My Machine & Notions; A Love Story

Re discovering my sewing machine had to have been the highlight of my year. Not only did it get me started with this blog, but I've realized sewing is a huge form of therapy for me. I had completely forgotten about this magical piece of machinery until I was helping my mom clean the heaping amounts of stuff out of her garage over summer. Amongst all the piles of dust and junk, I spotted my beautiful Singer. Thank he lord I at least kept the machine cover on it!

Problem was...I forgot how to use it. Really.

Whether it was threading the bobbin, putting on a new needle, or even adjusting the thread tension I had no idea where to even start. I hadn't touched a sewing machine in almost 4 years, could you blame me for forgetting? On top of this issue, I found that the manual was missing! Now, I don't know about all of you, but I don't do well with manuals, they frustrate me to no end. So, instead of getting my manual offline, I decided to contact my high school sewing teacher to see if she could assist me. Gladly, she was more than willing to help me regain the basics and bond with my machine. I am still amazed at how much I had completely forgotten!

After reconciling with my beautiful baby Singer, I realized I didn't have any notions! Just 1 bobbin, and an extra needle. I then jumped onto my computer to look up some recommendations of necessary tools and tips. While conducting my research, I discovered some blogs that gave me amazing help. If any of you are new sewers out there, and need tools like I did, then these blogs will guide you!

Caseybrowndesigns.com

Sewchicandunique.com

Since we are currently living with my Dad for the next three months, I don't have an area to keep my machine at a desk or table, let alone an area to keep my supplies stationary. This is honestly such a hassle, but as they say....When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! The solutions I found were keeping my fabrics in a basket (which I am currently using as a cute little door stop) and I purchased a 10 dollar tool bag from Walmart to keep my notions in. I bought the very basic tools necessary such as pins, thread, bobbins, extra needles, fabric and pinking shears, seam ripper, seam gauge, as well as a water soluable marker. Something I realize now that I need more than I thought is the rotary cutter and self healing mat. I thought I could live without these tools until I got more advanced, but boy was I wrong! Life would be a whole lot easier when I get those bad boys. Soon enough I'll be off to my 1 hour drive to Beverly's to pick those up!

Purchasing these tools when you are on a budget keeps things on a "purchase when it becomes necessary" basis. I am still in the process, so I'll post an updated version when my tool collection is finished.

Something I did, which took up a lot of time was finding some of these tools for cheaper on Amazon.com This proved to be more difficult than I thought because majority of these tools are of course sold separately, which meant that with shipping included from all of these different companies, it would end up costing more than just purchasing it all from the store. However I did find a few tools that gave me my amazon prime 2 day shipping. By the way, if you're a college student, go out and get amazon prime! It's free for you little book worms, and the benefit is amazing. I highly recommend it. :)

Purchasing these tools when you are on a tight budget keeps things on a "purchase when it becomes necessary" basis. I am still in the process, so I'll post an updated version when my collection is complete. But for now, here is my little sewing set up!

Workin' on my sewing set up...slowly,

-Sierra