Busy little bee

Since my birthday is later this month and since I will be back in Chicago by then, my trip home so far has been a lot of birthday fun. My mom surprised me with this beauty:

Love it!

And, as an added bonus, my grandma gifted me a 3 hour private sewing lesson! It ended up being a HUGE help because as much as I love teaching myself new things and figuring them out myself, I realized after the instructor taught me how to operate the machine that there was little to no chance I would’ve figured that out alone.

For the past couple of days I’ve basically been sitting in my sew-happy isolation, trying to become an expert as quickly as possible. It’s really been fun and has definitely been a lesson in patience. For my first project, I made my mom a little purse for her birthday, which is nine days before mine.

Mom's purse--tan with light blue lining and a bow

I’ll admit, it didn’t come out quite as I had planned. Mom picked a chiffon fabric for the lining so it was too delicate to sew in the interfacing (thicker material that gives the purse some weight) and the cardboard into the bottom. So it’s just a different look than the pattern called for, but I think it’s pretty good for my first project.

After I finished that, I used that top sheet I had bought at  Salvation Army to make a little makeup bag. I really like how this came out, especially since it was my first time sewing in a zipper. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

Putting my thrift store buy to good use

Mom liked mine, so she asked me to make one for her too. So we headed over to Joann’s fabrics and she picked out a liner and an outside fabric. I picked out a few new fabrics too for my future makeup bag endeavors. You’ll just have to wait till those are done to see them though 🙂

Here’s Mom’s makeup bag:

Mom's pink makeup bag

I inverted the top a little so you could see the pink lining. The outside is white with a cute pink embroidered design. She wanted a thinner zipper so it didn’t come out quite as sturdy. I also made it a little bigger than I intended to so it’s almost the size of another purse! Oh well.

The sewing machine is all packed away to make the trip back to Chicago with me. I’m back to crocheting for right now. Tonight I decided to try a new headband pattern I came across a few weeks ago. I think it came out pretty cute, and wasn’t too time consuming.

Modeling the new headband--super comfy!

It ties in the back with a delicate little bow

So that’s what I’ve been up to the past few days. Busy busy busy. But, I like it. Can’t I just get my Bachelor’s of Crocheting and Sewing? Sigh.