First Time Using the Sewing Machine Alone.

Hey,
So, I figured for my next post, I'd detail a rather amusing, albeit embarrassing, event my life; the first time I used a sewing machine without anyone helping me. I needed to hem a scarf for the Undertaker costume I am slowly developing, and I figured I knew my way around the machine fairly well by now, so I decided to attempt it solo.




Now, being the eternal optimist that I am, I feel the need to see every failure as simply a chance to learn something new. So, long story short, I learned a lot of new things today. In an attempt to make this sound less like a disaster, and more like a learning opportunity, I am going to write this article as a list of things that I learned; hopefully, this will help any other disaster-prone, novice seamsters avoid making really dumb mistakes.

Thing 1: Remember to tie a knot at the beginning of the thing you are sewing.
To be fair, it kinda makes sense that I would forget this. I have been sewing by hand a lot lately, and when you sew by hand, there is already a knot when you start out, so you don't need to tie another one until the end. However, the way I reacted to my forgetfulness does not make so much sense- but it did teach me...

Thing 2: If you forget to tie the knot, do not stop halfway though and back stitch the whole thing.
Yes, this is what I did. About halfway through my hem, I realized that I didn't tie a knot at the beginning. Instead of starting over like a reasonable person, I decided to just back stitch the whole thing back to the beginning; I have a bit of an issue with laziness, and I figured this would be faster than starting over. Which made me realize

Thing 3: If you back stitch to the beginning, you have to stitch forward to where you left off again anyway. Therefore, starting over takes more or less the exact same time, and doesn't leave you with a shit ton of extra thread everywhere. Wait, I just spoiled...

Thing 4: If you back stitch to the beginning, you end up with a shit ton of extra thread everywhere. This is not the best looking thing, and it makes it a bitch if you have to use a seam ripper later on to fix a screw-up. A screw-up like

Thing 5: When you are hemming something, don't let stray fabric get under the needle.

I really, really don't actually understand how I did this. I had a very clear line I was following- I measured out, ironed down, and then pinned down the hem like I was supposed to. Yet, being me, I managed to let part of the scarf get caught up in the stitch somehow- therefore stitching half of the scarf to my new hem, and making a disaster. A disaster that took a long time to undo because of me not following thing 4. So, if you are clumsy and disaster-prone like me, make extra sure that you are only stitching what you want to, and not anything else.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little anecdote. And I really hope I get better at using the sewing machine eventually. At least I know that, in one failed attempt, I've learned five new things... I think that's more than I learned in some entire classes at Westlane (I'm looking at you, Careers class...). So, I will continue my optimistic ideal that a mistake is never a bad thing- it is simply a chance for you to learn. Unless that mistake is made by like a surgeon or a judge or something... then I guess it's a pretty bad thing. But depressing examples aside, I'm sticking to my happy view.