Miss Frugal is much craftier than me!
I tried to keep up when she started to learn crochet and gave up when she taught herself to knit on YouTube!
I was so impressed with the blanket she ended up knitting but we’re still looking for her next project knitting wise as she wants to do something more complicated than I think she’s ready for so we’re arguing debating this at the minute.
I do want her to keep up her knitting skills though because you can knit so much these days and it’s not old fashioned stuff either – there are some really lovely patterns out there for knitted clothes. Things that would cost a fortune to buy ready made but for just a fraction of the cost, she’ll be able to whip one up herself.
Another thing she’s been dying to try is sewing with a sewing machine so she was over the moon when Ikea contacted us to ask us to join in with their Sewing Challenge. They sent us a sewing machine, some fabric and everything we needed to get going which was amazing.
The Sewing Challenge is to highlight the recent increased popularity of sewing and to share just how easy it is to make something and how much cheaper it is if you make something rather than buy it but actually, it worked really well for us as I’ve been wanting to get Miss Frugal a sewing machine for a while now. I see sewing a little bit like I see cooking – it’s a skill that will help her in later life so the earlier she learns it, the better she’ll be at it.
As I’ve said before, Miss Frugal has quite interesting taste in clothes and generally doesn’t like things that her friends like so if she can get the hang of sewing and following a pattern then she can make herself clothes out of fabric that she’s chose – again for just a fraction of the price.
The sewing machine was relatively easy to set up and will be even easier in future now we know how to do it and although it’s perfect for beginners, it has that many different stitches that I can’t see that we’ll need another one in future so it looks like it’ll be good for all levels of sewing machinists (is that the technical term?).
Before trying the sewing machine, Miss Frugal had only ever sewn things by hand so I’m not sure she knew what to expect with an electric sewing machine but after we’d threaded it and got it going for a practice she couldn’t believe how fast it went. She got the hang of it really quickly and was away in no time at all!
The first thing we made was an cushion cover which took minutes to make! We went for the easiest type of cushion cover and found it so easy that we even made you all a nice little guide so you can make your own!
How easy is that?
