Today was the first day of my Summer holidays. So did I tackle the great mound of ironing gathering dust in our spare room? Attempt to reinstall some sense of order to the chaos, otherwise known as my children’s bedrooms? Or start the multitude of small ‘jobs’ that desperately need doing around the house?
Nope, none of the above I’m afraid! Plenty of time for all of that later… My first priority today was to travel over to North Wales to pick up my mum and visit the shop my beloved sewing machine came from, for a much belated demonstration of what it can do 🙂
An hour or so later, I felt much more confident about buttonholes, sewing with knits and all the other skills I’ve been avoiding for far too long. I know I could have just followed the instruction manual that came with it, but I guess I’m more of a visual learner. Following written instructions? I wish I had the patience! It was so much easier actually watching someone else doing it!
The assistant’s final advice was just to be brave and experiment! I think she’s right, I just need to have a go and not get too bothered if it turns out wrong, back-to-front, or upside down, clearly placing the unpicker very close to hand… But I think my lack of bravery’s only part of the problem if I’m honest. When you only have an afternoon or a few hours to sew, then generally, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this (fingers crossed), I don’t want to waste it with playing around with scraps of material and experimenting, I’d much rather actually just get on with the making and have a finished (or at least partly- finished) item by the end of my session. Mmmmm, maybe the little extra time over the holidays will allow me to do both: slow down and be braver. Here’s hoping…
navybluethreads 
Congratulations on your new-found confidence and button hole skillz! I’m sure you’ll put them to good use and you can always practice on an actual make and progress from simpler ones to more difficult ones.
Enjoy our holidays!
Thanks Chris. I just need to put it into practice before I forget…
A great start to the holidays I say!
Lucky you – i don’t break up for another two weeks : (
Happy sewing now you know what your machine can do – I’m looking forward to button-holes galore!
So glad that you got to see your machine’s capabilities and like you I am a visual learner. I hear you about the limited time but try and do samples, yes they seem to be a waste of time but it will give you the confidence to tackle them on your new garment without having to unpick buttonholes, one of the worst jobs!
Thanks for the tip re:unpicking buttonholes. It’s been great sitting down at my machine this morning, just feeling more in ‘control’ of it and I’ve promised myself to slow down over the Summer holiday. So far, so good… 🙂