The first thing I ever sewed. Ever.

Some people have been asking how I got into sewing. The answer is two part, and right now I'll just write about Part one (I'm quite long winded).

When I was in my second year of art school I enrolled in 'Fiber Art 101' and didn't really know what to expect. I was a painter but was looking to expand my horizons. :) Lots of students in the class were these amazingly creative sewers and fabric artists and I stared at their work in awe. We did a lot of silk screen printing and traditional dyeing techniques, but somehow I always reverted back to canvas and paint. It was my comfort zone I guess.

One day my mum and I were out shopping and I saw a sewing machine. I just had to have it. It happened to be just around my birthday, so I told her it would be a perfect gift! I guess it was. :) It was a Janome 1804. It's practically that old ;) And it is still the sewing machine I use today.

So I went home armed with a new sewing machine and no clue what to do with it. So off I went to the studio to paint; left it in the box for weeks, to my mothers dismay. I finally took it out one day, cut up an old painting, and decided to try and make a 'quilt painting.' It's very ugly. Like, really, what was I thinking? But it was an attempt to sew; my first attempt.

It's pretty big, like 7 feet by 6 feet. Here it is in its entirety (It's been folded in a trunk for a million years)

And here is a detail shot (or two or three):

I guess I didn't realize until looking at this piece again, after all these years, that it's kind of similar to the clothes I now create. Very eerie.

I was not a very good seamstress. Here is my first attempt at a zig zag stitch

and I think this was supposed to be a straight line (I still struggle with those ;)

This is the back. To be quite honest, I prefer it this way!

So there you have it. This is what started me sewing. Granted, I didn't sew much after this project (would you? It was not a pretty sight!) but nevertheless, it was a seed planted.