W- and I unboxed and set up our very own sewing machine yesterday. It’s nothing fancy, just a Singer Simple 16-stitch sewing machine that we picked up from Walmart. After spending an hour trying to figure out how to thread the bobbin so that the bottom thread would get picked up by the top thread, we managed to get it working. (How many geeks does it take?)

The first thing I made was a lopsided bag for random things, because everyone who sews must make a bag at some point. I was particularly proud of the way the pattern was the right way up AND the bag was lined inside with the same pattern (although in the opposite direction). It was an interesting topological exercise. ;)

The second thing I did with the sewing machine was to alter one of my much-too-large conference shirts to fit me. In this case, I turned an Ottawa Linux Symposium shirt (XL, I think) into a fitted tee.

I don’t need another T-shirt and there are plenty of other things I could do with my time, but it’s nice to be able to come up with an idea (even a simple one) and make it happen.