At the end of April I took a four week introductory sewing class at Our Social Fabric to brush up on my machine sewing skills. I bought a new machine shortly after Christmas to replace the crappy one I’d been using from Ikea, and finally got to use it at this class. (It went unused and directly into storage for the first few months because of the flood). Unsurprisingly, the Elna is a thousand times better to sew with and made it so much easier to work on a project.

The class was only four weeks long, and we spent the final two sessions working on the big project of making a tote bag. I went with the simplier version, which felt complicated enough in my inexperienced hands. The photo above features all the pieces of the bag in their final stages before I sewed everything together.

The main fabric of the tote bag was purchased at Our Social Fabric, while the material I used for the straps and pocket were made from fabric I’d purchased years ago from Dressew and never used. They are so fun together, and I love the mix of patterns.

I learned a lot from the class and feel more confident about tackling other projects on my own. The most important thing I came to realize is the best way to familiarize myself with the new machine is to practice with scraps of fabric. So simple!