Craft Hubris

This blog should really be called "I Half-ass My Way Through Things, Seeing What I Can Get Away With Without Doing Anything Properly"

I just spent a fun couple of hours completely failing to make a pillowcase.  It really was fun - I learned a lot.  I didn't wreck anything either because I used material from a filthy old sheet as a tester.  That was probably the smartest thing I've done all day.  My first pillowcase came out so wrong that I'm definitely going to make another one out of more filthy sheet until I get the measurements and technique right.

I may also need to find a new sewing machine.  Wouldn't that be nice?  Maybe a fancy overlock machine.

I have craft hubris.  I think I can make anything easily.  It cracks me up to find out how wrong I am.  I sure have fun trying though.

I told my friend I'd knit her two pillows.  We picked out the yarn and a fabric backing and I knit the yarn part.  Now I find out that I need to back the knitted part with fabric to help it keep its shape.  I also want the pillow to be removable so that she can wash the case if she needs to.  That's the tricky part.  Instead of just sewing up a rectangle of fabric and sewing the knit part to the front of it, I'm sewing an envelope out of two different fabrics (one fancy, one plain) with velcro closure.  I'm sure I'm also over-thinking and over seaming.  I got really into the preliminary seam ironing too.  I love ironing - it's so peaceful.

In the end I came up with a design I liked but it didn't fit the pillow at all.  Now I have to re-measure and try again.  I'm sure I'll manage eventually.

I don't really know how to sew.  I learned how to use a sewing machine in high school when I volunteered in the costume workshop.  I made a yolked button-down shirt for one of the boys in "Our Town."  Classic.  That's all I made.  One shirt, twenty-seven years ago.  Still, I consider myself comfortable with a sewing machine.  See - hubris.  I should definitely invest in an overlock machine.