My advice to single people is if you are a nerd, try very hard to find another nerd to spend the rest of your life with. Then, when you get the crazy idea at 10:30 on a Saturday night to learn how to sew, they won’t even hesitate. In fact, they will be totally excited with you.

My friend Annie very generously handed me down a very nice sewing machine about a year ago. It sat collecting dust and very good and creative intentions this whole time until another friend of mine sent me a magazine clipping with an idea to create tote bags out of T shirts. Inspired by this simple idea, and also needing a good basic project to give us some sea legs for a dream we have of sewing Miles’ Halloween costume, we decided to give it a try. (Wow, that is a hideously long sentence. I love it.)

We had a BLAST doing this project together. John was HILARIOUS. The engineering of a sewing machine FASCINATED him and once he got to drive the sewing machine (I mean, it has a foot pedal like a car, so why wouldn’t guys like it?) he FLIPPED OUT. I actually recorded his reaction on my iphone (remember how I said I was a nerd?) but I can’t share it with you because he was so excited once he got it to go really fast that colorful words were flying from his mouth with glee. It was hilarious, but I’ll just have to keep the gem of that recording all to myself.

There were actually two projects. My first project was to take a scarf I had cut in half to reduce the bulk and simply give it a finished hemmed edge. (Anybody want a purple plaid scarf? I now have two!) Then we both gave making a T shirt tote a try. John practiced first on a ratty old undershirt of his and it turned out so ugly. It looks like gross stretched out underwear! Though we filled it with some items from our pantry and it holds quite a bit. I can only imagine what the cashiers at the grocery would think. Then we took a T shirt from my brief stint as a barista at The Mill and made it into a tote, complete with an extra sewn on patch. (Does anybody reading this blog remember when I worked at The Mill? Oh, I have hilarious stories about my inability to make change that would have you rolling. But I won’t be telling them, of course.) Back to the tote, we used white thread to be funky and my stitches ended looking very Frankenstienien, at least the ones I sewed. (I didn’t get the memo about not pushing the fabric through. Opps.)

Here’s some photos from our evening that went till about 1:30 in the morning. See, I told you we party hard.

Here’s one more from my iphone. Notice I was wearing a headband made out of a cut off neck from the t-shirt. Classy, huh? (I actually think that will discovery will mean many sacrifices for T shirts in our house when I can’t find a headband, which happens about 6 times a day.) Oh, and yes, I wear my sunglasses at night.

It’s been a cool week around here. Miles started pre-school and we learned something fun and new. Now we just need to keep working on it, especially if we have any hope of making a costume for Miles that can live up to my lofty expectations for the best holiday ever.

So what should we sew next? I have some socks I would like to make Babylegs out of, but with Miles out of that stage, I’m not super motivated by that project. So send us your simple sewing ideas and we’ll see what we can do. Oh, and I would love to know what’s sitting around your house waiting to be tried out? I have plenty of untouched projects calling my name at any given moment. (unfinished knitted poncho project, drapes and photos waiting to be hung, patched drywall waiting to be painted…)

Nighty night everybody! I’ve got a busy, busy week. I’ll be blogging another finished senior soon, I’m photographing one tomorrow night, we have our four year wedding anniversary on Thursday (WOODHOUSE DAYSPA SIDE BY SIDE MASSAGES!!!! Yippee!) and then all sorts of fun stuff going on this weekend to celebrate. Better go get my rest. (Yikes! How is it 12:37 AM?!)