Some people call me Amy. You can call me Domestic Goddess.

It's true. I just bought my first sewing machine. I had been waiting to get some birthday money to embark on this next domestic adventure, and when some birthday cards arrived with the greenbacks, I was able to make it happen!

In my quest for "greenification" I figured that learning how to sew may be helpful so that I can eventually get to the point where I can make things for myself and others to use rather than buying them. Sewing is also very handy for "upcycling", which my sister and I have recently been plotting about.

Let me explain a little about my past as a sewing delinquent. In grade 8, in the city I grew up in, it was mandatory that every student take the combination class of cooking, sewing, and woodworking. As you can imagine, many of the girls excelled in sewing and cooking. Myself? Woodshop. Although I made a decent grade in Home Ec (cooking), my grade in sewing was less than par...(I failed). I never knew if the failing was due to the fact that I handed in the final project (a sweater) 2 weeks late, or if it was because in my harried attempt to hand in the sweater before the end of the year that I had serged a very large portion off of the bottom...This serging incident created a look which had my family referring to my project as "the shark bite sweater". I still have that terrible navy sweater buried in the depths of some drawer as a reminder of my youth (and how a serging machine can get out of control).

Anyways, enough nostalgia and on to the exciting part. Today I bought a sewing machine and some other sewing paraphernalia:

In an attempt to familiarize myself with the machine (and try and learn how to sew for REAL this time) I set about trying to make a simple project of a reusable cup cozy. It started off a little rocky...I'm not sure if you remember the first time you tried to thread a bobbin, needle, and the entire machine, but it took about an hour! Finally everything was threaded, the bobbin was wound, everything was in place and the real sewing began. Unfortunately, I was unaware that there are specific spools of thread for sewing machines (with large quantities of thread on them), and I only had on hand very small spools with about 5 metres of thread (see the spools in the photo above). The spool ran out VERY quickly, but I did get in a decent attempt at my product.

A little shaky, a bit of a poor cutting job, but all in all, I think this is the beginning of a great partnership between my new sewing machine and I. 

How are your sewing skills?  Got any tips for a beginner?   Hit up the comments below!