It's a pretty large reusable bag! I'm kinda proud of it although my sewing readers out there are probably laughing behind their hands at me for being so proud of making something so simple. Here's why it has taken me until I'm almost 24 to make something like this (with an abundance of sewing machines and fabric at my disposal mind you). I am friggin terrified of sewing machines! I know ... weird, but I am! I used to watch my grandma sew all the time and I always wanted to learn to sew with her. She tried so many times to help me learn, but my stitches come out looking like the path of a river because I'm always jerking my hand away, making sure I'm not gonna get it stuck in the damn sewing machine!
However, even though I am terrified of sewing machines, I'm actually pretty good at hand stitching (I even used to embroider when I was a teenager!) so I saw this idea at the store, picked out a bunch of awesome fabric (which btw I LOVE fabric, I'm just terrified of sewing machines, go figure), and started to leave the store. Then I got to thinking, shouldn't I start trying to get over that unnecessary fear of a sewing machine and start learning how to properly use one? I headed back to the sewing machine section (in our Walmart, the pickings are slim on machines), and found this awesome guy:
I thought to myself: "Hey, what a great way to get over my fear of sewing machines! A tiny, unimposing sewing machine that I can control myself!" This little guy is called a Stitch Sew Quick and is made by Singer (which you can clearly see in the picture). I remember Gram talking about how awesome Singer is so I thought hey why not?! It cost around $15 which was another plus because I really didn't want to spend what Walmart wanted for their other sewing machines which I figured would be tried once and then hidden in a closet or given to a friend or to Mom because of my fear of it!
Well, I brought it home, and I have to say the damn thing made me want a bigger machine! I miss Gram's machine where it was easier to put the little fabric foot thing down on the fabric, and I could control how the fabric was fed. With this guy, I have to lift the fabric foot by hand, while trying not to push the needle arm down, and get the fabric up under there, all without turning the damn thing on! Complicated pain in the behind. Then when I'm sewing with it, it tries to walk all over the table so I have to really focus on keeping it still, and I have to focus on feeding the fabric straight (and me and straight lines DO NOT GET ALONG!). Otherwise, it's actually a pretty nice machine. It stitches fairly slowly so I'm not terrified of the speed of it, my hand is nowhere near the needle while I'm feeding the fabric, and it's battery powered, and won't take up a whole crap ton of space in my tiny cabin.
All in all, I think it was worth my time. I'm just going to have to practice with it and get used to it. While I'm getting used to it, I'm thinking about making some more of these reusable bags (although those will probably be hand stitched) and selling them on the Etsy store if you guys would be interested in something like that. Anybody else out there terrified of sewing machines, or all in stitches when it comes to sewing at all?
I also come from a grandma who was amazing with a sewing machine, I always wanted to sew as well as she did. She tried to teach me, but had no patience, she'd make me move & do it herself, so I eventually gave up & years later did everything by hand. I had a baby daughter many years later & wanted to make beautiful dresses for her, so I did it by hand, then a friend loaned me her machine, which I was pretty afraid of (having sewn my thumb in middle school home ec class), but I used it, very slowly at first, then later with less fear & a little more speed. Give yourself time, then look into one of the less expensive models, like the Brother Beginner (it's model number LX-3125) I think it's called, when you get a real machine, sew slowly at first, your seams will be straighter & you'll gain confidence over time.
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