Update: Sewing and Riding

Not much sewing going on lately. I have enough fabric to make a few projects, but the problem is that all the fabrics are knits. At the moment, knits are my nemesis. No matter what I do, even with a stretchy stitch, even with tissue paper as a stabilizer, the stitching still puckers. I don't want to ruin all my beautiful fabric, so it lies there on the shelf, taunting me.

I talked with my mother today, a master quilter and sewer, and she said that the tension is probably off on my machine. As my machine (a Bernina 1001 that used to be hers) is awesome I don't want to mess up my normal sewing (which is issue free) by messing with the tension just for knits. My mom offered to show me the tips and tricks for sewing knits when I'm down at my parent's house for Christmas, but since they're in Arizona and I'm in Portland, I'm obviously not going to lug my machine on the airplane. So depending on whether I get frustrated enough/annoyed enough with having all this pretty fabric and unable to do anything with it before Christmas, I might head down to my local Bernina dealer and see if they can help me.

 I've also been looking at sewing classes. I can wing a lot of stuff, and it turns out usable, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist and would like for things to look beautiful without being overwhelmed with how to get them there. There's a great set of classes at Josephine's, but they're a bit expensive and I have a couple other things that are a greater priority. My riding helmet is going to set me back a ridiculous amount, because of course my head only fits the expensive helmet. But I like my brain, and would like to keep it in the condition it's in, so I'll fork out a couple of hundred for a helmet you have to replace any time you have an unscheduled dismount. ::sigh::

Why oh why did I have to fall in love with horses and riding? Seriously, it beats even my photography as the most expensive hobby I have. Long story short on that front, I was a working student for a local dressage trainer for a few months. Did the stereotypical working student things: mucking stalls, cleaning waterbuckets, cleaning tack, feeding horses, turning out horses, grooming horses. In exchange I got free lessons. It was a lot of work, but I seriously got spoiled having lessons 3-4 times a week. I've never been able to ride that frequently before; as a kid I was only able to ride twice a month. Anyways, the trainer and I parted ways in March (for a variety of different reasons) and I'm counting down the days until I have enough money to find a new trainer. I was using my trainer's helmet, so now I have to get a new one before I start searching for a new trainer. The helmet's gonna cost me around $200, but like I said, I like my brain. I know of two eventing trainers south of me that I'm hoping to try out. I really want to jump again, but I need some serious flatwork before I'll be able to start doing courses.

Back to the sewing front, I have to post the amazing find I had at Goodwill. A huge bag filled to the brim with tons of different kinds of lace.
I can tell I'll be making lots of skirts and bags with lace! I'm already looking for good patterns to use this in.