Sewing 101

My dear friend Di is a master of everything crafty; knitting, sewing, crocheting, card making, quilting, cross stitch. You name it she can do it and do it well. This winter she's taught me how to knit, and a scarf and hat later I'm a knitter (maybe not a great knitter, but a knitter nonetheless.) Since I've learned how to crochet and knit I was thinking it may be neat to also learn how to sew. Then, when I was last in Minnesota, my sister had my mom's old sewing machine out on the dinning room table and was sewing my nieces skirts to wear for Christmas. It reminded me of how each winter my Grandma sewed all of her granddaughters a dress to wear for Christmas and how much we loved those dresses made especially for us from Grandma. I was inspired. I was inspired for the sentimental reasons and probably because I'm thrifty (why pay $10 to hem a pair of pants when I can do it myself for free) and, I'm continuously looking for things to do to occupy my time and challenge me while in China being a stay-at-home wife.


Since my time in Minnesota, I've spent some quality time reading online sewing blogs and I've become more inspired. There are some very talented sewers who thankfully blog about it. As a result, I've decided sewing is a life skill I'd like to learn and thanks to the magnificent Di it's a skill I can learn while I'm in China and have a lot of time on my hands.  


So this past week we visited Er Qi, which is an enormous sewing warehouse. Mostly consisting of stalls and stalls of material and tailors which can make anything from curtains to winter jackets. This is where I found a small stall to purchase a sewing machine and material to make my first projects. 

Me & the Chinese man who sold me my first sewing machine.

Hopefully more photos to come with my finished sewing projects...