Very cute, EASY sewing project.

So, my mom gave me her sewing machine. She never sews anymore and it was just collecting dust in her closet. I'm not a sewer. I was supposed to make a shirt in high school, and had my home-ec teacher not finished it for me, I'm not sure I would have made a passing grade on it. I made half a dress in college and then it just got too complicated, so my sweet friend Kim Messervy who could sew anything blindfolded finished it for me. I like cutting out the patterns and pinning everything together, but it's all that stitching stuff that gets me every time. But, wanting to do something with this nice sewing machine Mom gave me, I went in search of an easy sewing project. I found one. And I had a REALLY good time making these cute little key chains that are selling for way more money than they should in boutiques. I'm kind of inspired now to move onto to something else, but I don't know just what. Anybody have any suggestions of some things I could do that are beginner level? Also, it shouldn't take a whole lot of time to complete, because if I can't finish it in one sitting, I'm likely to not ever finish it. Just ask the half-dozen half-cross stitched projects in my drawer. And I'm still not done with those darned Christmas stockings.

Anyway, I used the tutorial from this blog: Creative Little Daisy

These make great gifts, and sorry to those of you whose, um, gifts these will be. Kind of a spoiler, but too cute not to share. There are a few things I did differently from the tutorial:

1) I did not use interfacing. It would have made it too bulky, especially at the last step when you have to stitch close to the D ring, and as it was, I should have switched the presser foot to the zipper foot for more room.
2) I made my fabric a little wider than 1" because my D rings were 1 1/2" inches, and the 1" showed too much of the D ring for my taste, but the 1" D rings looked too small. Oh yeah, I used 1 1/2" D rings and 1" split rings.
3) I used pins to hold down ribbon onto fabric instead of fusible tape. The fusible tape bled through the ribbon too much. The pins worked nicely. I did use a roller and self-healing mat to cut my fabric strips. Wouldn't recommend using scissors unless you have a really steady hand, which I don't.

Thanks to my friend Angie who taught me how to use my mom's sewing machine, and who let me finish these at her house on her sewing machine when we discovered the lever on my presser foot was broken. :( Boo. Gotta get that fixed soon. Now, my friends who are sewers (ahem, Sara, Cheyenne, Natalie...), send me some ideas!