Sewing Group

I love to sew. I make no apologies for this. It gives me pleasure. And, it allows me to own and wear items of clothing that I would otherwise be unable to find.

While I was sewing my Alice dress, several of my friends lamented that they would love to learn how to sew. So, I started a Stitch n Bitch group.

We had our first meeting last weekend. Not knowing the sewing abilities of each of my friends, I simply invited them to bring along things that they were working on, or things that they wanted to start.

The day before the session, I was trawling through http://craftgossip.com, and found so many cute stuffed animals. I have been meaning to make a heat pack for some time now, so decided to also offer cute animal heat packs as an alternate project.

The four founding members - myself, Squirrel, Lola and Kiwi - turned up, armed with sewing machines and fabric, and we set about creating things.

I decided on a butterfly heat pack stuffed with linseed (flax seed), and scented with lavender oil, Kiwi decided on a seahorse heat pack stuffed with linseed, wheat and pearl barley, and scented with rosemary oil, and Squirrel decided on a squirrel stuffed with linseed, wheat and pearl barley, and scented with lavender oil. I used a hand drawn butterfly shape, while Kiwi worked from lia's craft journey, and Squirrel worked on the cutest pattern from we wilson. Lola started working on a bag based on the tutorial from crafster.org.

Squirrel set about starting her squirrel sewing by hand, while I used my machine.

Lola carefully glued her shapes into place before she could sew them on.

Kiwi, in the mean time, tackled the sewing machine - and won! She not only sewed the entire way around a seahorse (which is mostly curves, let's be honest), but she also labouriously clipped the seams of all of those curves so that her seahorse would sit right.

I, on the other hand, had finished my butterfly (having chosen the simplest project of the group), and moved onto making a bucket hat. It seems I got the band measurement wrong, because the hat is far too big for me, but a good first attempt I figure.

Squirrel's squirrel began to take shape

And then, sadly, she had to go home, as did Lola. Lola decided that she would be working on her bag for several sessions, so stay tuned for it's progress. Squirrel was feeling inspired, so took her squirrel home to work on, (it was finished by Monday).

Squirrel guarding Squirrel's desk.

Squirrel and her squirrel.

Kiwi and myself remained, and Kiwi was determined to finish her seahorse before she went home.

Which she totally accomplished!

Kiwi's Heat Pack Seahorse - isn't he cute?

All in all, the first session of our stitch and bitch group was totally successful!