Learning to Sew: My First Two Projects

The old Singer my mom gave me an eon ago has been sitting in the corner of my bedroom for awhile now, eyeing me every time I go in there, scowling at me for not using it.  So I finally gave in and broke down and learned how to thread the thing (and thread bobbins, and use the different stitches, and so on and so forth).

I've made two projects to date.  The first was a pillow for the cats to lounge on:

I sacrificed one of the hubby's polo shirts for the effort, and it turned out well.  The cats don't actually get to do much lounging because the hubby is usually snuggled up to it on the couch.

For my second project, I followed the simple skirt tutorial over at Made and sewed a cute pink dress for Sydney:

It turned out nice, better than I was expecting.  I'm a little concerned the white layer I sewed underneath might fray, but for my freshman effort, I'll take it.  Now that I have the hang of it, whipping up little skirts (or bigger versions for me) will be a snap.

Next, I'm planning to make a set of placemats for the dining room table.  All the ones I like in the store are five or six bucks apiece, and I can make them for a quarter of that.  Just need to find the perfect fabric!