So, Wednesday I took a sewing class, my very first experience with sewing unless you count helping Mrs. Levine make togas my senior year in college, and the help I gave was so very minimal -- just guiding the material through the machine as it sewed a keen meander pattern for the hem -- that it doesn't really count.

It was awesome.

One of the first things that the instructor told us was that we should almost never need to take our machines in for repair. Almost anything that can go wrong with it, we should be able to fix ourselves. I definitely appreciate that attitude.

I spent 4 hours learning how to thread the machine, change needles, change feet, change bobbins, thread a bobbin, stitch, baste, backstitch, measure, cut, pin, select fabric, install a zipper . . .

It was a fantastic class.

In the end, I left with a pillow made entirely by me, about 16" x 16". I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but here's the fabric that I used:


I'm pretty happy with it. I'm going to take Pillows II next, a necessary prerequisite for taking Upholsery Project -- Ottoman.