Morning, folks!

I hope this Monday finds you full and happy. I managed to eat my little heart out for four straight days, so today, the cleanse begins…

Last weekend, I took one of Modern Domestic’s free mini classes. As usual, I had a delightful time and I came home with a little personalized napkin in tow. I’m a beginner when it comes to sewing, and I loved this little project because it was quick and fairly simple. I just hopped on the crazy high-tech BERNINA Aurora 450 sewing machine, and held on for the ride. The hardest part of the entire class was choosing what kind of pattern I wanted on the napkin (so many pretty decorative stitches!), and the rest was history. I’m not going to dive into a full tutorial, as Modern Domestic has already done a fabulous one here, but here’s a few photos of my mini-class and my lovely finished napkins.

I started off with a pre-cut piece of 18×18 fabric, and then carefully measured and marked my lines where I wanted to sew the decorative stitching on both ends of the napkin.

From there, I sat down at my mighty BERNINA machine, programmed in my stitch, and started sewing…

I choose a fairly intricate stitch on one end of my napkin, and on the other end, I played around with the alphabet setting. I told my machine to spell out EAT, and it did. No joke. And so easy!

I serged the sides of the napkin, and then, in a blink of an eye, I brought home new napkins. It was easy. And if I say it was easy, it was.

Here they are resting nicely on my table.

You bet I’m coming back for more. I’m already dreaing up some holiday napkins, which I will share soon:).

Lots of goodies to come on the blog this week, including this year’s FREE holiday download. Get excited….

It sure feels like Fall around here, but this weekend we managed to see the sunshine both days, and it was Oregon at its best – bluuuueee skies, green grass and a little Fall breeze mixed in between. Sunshine usually means lots of DIY projects around the house, but on Saturday I spent nearly the entire afternoon indoors sewing this tote bag at Modern Domestic.

I’m a very beginner sewer, so I was quite amazed that I walked out of my class with this bag in tow. This project speaks volumes about Modern Domestic – they have top of the line machines, teachers and tools.

Somehow, this fabric…

Turned into this…

I love how practical this bag is and also the fact that it made me actually diligently practice my sewing skills for 3 plus hours(and yes, your eyes aren’t playing tricks on you, the bag is reversible). Practice surely makes perfect, and I have a long ways to go before I’m even close to perfect, but I’m a heck of a lot more experienced than I was when I took my first sewing class this spring!

If you are a loyal reader of my blog, you already know how much I love Modern Domestic. But can I just tell you one more time how much I love this place?

I love learning. And now that I’m not in college, I actually like to be a “student” every once in awhile. I’ve signed up for the Intro to Silkscreen class at Modern Domestic, and I’m so pumped to design my very own tote bag!  At the end of the two classes, I’ll walk out the door with one of these in tow:

Photo Courtesy of Modern Domestic

The first time I walked into Modern Domestic, I actually wanted to purchase one of these fun totes. And then I learned that I could take a class that lets you design your own pattern and silkscreen it onto a handy dandy tote bag - I was so in!

Photo Courtesy of Modern Domestic

I’m going to learn the fundamentals of silk screening, which means I’ll learn about emulsioning a screen and burning  design onto the silkscreen and finally printing. In this case, I’ll be printing my design onto a canvas tote, and I’m thinking I’ll go with something fun and bright like this…

I can’t say enough wonderful things about Modern Domestic – check out my recent post about the store and all they offer here. As for my tote that’s anxiously awaiting my design, I’ll let you know what pattern I chose and of course reveal my finished product with you as soon as my class is finished!

And one more thing…like any of the above fabrics? Check out this site for many, many more designs and colors.