Oh How I Love my Bernina

My poor sewing machine has been neglected since moving here.  Sure I have used it here and there but it has been living under it's cover for far too long.  Sometimes I have a love/hate relationship with sewing.  I love it when everything is going smoothly, I hate it when something goes wrong and I can't figure it out.  Every time I go to Utah I always buy fabric with good intentions to reunite with my Bernina but I kind of forget about the fabric/patterns after they are put away.  A few weeks ago as I was going through my fabric I found the fabric and pattern that I bought over Christmas to make my little niece Jovie a dress.  One of the parts I hate about sewing which usually stops me from sewing is all the prep work.  I'm probably missing some of the steps as I'm typing, those who sew a lot, ignore any mistakes:)

1. Prewashing the fabric:  I would go to start a project and realized that I hadn't washed the fabric yet.  So I'd stop right there.  I figured out how to solve this problem.  My new goal is to wash/iron the fabric right after I get it so it's good to go.  I know this is obvious.
2. Putting the fabric on grain:  Sometimes this is an easy thing and your fabric is just fine. Sometimes it takes a lot of work to make sure it will lay flat.  Scott is good at helping me stretch my fabric when I need it.
3. Cutting out the pattern pieces:  Sometimes there are a lot of little pieces to cut out.
4. Making any alterations to the pattern:  This can be tedious depending the changes that need to be made.
5. Positioning pattern pieces:  Figuring out how everything will fit on the fabric is very important.  Sometimes it takes a while to get it all to fit in the best way and double checking before cutting out.  My college sewing teachers voices are always ringing in my head when I sew, "measure twice, cut once."
6. Cutting out pattern pieces:  Cutting everything accurately takes time, sometimes a lot of time.
7. Marking fabric:  Now after all the fabric is cut out you now have to mark the fabric, with all of the markings from the patterns.  Sometimes I try to skimp on this step but I always regret it when I'm looking for that one marking that I really needed. 

So then after all of that, now you are ready to sew.  Then I remember, oh yeah I should probably staystitch.  After staystitching, I am finally ready to sew!  By the time I get to this point I'm usually too tired to start sewing.  I know that I work better with my mind fresh so I put off the sewing until another day.  Then finally once I start sewing pieces together I get in a groove and it's so fun! 

This weekend I was working on sewing a little dress for my niece Jovie.  I started it a few weeks ago, doing the initial steps.  Yesterday I got to put some of the main components together.  It's just so cute and small that it is so fun to work on.  I wish I had the time to just sit down and finish it all in one sitting instead of working on it a little here and there. 

While I was sewing I was thinking to myself how much I love to sew.  I have gone so long without doing any sewing that I felt like I was losing my skills.  I am back and love it so much!  I keep thinking of more and more projects to work on, oh I love it, I wish I had more time to sew!