2011 Sewing Challenge

Since several people in our family have new sewing machines, and since we can all always use more practice sewing, I am inviting you to participate in the 2011 Sewing Challenge. Here's how it will work:

Periodically, I will invite you to participate in a new challenge. These will start out easy and get harder as the year goes on. I will usually link you to a tutorial, but you need not follow it if you already have a pattern you like, or you want to make up your own. During the allotted time, you sew your item. When it is finished, you post a photo on this blog. There will be NO judging or points. This is merely a motivational idea to help us all become better seamstresses. However, to keep the motivation up, there will be a random drawing among all those who submit a finished project. If you are not interested in participating, no pressure.

So, here we go. The first project is a hotpad. This is a pretty wide category, so feel free to make any kind of thing used for taking hot stuff off the stove or out of the oven. Here is a tutorial I recommend. It does not need to be made out of any specific fabric (you don't need to use the striped ticking they use.) I am going to make some out of Valentine's Day fabric to give to my visiting teachees in February. But you can use any fabric you having sitting around, although I would not recommend anything stretchy. You are allowed to ask for help from others--spouses, BFF's, mothers-in-law, etc. However, you have to do the actual sewing yourself.

The due date for this project is Feb. 1. The prize for the random drawing for this month will be a $10 gift certificate to a fabric store to enable you to purchase fabric for future projects. So pull out those machines, thread 'em up, and let's get sewing!