Friday Frustration on Scrapbook Saturday....because...

...you guessed it! It's Friday and I'm trying to use my sewing machine for scrapbooking. Here's the story:

You've heard it before. I just can't seem to get the knack of my sewing machine. But, I'm determined to master it. I'll give it another month or so. By then, I'll either have figured it out or not.

So, last week, I had a couple little "wins" with my sewing machine. First of all, thanks to my friend, Nancy E., I was able to change the thread. She told me that the easiest way to do it is to tie the new thread to what is already in the machine and then just pull it through. OMGosh! Game changer. I was feeling pretty good about that.

I made this and was excited!

Okay, so I only sewed about a 4" line. It was a start. 

Next, I decided to make a shaker box.

Okay, it's not perfect, but I did it. Also, I learned that I need to leave a little bigger opening to get all of the sequins and shaker stuff inside. Lesson learned.

My original plan was to sew across the whole thing to adhere the chipboard "joy" and "Christmas" at the same time. But then I realized if I did that, then the shaker stuff wouldn't be able to "shake." Lesson #2 learned. Still, I'm happy with the results.

Next, I made this--sewing across the word like I wanted to do above. I'm still not really good at keeping everything straight, but it will do. 

You can see where I went off the chipboard on the side. No where near perfect, but it's okay.

I made this so that it will lift up to show the journaling underneath. But, there was one problem with that.

I realized that the bottom thread color matters. It should have been white. It's so messy looking. Plus, you can see how something is not quite right. I don't think there's anything I can do about it now. Lesson #3 learned--bottom thread matters when it's going to be seen. 

Just these little things took me 3 hours!! This sewing is really time consuming! 

Several days have gone by. Yesterday was the day I was going to continue with my "self-taught" sewing skills. 

I started off okay. I stitched straight down the center of a large heart. It went perfectly and the line was straight too. Off to a good start. 

Next, I wanted to simply sew 3 letters together: D E C (for December). I realized that I needed to figure out a way to hold them together while I sewed them. I used washi tape. I quickly realized that since one side is sticky, it was sticking to the machine. Of course, it's tape after all! So, I had to put more tape on the backside. Then I realized that I cannot sew in mid-air. So, I put a thin strip of cardstock to sew on. 

Once I finished, I cut off the green strip and removed the tape. This is what it looked like:

The tape ripped off some of the cardstock--plus, I don't like how it turned out. So, I tried another way.

I tried taping the letters down. That didn't work. Oh, and amidst all of this trial an error, the needle came unthreaded! I was sewing without thread. Then, I turned the wrong "wheelie" thing--there are two of those on the side of my machine. Suddenly, I went from a straight stitch to a zig-zag. Okay, that was lesson #4--pay attention to the "wheels."

Amidst all of this, I had to stop and cut more letters on the Cricut. At least I have mastered that!

Next I tried this:

This worked okay. But when I cut it, it came out like this:

Okay, I still don't really like it. Then I tried this:

Thought I might as well try the zigzag. Maybe a little better, but can you see that black thing? Yeah, it's the black thread from the backside. So, I did this:

I tried to "color" the thread with a white pen. That didn't work!

When it was all said and done, I have this:

I don't like any of them. My head is spinning from looking at it. Now it just looks like I tried to spell DECK and forgot the "K"! It's going to be back to the drawing board today.

Sewing. All for the love of scrapbooking!!