Dusting off the sewing machine

After creating my own little crafting space in the attic, it was inevitable that I was going to start using it. Last Summer, we bought some nice fabric at IKEA to use for new cushion covers, and, as I was too busy with work and knitting, the fabric disappeared in a box... Until last week! It then took a few more nights of stewing over ideas and designs, and then I realized what I was supposed to make with it: a new cover for our Pello chair. We rescued the chair from a charity shop a few months ago, and the cover was, well, faded and included some interesting 'design elements'. I had washed it a few times, but it just never regained its former glory.
But would the fabric we had not be a bit too loud?

So, first, I decided to sew up a smaller project, to see how the fabric worked. I made a small crochet needle roll from a similar fabric, with a larger print, and some pink.

With my confidence in myself and trust in my Husky restored, I got to work. Measuring, cutting, more measuring, more cutting, thinking, sweating, cursing, sticking needles in fabric and the odd finger, and then ended up with this. Tadaaaaa!

I can't express how happy I am with the result. It looks even nicer in the daytime...

Today, Mermaid was so impressed with the chair she wanted to do some sewing herself. So, here she is, in action! After a crash-course in how the machine worked, we got to work. She loved trying all the different stitches and 'driving' the machine...

And after some practising, we made this!

A quick and easy project, and working together was fun. Our next project will be a pencil case with a zipper. And she also wants me to sew her a summer dress from that light-blue fabric. My diary will be full up with crafting!

* Today started with me complaining about and cursing to an overflowing dishwasher, but after seeing the utter devastation the earthquake and tsunami is causing in Japan and the Pacific region, I am feeling thoroughly blessed and a bit ashamed of my ranting. I have a (hard) working dishwasher, which only got blocked because I was too lazy to clear the gunk of my plates. The problem got solved after I got my hands dirty to unblock it again. If only the problems in Japan and the rest of the world were solved that easily... (see previous post, there's a theme developing here...)