I learnt to sew from my mom when I was a kid. I wonder how many people would relate to this, but back in the day sewing machines used to be a part of most bridal trousseaus. So, there were two sewing machines at my house- an USHA model that dated back to my parents wedding and a SINGER model that dated way back to my grandparent’s wedding!! Yep, it really was that old—and surprisingly worked better than the more recent machine :) When I was still in primary school, my mom attended sewing classes and I would routinely tag along. I thoroughly enjoyed getting pampered by all the women there & being surrounded by colorful fabrics, threads and motifs. The classes resulted in some wonderful frocks and nightgowns for me and my sis. However, as the years went by she got less and less time to sew and the machines were relegated to basic mending tasks. The fact that they would routinely break down didn’t help either. Being a true mechanical engineer to the core, my Dad would take it upon himself to fix them, every time they broke. And since he got time mostly on the weekends, we were quite used to the sight of a sewing machine lying ‘ripped’ open on our dining table with strict instructions to leave all the parts untouched. There was a revival of sorts when my sis took a summer sewing class years later and I got to help her with all her projects –even managed to make a backpack for myself!
Since then I had always wanted to own a techy computerised sewing machine. Abhi declared I had gone nuts when I disclosed my ambition after we moved to Boston 3 years back. He finally conceded that yes, there was enough room in our 1-bed apartment, and yes,I would manage to squeeze in hobby time with office et al. And shortly thereafter I was the proud owner of one—I didn’t want a super complex version so went with a beginner model (it’ll still take me years to learn all the features and in-built stitches). As excited as I was when it arrived, I have to admit it has been difficult to find time to sew. I want to finally be able to stitch my own clothes (more importantly find the time to do that) , but my sewing skills are still in infancy and patternmaking for clothes is pretty challenging! Apart from mending various clothes, I have stitched 2 things from scratch—a bedding set and a skirt (see snaps)!! What has been thoroughly enjoyable is browsing through sewing / craft blogs and websites – most are put together so creatively!
While not strictly a sewing blog check out etsy.com for wonderful handmade stuff! Enjoy!
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