Getting My Sewing Machine Out

I used to sew on a daily basis, making clothes for myself and my kids back when fabric was so cheap it was worth sewing clothing. Not so much today what with fabric on the upside of $10.00 a yard. I also sewed crafty type things to sell at holiday boutiques and spent a few years making fabric purses to sell.

Then one day I just got tired of sewing and put the machine away, actually ended up getting rid of it entirely, it not being a really great machine to begin with and my sewing muse having withered up and died. I did buy the bottom of the line Singer at Walmart a few years back, a little machine for 'creating and mending' that I used in an attempt to make crepe paper ruffling for paper crafting purposes. The crepe paper ruffling was kind of a pain to make and back into the closet my machine went.

Until now.


I had been on Etsy working on my shop and saw some kitchen towels where they had taken retro type kitcheny fabric and embellished the towels with strips of fabric. How cute, but at $12.95 a towel, a bit steep for something you are going to wipe your hands on.

But, hey, I've got a sewing machine, so maybe I'll just make some for myself. I went downtown to Beverly's where I wandered about the fabric department and chose a few fabrics and some huck toweling material, then went home to experiment. I did wash all the fabric first and then played around a bit with the sewing of the towels and adding the fabric strips. Since I didn't really know what I was doing, the first few came out okay, but not quite what I had in mind and the toweling material was rather expensive.

So, over to Walmart to see if I could just buy ready made towels to decorate. I did find a pack of 6 bar towels for $6.00 so brought some of those home, washed them to see how well they would hold up, then played around some more with the towels and the fabric. I also tried a few coasters with the scraps, those coming out pretty well.

Then, the fabric buying bug bit me full on, and off to Joann's, where I did find some more fabrics but had to put up with the store smelling like poo for some reason. Also, they don't have any music playing so you kind of feel like you are in a warehouse. A little depressing shopping in there actually.

I also shopped for fabric on Etsy, there are quite a few fabric sellers there but the downside is paying shipping and then waiting for your order to arrive.

I went online to search for any other fabric stores here in town and SCORE! a quilting shop that I'd never heard of that wasn't too far from the house, so off I went again. And oh my, this quilting shop was like walking into a candy store! It's called Strawberry Patches and walking in there was instant inspiration, with the store laid out in little areas of coordinating fabrics with all sorts of quilts, pillows, girls dresses, aprons, etc made out of the fabrics offered in each little area. Bright and clean and colorful, and I'm going to start making all kinds of stuff so that I can keep going back to this store! I didn't take any pictures but did find a few online.

I bought about 10 different fabrics that day, just for starters, ha ha, and did make a towel and coaster set that I'm going to send off to stepson James in Florida. He is really into cooking so I think he will enjoy the towels.

And now off to get the sewing machine out again! And yes, everyone will be getting towels and coasters for Christmas this year.