My first date with the sewing machine
It was my very first experience sitting to stitch on the Sewing machine on an auspicious day of 17th Jan 2023, Tuesday. This means that I had never made up my mind before like this time- willing to fulfill on this long time dream of mine, intentionally gathering courage, couldn’t believe that it is about to come true, so much excitement about one of my dreams coming true and the future in front of me of stitiching all i want to..…
OH wow!! I love this feeling and it is such an inspiration to continue to stitch.
Story-
My new friend Rekha happens to share a similar interest of stitching only difference being that she sews using the sewing machine while i always sew with my hands and i totally enjoy hand sewing of different types and sizes ranging from simple repairs to felt keychains/ fridge magnets to dresses for Avani’s Barbie to Quilts of varied sizes and a bit of Embroidery. I Loooooovvvveeee Stitiching!!! I find total joy, satisfaction and fulfillment in that. I love adventure and surprises, so my designs and work are never a repeat! :D
Rekha and I attended the Aarohi’s famous Parenting session together and soon after got started with the stitching lessons. I learnt curiously about the different parts of this Electric sewing machine called ‘Brother’.
- It comes with a electric foot pedal too; the amount of pressure on the foot pedal determines the speed of the stitching by the machine.
- There are three options on the front side of the machine - right most is the knob to select the length of each stitch, middle one can do some zig zag kind of stitches and the right most one is to define the offset while stitching i.e., you can move the head of the machine to few inches on the cloth besides the edges of the cloth for some designing i guess.
- There is one big pull down button that when pulled down identifies the end of the cloth and finishes the stitch.. i think this is what is it called as roughing.
- There is a lever to lock the needle, right behind the needle head
- A turner knob at the right end to either up or down the needle that will be useful while placing the cloth and removing the cloth from the machine
- A needler - this is a tool to thread the needle with very minimal effort
- A light to make visible whatever is on the stitching zone
- A thread cutter on the left end of the machine so you dont need a scissors always to cut your threads
- Ofcourse, the top thread and the bottom thread- Bobbin places
Rekha then got me a piece of a cotton cloth that she no more needed and showed me to make a stitch. Next was my turn and i was super thrilled to sit on that hot seat. Imagine, i was finally about to sit in front of a sewing machine and stitch! OMG, a moment of great joy and happiness!! That was indeed a special big moment for me. I saw all my fears come up that I might hurt my finger while stitching (the visual of the needle getting into my nail is a stopper for me- dont know where i got that btw), heightened awareness around the machine, attention to details, wanting to learn it all in one go, getting it right, will i be able to do it?, hand and foot co-ordination- can i do it without hurting myself and an increased breath rate. Just as i'm writing this, I’m present to how many things happened with this event and its a joy to reflect.
I ran my fingers to the different controls, felt it with awe and was excited to proceed.
I finally held the cloth and trying to figure where to start with the recollection of lessons by Rekha, i chose one long side of the cloth and just got started.. ie., put the clothe beneath the needle, locked it, placed my right foot on the pedal and pushed it slightly. Suddenly Oh MY… as if magic happened the machine started stitching on its own. I was thrilled at this feat, I felt like a child suddenly wanting to share with someone what just happened and my wonder filled excitement. Rekha and her sons were busy doing something and so i was on my own. Keeping it and being fully with the machine i continued. I was tempted to drop the cloth becuase i might hurt my fingers/ hand. However, keeping calm, alert and aware, keeping the perspective of learning stitching, i continued. The cloth i had had fancy shapes due to the earlier cuttings and being used, I found that challenge as a great opportunity to practice more of the stitching and continued. I wanted to do a stitch on folded edges, so carefully and using all my art skills i have acquired so far, got the foldings correctly and began to guide them through the needle, the stitching on each edge was short and then it required finishing the stitch with that pull down button each time. This was real fun to explore, play and understand how the machine behaves, the shorter edges of the cloth gave multiple opportunities to practice.
I continued this activity till about 2pm for approximately 30-40mins in total.
It was lunch time and Rekha was doing her Sadhana; so she would eat only after 12pm. I wanted to take care of her food needs and my hunger too, so that was the end of my date with the sewing machine.
We then had awesome cabbage-capsicum-raw mango salad, Kichdi and Kadi and some home made lemon pickles and relished the lunch completely. Tej had baked Apple Pie that day and so got to taste and relish that too with Vanilla ice cream topped with designer Caramel sauce.
It felt like i was treated to great food after my first accomplishment to take the first step to fulfilling my dream of stitching on a machine, which was to “JUST DO”!
Some learnings from this event - "Pursue your dreams despite your fears/ apprehensions, fear is only a emotion and can stay wherever you put it”.
In the coming days,
- I want to get my stitches further neat unimpacted by my fear of hurting my fingers
- Stitch some quilts
- Dresses for Barbie/ dolls to begin with - Avani will provide me with her designs
- Use different options and possibilities on the machine in stitching
- Stitch- Stitch-Stitch and Stitch just about anything that comes my way!!! :D
Acknowlegements-
- It was really kind and generous of Rekha to have me in her house, have heartful conversations and sharings, educate me about the sewing machine, feed me and then re-invite me also. ;D :))
- Thanks to Aditi to ask me to write my experience. I learnt- how to be hungry to keep learning from you.
- Thanks to myself for pushing myself and doing what I promised myself.
Thank you dear reader for reading through this post fully!🙏🏼🍫
