Sick days are meant for sewing...

I took a sick day today and sick days are rather boring, so I decided to pass the time I would do a little sewing. I made the pattern for my sewing machine cozy with newspaper and used that to cut the fabric. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist so this took a lot more time than I thought it would. I think it turned out rather successfully though. I had to cut the pattern for the lining and the outside of the cozy, but I found that it got a lot easier once I got used to cutting and not being so scared of messing up. I used the pieces I cut out from the liner fabric as my pattern for cutting the outer fabric of the cozy instead of using the newspaper print pattern. I don't know if you're suppose to do that, but it worked out just the same.

Newspaper pattern on the liner fabric before I cut.

Cutting the outer fabric for the cozy. My hair got in the way, but it's a cool shot.

I learned in my research that basting would allow me to keep my fabric together and it would also help to guide my stitching. It is time consuming, but it's worth it. First I used my pins to keep the fabric together and then I hand basted the fabric. When I had actually sewn the fabric with the machine, it was really very easy to simply pull the hand basted thread out of the fabric.

The fabric pinned and basted.

I did not do a whole lot of actual sewing today, but I did sew two pieces together. My friend Gillian (read her wedding blog!) commented on my last post and suggested I sew slowly with the machine and sewing in a straight line would be easier. I took her advice and it was much much easier to get my line straight. I did veer off course a little bit, but I tried to straighten it back out and I have many more pieces to sew that I cannot focus on a tiny little error. 

This is probably when I compromised the straightness of my stitches.

Finished product...for now.

It feels as though I did not do much today, but it took up a lot of time. The next time I sit down at the machine, I want to take the time to finish the entire cozy, but since I will be basting the pieces together before I machine sew the pieces, it may not happen since it does require me to have the time and patience. I am excited to have the actual finished product now that I can see it coming together. Stay tuned!