Creative. Outlet.

That is what you need when you have a newborn at home. Now that we have passed the two month mark and my son is more or less sleeping through the night, I actually have mustered up enough mental capacity to get back in touch with my creative side. 

A great tip I received back when I worked for a large church was that when you have a lot of drain in your life, you need to make sure you have enough "fill". For some people it's cooking, for others, it's tinkering with cars, for me, it's a decorating/home improvement project. 

You know you are deprived when you take your baby on a stroll through the local hardware store and chat up the help about how to clean efflorescence off your basement walls. 

Anyways, a big skill I have been lacking in this department is sewing. I am pleased to announce that I now know how! Now, don't panic- my blog is and always will be for people who don't have a lot of money and got B's in elementary school art class. But I think sewing for me and probably for many of you, is good way to go for a creative outlet.

First of all, it involves a lot of straight lines. Second, it helps me make functional items that I can actually use. I don't have the temperament to just make stuff for the sake of making it, I need a goal. You don't make chocolate chip cookies to just bake something, you want to eat them. That's why I don't make cookies.

So, before my son was born I called up a friend who is a phenomenal seamstress and asked her to give me some "sewing lessons" once a week. 

Check out her Etsy shop here or at praktical.etsy.com. 

After one session I was rocking the mini pillow. After a month or so of lessons I had made two large pillow covers and a changing pad cover for my son's nursery.  See below:

I used a cute jungle dot flannel from JoAnn Fabrics  which fit into my color scheme perfectly. Not too theme-y.

Once I realized I was capable of sewing in a straight line and could actually make something, I asked for a sewing machine for Christmas, and there you have it. I purchased a Singer Curvy Sewing Machine from Amazon.com. It was pretty, came with a DVD to show me how to use it (this was key) and was under 200 dollars. I didn't want something too cheap, but since I don't need all the fancy features either, I thought this was a good match. Kind of like getting the Honda Civic without the sunroof. 

For a new mom, sewing is a great hobby because it doesn't take up long periods of time.You can make a pillow in about 30 minutes, and if you don't have that, you can just do it bit by bit in little chunks. 

Sewing my own pillow covers costs me at least half the cost of buying new ones, depending on the fabric. There are a lot of great inexpensive fabrics out there at Jo Ann Fabrics plus a GREAT site for fabric is www.fabric.com. They will let you return fabric if you don't like it, and if it's a small enough quantity they don't even make you send it back. IKEA sells pillow inserts in different shapes for cheap cheap, or you can just cover an existing throw pillow you already have. Heck, you can even buy an ugly pillow on clearance at the store and make your own cover. As my husband often reminds me, decorative pillows serve no real function, so there is no need to get expensive inserts with down feathers for something that is just going to get thrown onto the floor every time the guys come over to watch football.

Here are my latest creations for my bedroom. It desperately needed a little pattern to break up all the cream and beige.

So, I am thoroughly enjoying my new creative outlet. And there is nothing like finding someone you can be creative with and learn from at the same time. Let's face it, the people who make Home Improvement YouTube videos didn't exactly make the cut for HGTV.

So, think of something you want to learn to do, and start doing it!