I Should Not Be Showing This

But I am anyway because sometimes trying something new is a good thing even if one has issues with sewing straight lines and batting bunching up even though you basted the heck out of it. My friend Linette told me once that anyone can sew a straight line. Apparently I'm not anyone, I'm special and I have no inner linear skilz but hey, I can live with that. Probably will be a frustrating existance but I think I can find ways to work around it.

A while back I purchased the fabric seen below at the store who shall not be named:


I'm a Memphis girl and Elvis fabric is something I just can't pass up. I ran across the bag of fabric when I was cleaning. OK that is a big fat lie. I ran across it when I was looking for something else that had been misplaced. That something else would be the first ornament I stitched for my friend Sandy, which has slipped through some portal never to be seen again. I ended up stitching a second ornament thinking the first would appear and no, it's still invisible.

After finding the Elvis fabric, I had forgotten I ever bought it, I started pondering what I could make with it that would be fun, I could see it often because, well, this fabric makes me happy. Don't ask me why, but it does. So I went through some patterns and



Personally I think all patterns look better with a little Viggo in the background. Anyway, I found a McCall's Crafts pattern for a crochet hook case. The pattern number is M4728. I don't really know how long ago I purchased it. I'm not technically anything that resembles someone who sews but occaisionally when JoAnn's runs those pattern sales for $.99 cents or $1.99 I usually manage to add one or two to the collection. This pattern might have been purchased as recently as a month or so ago, I just can't remember.

There are a million things wrong with this crochet hook case. My sewing lines aren't straight. I tried, I really truly tried. I didn't rush through this project. I ripped quite a few stitches out and started over but it's still full of flaws. It's wonky, I forgot to sew the ribbon tie on when I sewed the back to the front, and added it last.

Here's a picture of the back, not sure why it's blurry. As I said, this is not perfect, it's not as neatly done as it could be but I hope to get better with practice. So why am I bothering to show this off as poorly made as it is? Well I did it. I found the fabric, I found a sewing pattern and instead of laying on the couch saying to myself, "Oh if you make this it'll just look really bad. Why waste the time when you could be doing something else?" I sucked it up and did it. I didn't whine to myself about how I can't do it, I did it.

One of my main goals for 2008 is to feel the fear and do it anyway. Is that phrase trademarked by somebody? I remember some woman on Oprah years ago who wrote a book with that title. Anyway--I can't get better at something if I continue to avoid it because the results will be anything less than spectacular.

So be prepared to view some hideous sewing projects over the next few months as I learn my way around the sewing machine, try to figure out how fabrics and colors and patterns work together and to sew a straight line.