Neither Here Nor There: Sewing Wannabe

It goes without saying that living abroad allows you to have many experiences you might never have had otherwise. Most of the biggest new experiences I've had here revolve around travel and the incredible sights I've seen. Oh, and koalas.

However, I've also realized that there are quite a few other new experiences I've had that have nothing to do with travel. While living here, I've had the chance to do things like: be a part of a book club, blogging, working in a completely different education setting than I'm used to, having a standing weekly Saturday coffee date with friends, etc. These are things that for one reason or another, I never had the interest in or opportunity for before living here. I think that living in a small town combined with the fact that there are plenty of other Americans here in a similar situation somehow created the perfect setting for some of these things to happen here.

Another one of these new experiences that I've fallen into recently is sewing. A few of the girls that I've become close friends with over the past few months had been going to a Monday night sewing class. They'd been inviting me to come for weeks, and I kept turning them down. Sewing wasn't something I ever really thought I was interested in taking up as a hobby. Well, a few months ago, I finally went along with them. And I actually enjoyed it. It's not so much a structured class, as it is a sort of sewing "study hall." You can work on whatever you want while having access to a very helpful "instructor" and tons of sewing machines/supplies. Most of the girls who go are making super fancy things like beautiful quilts and Christmas stockings. I'm definitely the least skilled of the group.

I started out by making a very simple pin cushion.

From there, I decided to make a gift for a friend whose baby shower was coming up. Growing up, my mom used to make these cute little hooded baby towel things. I think I even "helped" her a few times. I figured that would be a simple enough project for me to move on to next.

I used this tutorial and tips from my mom as my guide:
http://prudentbaby.com/2009/10/baby-kid/diy-hooded-baby-towel/

My friend Alexa is having her second little girl, and she's not a super "pink" type of mom. So I went with this coral fabric... although for some weird reason, it looks pretty orange in these pictures.

This project ended up taking me a lot longer than I anticipated, but when it was finally finished, I was very happy with the end product! It was fun to give someone a gift that I had made myself.