My First Sewing Project

Would you believe that I own two sewing machines and don’t know how to sew? Although I took home economics in junior high and remember making an apron, a pair of gym shorts, and a drawstring bag, it has been almost 30 years and I haven’t sewn anything since.

The time has come for that to change, however, as designing patterns for fabric has made me want to learn how to sew. I love the way the colours and the textures in my collections look together and I’m eager to see them used in a project. I also just want to have things in my home that were made with my fabrics.

My mom is quite good at sewing and I thought it would be fun for she and I to take on my first sewing project together the next time she came to visit (she lives 8 hours away). I pitched the idea to her last fall and she was into it so I chose a project, got supplies and ordered fabric.

I had wanted a brush roll for a while, something to hold and protect my watercolour brushes when I take them with me, so when I came across this tutorial, I was sold.

I love my orange and blue dandelion fabric and thought it would be so nice for the outside of the roll, and I went with the matching grid road fabric for the inside. I ordered both designs from Spoonflower in the medium sized print on their Cypress Cotton Canvas.

When the fabric arrived, I was so happy with the quality of the printing. The colours looked great.

My mom came up in early February, and although our sewing time ended up getting cut short, it was a really nice experience and I now have a brush roll.

Of course I wasn’t satisfied with the brush roll the way it was in the tutorial, I wanted it to be longer and taller so that the top could fold over my paint brushes. I was worried that without the fold the brushes might fall out the top. So we adapted it, and once we were done I realized that I really didn’t need to worry about the brushes falling out. They stay in the pockets quite well on their own. Nonetheless, I’m pretty happy with my brush roll for now. As my skills improve, I might re-work it, or I might even try to make it again... all by myself.

In the mean time, I think I’ll make some place mats (the project I probably should have started with), and maybe even just sew straight lines on some scraps for practice. I need to get comfortable and confident with the way sewing feels. I’m really slow and unsure right now, but when I’m ready, I’m going to make this beauty.