-- Long Time, No See --

I'm due for a full scale blog update with progress pictures of our laundry area, our bathroom and our bedroom, but for now, I'll show-and-tell my weekend accomplishment.

Don't get too excited - this wasn't exactly a weekend full of triumphs.  Instead it was a weekend full of frustrations and heartache, but I think its all been worked out...

See, I started Friday morning with this:

A stack of dishtowels that I found at Crate and Barrel while shopping with my sister, matching blue fabric from Fabricville and a long string of cording.

The plan was to transform those dishtowels and fabric into throw pillows for our bed.  Three pillows to be exact.  I was hoping they would look something like this:

But here is where it gets interesting.  My mom did lots of sewing in my childhood.  She's made wedding dresses, bags, curtains... she even made the bridesmaid and flowergirl dresses for my wedding.  So, naturally, I assumed that sewing abilities must be in my genes and that I couldn't mess up that bad... But I was wrong.

After watching a few YouTube videos, I figured out how to make the piping for the pillows.  And it went off without much of a hitch, in fact, I was actually feeling pretty good about myself because it looked quite nice.  But then I started sewing it onto the dishtowel and this is where it all started falling apart.  It wasn't long before the needle got bent (which I promptly replaced - no sweat), but then I was getting the threads in the machine all knotted and eventually, the machine got totally jammed up and it refused to continue working.  I spent the remainder of the night trying to diagnose and fix the issue, but I failed.  The machine was broken.

Saturday was a new day.  I was resolved to give up the project and turn to some professionals on Etsy for throw pillows instead.  But Lucas had other plans, he had gotten up early, done some research and was ready to head out to buy a new machine (rated 5 out of 5 on Amazon for those that are wondering). So, I caved.  We went out, got the new machine, and returned home where I brought out all the sewing supplies again.  I was sewing right along for about 15 minutes before I head a loud 'clink' in the machine, following by that dreaded sound of the machine jamming up all over again.  After a few hours of trying to figure out the issue, Lucas and I agreed, I'd broken another one!

To say I was angry is an understatement.  By this point, I'd sewed on the piping to the pillow front (the dishtowel) and I was seeing that this could end up looking quite nice.

So on Sunday, off we went to exchange the machine (it had a warranty for adjustments etc...).  Unfortunately though, no store in the area had another one and I was heartbroken... and lets be honest, even more angry (... some in my family would say thats what I get for shopping on Sunday :)  But Lucas saved the day, we went to Sears found a great sewing machine - and purchased a nice extended warranty that includes regular maintenance and adjustments (it seemed a good investment considering my previous experiences from the weekend).

Less than an hour later, this was the result:

Success at last.

** Since taking this picture, I've now purchased a bigger 23" feather insert for the pillow and it fills out beautifully (ie, no longer looks like it needs to meet an iron).  Considering the frustration in making it, I've got to say - I love it!

Now I've only got 2 more cushions to make... Lets hope my experience will be better than that with the first :)