Getting Creative

Having learned the bare basics, I convinced my husband to buy me a sewing machine for my birthday (okay, it was an early birthday present, since my birthday is still a few weeks away).

I chose a Janome. According to the folks I talked to, it was best to buy from a sewing store (as opposed to Target or WalMart), so I went to Austin Sew & Vac. The gentleman there listened to my plans for what I wanted in a machine, and my budget, and recommended this one:


With my very own sewing machine and the barest information about how to make a pillow (remember the pin cushion from the beginning lesson?), I made a few pillows of my own:


Then, having made a drawstring bag which in the middle step looked like a table runner to me, I made my own table runner:



The table runner was pretty simple. I took two complementary fabrics, folded them in half. On the fold, I cut a house shape (square with triangular roof). I then sewed the two fabrics wrong sides together, leaving about four inches unsewn and then turned the whole thing right side out. For the part that was left unsewn, honestly, I didn't do anything. Once I ironed the whole thing, I couldn't see the gap and I thought with my current level of sewing, doing a whipstitch on the edge would be more noticeable than leaving it as is. And this way, I can finish the edge later once I've learned more.