Sewing Class

My new sewing machine ("sewing computer" as it's called in the manual) comes with a series of six machine mastery classes for free. I attended the first two classes (six hours of instruction) on Saturday and had such a fun time! The teacher and manual were both excellent and I came away feeling much more confident about using my machine. The machine mastery manual is 200 pages, which each student is then to put into a three-ring binder, ideally in plastic slip sleeves. Each stitch or technique we were taught is illustrated on two pages, and then we are to store our fabric sample with the stitching in the appropriate slip sleeve. Now when I read a sewing pattern that calls for a technique, it will at least job my memory so I can look it up and see how I actually made it myself. Also, I hope I will remember enough that when I read that I am to "hem the skirt," I'll remember that there was this really neat stitch to do just such a thing and I'll find it in my binder.

The store was having a trunk sale of the charming Oliver + S patterns for children plus a blow-out sale of 50% off fabric so I stocked up on projects for months to come.

For the music box jumper, I bought a pink floral . . .

. . . a smaller print pink floral . . .

. . . and a blue floral.

I plan to make pajama pants for John with this plaid.

I bought this fabric simply because I love it. I don't know what I'm going to do with it--any suggestions?

I plan to make pillow cases for the children with this sleeping moon print and I think I'll try my machine's embroidery feature to write their names on the edge in small lettering.