag, and thinner, solid cotton for the lining. Fortunately, the lady who cut the fabric for me was much, much nicer and single handedly saved my opinion of the establishment.

By Tuesday evening I had the exterior of my market tote bag finished, with only the handles and interior lining left to go. I can hardly decide what to make next!

st. christopher

This has been quite a week, including slight progress toward my overall goal of making creativity a priority and experiencing Portland to its fullest. The one hitch to note is that my pretty $1.99 plant from IKEA died because I forgot about it.

poor baby

One thing that I think I need to keep in mind is that I can’t try to be good at everything. I’m tempted to give pretty much everything (except scuba diving) a try, but even that hyper-experimentation isn’t necessary. With that said, I’m officially not adding gardening to my list of skills to improve upon.

One challenge recently arrived in my inbox out of the blue, and after very brief consideration, I decided to accept it. The job? A weekly 4-hour shift at the Portland Audubon’s Wildlife Care Center. I have been volunteering with Audubon since September, and working in the Care Center was high on my list of long-term goals. In the meantime I had been working at individual events like art festivals and open houses, generally just once per month.

So now I’ll be at Audubon every Sunday from 1pm to 5pm! I’m not yet sure what my exact duties will be, but the Center accepts injured and orphaned birds and other wildlife and nurses them in the hopes of rehabilitation and eventual release. I hope to gain immense knowledge about the birds in this area and ideally, having a scheduled event in the middle of my Sundays will help me to use the time before and after even more wisely.

I also just registered for my first sewing class! I’ll be attending the Sewing Machine Basics course at PDX Seamsters on January 23rd. Joining me will be my friend, Clara, and her friend, Jena. (Both enviably great bloggers, I should mention.) All three of us have sewing machines that we don’t know quite how to use, but we’re very excited to learn. One order of business to be completed before the class should be getting the latch on my sewing machine case repaired… Any tips on how to accomplish that?

Lastly, I found a great deal on a book called 1000 Fonts: An Illustrated Guide to Finding the Right Typeface. I intend on using this reference as a jumping off point for my hand-lettered broadside posters. Jesse is conceptualizing one using Modest Mouse lyrics, while I’m thinking about a David Gray song. (Note: I just realized a lovely coincidence that confirms my choice of lyrics is meant to be transcribed in a gorgeous way.)

To top things off, my sweet husband is taking me out to dinner tonight. Due to divergent work schedules, we don’t have as much time together as we’d like. Now I’ll be cutting into that further with the Audubon gig. He, however, is fully supportive of my endeavors and I’ve realized that’s a valuable, valuable thing.

Hope the New Year is going well for all of you, too. If your resolutions are losing their shine and becoming hard to stick with, check out this article at Real Simple.