Several months ago I eluded to changes coming soon to Paula Manning-Lewis’ studio. You’ve seen the “fab bags” I started making a couple months ago. Today, I will show you what brought about this change.
My grammy’s sewing machine!
I inherited this sewing machine from my grandmother many years ago. Honestly, I cannot remember how long I’ve had it. For many years, it sat, collecting dust. When I finally pulled it out to start using it, it wasn’t working properly. I did what anyone in my position might do. I took the sewing machine to my mom to see if she could figure out what was wrong. At the time, several years ago, I didn’t really have any pressing use for the machine. Besides, I was always welcome in my mom’s sewing room and she has better machines, plus she has every possible tool I might need!
The first patch I made, using fabric and notions I had on hand.
I recently decided that I wanted to get back to making things with fabric, basically as soon as I found Spoonflower! Once I knew I could custom design fabric with my art on it, the creative juices started to flow and I started to think of all the things I could make!
The beginning of the Peace patch. I drew the peace sign pattern.
I made my first “fab bags” in my mom’s sewing room, but it quickly became clear that this was something that wasn’t just a passing phase for me. I talked with my mom about what she thought might be wrong with my sewing machine and she said she would take it into the repair shop and let me know once she found out how much it would cost to fix. I told her to go ahead and have it fixed, because I wanted to use it and would pay whatever it cost. Sure, I could have bought a new machine, but I had an attachment to THIS machine.
Peace sign, cut out and ready to attach to the backing material.
A couple weeks later my machine was done, it just needed a simple part. My mom ended up paying for the repairs and said it was “for your birthday”. Needless to say, I was excited about finally having my “own” sewing machine again!
Peace sign patch, work in progress. The peace sign was sewn on by machine, the flowers are hand stitched.
All the ideas in my head were now possible! So, I started researching other ideas and in the meantime I remembered my new favorite pair of jeans. These jeans have some really cool embroidered patches on them and my thought was, I can do something similar with my art fabric! I’m still waiting for my first order of fabric to come for making jeans patches, but while I wait, I’m using samples and scraps that I have on hand. So far, I’ve finished one patch and started a second one. Stay tuned for more to come! 🙂
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