M&Ms

Oh dear.  It started really well.  I got up early yesterday and even before I'd made the first cup of tea I'd pinned my M to the fabric and started to cut.  I realised right away that I'd made my first mistake by not making sure both fabrics were right side facing.  But luckily the denim was fairly symmetrically cut so it didn't matter too much when I flipped it around.   

I first learned to sew when I was around 8 years old.  I remember two things from those lessons.  "The long thread of the lazy tailor" was one.  (Can anyone explain why that's important?)  And the other is that at some point, my teacher called over another woman to have a good giggle at my big stitches.  So I'm a bit paranoid about making my stitches small.

Anyway, I finished the whole thing in about 45 minutes and was busy congratulating myself, until I realised that there was no way I was going to be able to turn this inside out and stuff it.  Basic schoolgirl error I know...

So I started again with a bigger template.

Only that didn't work either.  Still too thin to work with.  I was getting a bit frustrated at that point.  Mr. P and I had words about how to get the right template font to print.  

In the end I had to improvise a template drawn around the second template.  And that worked.  More or less.  

I know.  It looks a bit like an elephant who'll wake up tomorrow with the mother of all hangovers.  But I didn't have the heart to start again.  So I stuffed it anyway.

So there you go.  My first letter.  Only another 13 to go!  I may relent and make two Ms when I get that far in my Merry Christmas project.  But for all its wonkiness, I quite like this one.  In fact, I'm chuffed to bits.

And Anthropologie need not worry about a share price warning just yet...




Lessons for next time:

1. Never sew when you're hungry.
2. Right side in.
3. If it looks like it won't fit, it won't fit.
4. Patience patience patience.

All suggestions on how to improve gratefully received.