Ashley Addington

Project #1: Small Bag (cell phone picture)

The unexpected number of snow days in Boston this winter has allowed me time to play catch up with my to-do list and afforded a few free moments to cultivate my crafty personality by spending time with a sewing machine, fabrics, scissors, thread, and an iron.

Back Story: I could from a line of wonderfully talented and crafty women in my family. Both of my grandmothers were fabulous sewers. Growing up, Carmen and I had were lucky enough some of the most wonderful costumes to play dress-up in as kids that were made my paternal Grandma. My favorite set were handmade dresses from Cinderella, which included 3 Fairy Godmother dresses in blue, red, and green (complete with pointed hats) and one of course for Cinderella herself. Continuing the tradition, my mom and aunts (on both sides of the family) have become successful sewing crafters in their own ways creating quilts, baby blankets, purses, luggage tags, and more.

My mom bought me sewing machine from Christmas 2009 and after a few trips to Joann’s Fabrics and browsing Barnes and Noble for trendy sewing books, I completed my first bag last March.

Tab Curtains with Sunflowers from the Farmer's Market and a Cat

The sewing machine rested for the remainder of the spring as I struggled to find motivation and time to start a new project. Fortunately, I did discover the Fabric Corner store up the way in Arlington and fell in love with fabric selection there – all of the beautiful fabrics by designers that I hadn’t seen at Joann’s like Amy Butler, Marimekko, Anthology, Kaffe Fassett, and more. It is easy to spend an hour in the store browsing fabrics and imagining all of the fun projects I could work on.

We moved to a new apartment in July and I embarked on some home decoration of the curtain and pillow variety thanks to the help of the Somerville Public Library. It turns out to be very convenient to having a library I can see out the living room window for the very purpose of impulsively checking out five books on curtain design. With limited skills, I selected a pattern for a tab curtain and used a beautiful Australian Aboriginal print from a line carried at Fabric Corner.

One Yard Wonders: 101 Sewing Fabric Projects by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Haskins

I had my eye on these books all year and am looking forward to working through some of the projects.

Three bags have been created over the last month – one for myself, one for my sister-in-law, Alycia, and one for Kathryn. Each new bag has improved from the previous one as I’ve learned from the process and experimented with new techniques, different stitching options, played around with pockets and interfacing, and dealt with magnetic snaps.

Flower Bag

Sewing is definitely good practice for my patience, especially when it comes to threading the bobbin! I have gained great satisfaction from finishing each project and love totting my new bag around. There are still so many basic sewing skills that I can improve on as well as a variety of projects in my crafty books that I haven’t even tried yet. Just as my life as a musician, I embrace the idea that there will always be something new to learn.

Enough crafting for tonight! It’s time to get back to practicing Dutilleux, Boehm, and Bach to record this weekend for the NFA competition and the slew of music for concerts coming up in February and March.