Pillowcase Prodigies

If you were to ask my kids, "What is something your mom can't do?" Emily wouldn't hesitate to tell you, "She can't sew." And that would be inevitably followed by an eye roll and a snicker, because, much to her annoyance, when the princess dresses get ripped or start unraveling at the bottom they have to get sent to Grandmom's.  It's true; I haven't a clue when it comes to a needle and thread or a sewing machine.  This bothers me a little that Grandmom is one upping me in this area, not to mention there is a whole world of Pinterest projects out there that require making friends with a straight stitch.
So it was perfect timing that my friend found a beginner's sewing class for us in lovely Collingswood.  The Quilted Nest offers all kinds of classes and tuturiols that can be found on their website.

                                    
Just like every other little shop on Main Street, The Quilted Nest is tiny and quaint and welcoming; just big enough to hold small lessons in the back of the store. Our task today: making a pillowcase.  How hard could it really be?
Well, the answer to this is undecided. Because we did go home with two nice looking pillowcases, but....I'm pretty sure that if left to my own devices I might sit and stare at the sewing machine a long time not knowing exactly what to do.
Now, don't get me wrong.  I did get the feel of the machine, and I know some of it's basic operations now. But maybe, like one overeager student in our class, I should have been taking some notes.  There was some math involved, and I tried my hardest not to glaze over during that part, but, well...I tried my hardest. Let's leave it at that.
Not sure if I'm ready to go out and buy myself a machine just yet, but I think with more research on my own, and some practice threading and rethreading a machine, I may be able to get the hang of it.

A little disappointing was the selection of pillowcase fabrics.  We were pretty sure we got to choose from whatever she wasn't able to sell in her store over the last ten years.  Ugly is the nicest word I can come up with for some of them.  Addison is in a Strawberry Shortcake phase presently, so I finally decided on this pattern.

There's apparently a lot of ironing involved in this whole sewing thing.  Maybe my iron will finally get some action.

I don't want to name names, but someone forgot to put the presser foot down when she started her project.  Uh...what a mess. It's okay, though, everyone makes mistakes (when I say everyone, I don't mean me, but whatever...totally fine).

No one likes a bragger, but I have to say that we were the first ones done, and ours looked completely fab.

Well, there you have it. Sewing 101.  So excited to move on to my next project...or at least excited to think about a next project.