Sewing School 2: review and a giveaway

 

I am thrilled to be a part of the Sewing School 2 by Amie Petronis Plumley and Andria Lisle blog tour! **To be included with such inspiring blogs such as Red Bird Crafts, The Crafty Crow, and maya*made has me doing a happy dance and the timing couldn't have been more perfect as I had a crafty day all set up with Miss Za of the adventures of ander and zaza.

Sewing School 2 is a delightful book. The projects within are simple and adaptable with instructions that greatly helped even me (I am a wonky sewer at best). The envelope of patterns in the back keeps all the pieces within reach and the photos by Justin Fox Burns are so eye catching that Za and I peered through the book many times over making grand plans as to what would be created on our crafty date. 

Miss Za has her own sewing machine at home so we skipped over the basics covered in the first few chapters (though I did go back and read on my own and found them to be super helpful for beginning sewers; zippers now seem doable!) and went straight to the projects. Though many caught our eye (the Sleepy Bear, and Stripy Quilt to name two),  Za decided she wanted to stitch up her very own bag and so we turned to the ehold project and gave it a read through.

Our main fabric had a pattern going  in a direction that would not work with the pattern and so I quickly stitched up a larger swath of fabric for Za to use in her bag making. Because we only had a half yard of the owl fabric Miss Za really wanted to use and because direction the owls faced on the half yard prevented up from creating the bag as described, we sat down and did another read through and some strategic planning.

Za was going to use her bag for everyday use and so we opted out of the batting but we did find a large piece of fabric in my stash that would work as a lining and so after a good pressing of seams on the larger patchwork piece we were good to go.

After cutting out the pattern, Za pinned it to her fabrics (we had a long talk about why we face the right sides together) and cut them out. The sewing machine was mostly ready, all we needed to do was select the thread. Za placed one corner of her soon-to-be bag under the needle and foot and got to sewing, remembering to do a back stitch and keeping her needle down for turning corners (the colored TIP boxes on each page  were super helpful ). 

After stitching, Za removed all her pins and turned her fabric right side out. She was able to refer to the book for each step. We closed up the open seam and decided on where the top part of the bag would fold over the bottom and it was back to the sewing machine. Though we did not do an exact ehold, we made use of the instructions, design, and pattern that were all there. From start to finish this bag took us a little over two hours including a trip back to the craft store to pick up ribbon for the strap. We even had some time to create a few Tag Alongs!

 

Back home, Miss Za has been using her bag daily and is quite proud of all the work she put in it. I really enjoyed having my basic sewing needs answered in one lovely book. I also see quite a few plush microphones and guitars in my future (the children at the preschool are gonna love them!)

If you are in the U.S. and would like an opportunity to win your very own copy of Sewing School 2 please leave me a comment here with your contact info or leave a message and like scrumdilly-do's facebook page and I will choose a winner on Wednesday, July 31st. Happy sewing and don't forget to visit each blog on the tour!

Don't miss the rest of the tour for more chances of winning your own copy:

July 7:  Our Busy Homeschool

July 8:  scrumdilly-do!

July 9:  Crafty Moms Share

July 10: Jane of All Trades

July 11: Windy Lou

July 12: Adventures of a DIYMom

July 13: Improv Diary

July 16: He Sowed She Sewed

July 17: Teach Beside Me

July 18: All Things withPurpose

July 19: The Crafty Crow

July 20: Family Style School

July 21: Such Designs

July 22: Red Bird Crafts

July 23: The Long Thread

July 25: maya*made

**{For this post, I received a copy of Sewing School 2 to review and a copy to offer in a giveaway.  All opinions  and photos other than the cover presented in this post are my own.}