auxetically: How I Started Sewing

I started sewing in May 2011. As a software engineer, I spend the whole day at the computer (writing code) and I usually did the same at home too (but playing games)!

Google Reader got me into sewing

One of my favourite things to do is read news feeds - and the interesting thing about Google Reader is the "Explore" button: it shows you posts many people thought were interesting. The important thing here is that these posts are tailored to you specifically (according to what I saw on tech crunch anyway). At some point in January, I started getting posts about sewing. A few at first, but as I got more and more intrigued, more and more would appear.

As I went back to Romania over Easter and spent some time with my grandmother, a thought appeared in my head: could I get a sewing machine? I could do this stuff! She would be very happy if I would do this (she was amazed when I started cooking!). Think of all the pretty things I could make! Think of how I wouldn't spend my weekends playing computer games*!

The thought grew and by the time I got back in London I had decided: I would be getting a sewing machine. Now, you need to understand that I had never (ever!) used one before. We had programming classes instead of home ec in school. My grandmother tried to teach me on her furniture-style machine when I was around 15 but it didn't really work out too well. So I wasn't even sure I would like to sew.

The tiny machine I wanted to buy

In any case, I looked at sewing machine prices. Over 100 pounds is expensive if you don't even know if you'll even like it. I looked at sewing classes, but those tend to be even more expensive than sewing machines! In the end, I looked on Amazon and decided one of the "kid" sewing machines would prove a reasonable alternative at around 40 quid.

Then, though, Mr T pointed out that I would be unlikely to be happy with a tiny machine and I really should look around if I was serious. The cheapest "real" machine is the Singer 1507, which retails at 99 pounds on Amazon. I did, however, think of checking Sainsbury's before ordering. They were selling the same thing at 89.99, and a couple of days later I got a 10 pound discount from them as well, so I ended up paying 80 pounds for my very trustworthy (although not very advanced) Singer 1507: