Prudent Baby - Sewing Machine Double Down!

I was surfing the web a while back and came across Prudent Baby. I instantly fell in love with the site! It's full of super crafty things and tons of tutorials and it even links you to other crafty blogs! It's totally crafting blog heaven! Prudent Baby is hosting a contest called the Sewing Machine Double Down. I'm not a huge sewer but would love to be. With the wedding coming up, I was hoping to sew a few things like fabric flowers etc. I thought, "How sweet would a new machine be?" To enter is simple. Sorta. You just need to sew a pot holder! They even give you a few tutorials to go off of. I chose this one. It looked simple enough and I really think the fabric got me. So today I went on a hunt for fabric at Fabricland. $80 later, I came home with 2 meters of fabric, 1/2 a meter of Insul-Brite, 2 packages of bias tape, 2 spools of thread, a package of pins and a 3 year membership. 

I definitely felt overwhelmed. It took me a long time to find fabric I liked and of course, the ones I liked were expensive! I also had to get the sales associate to show me how to sew the bias tape. I also followed the tutorial here. I told Jamie I was nervous sewing and then asked myself why. I've sewn before and it's not like I can't go out and buy more fabric if I mess up! So with that in mind, a sewing a did go. 

Now you might be thinking the potholder is just placed crooked, but oh no. It's actually sewn crooked because the darn Insul-Bright was so thick with 2 layers, it was so hard to keep everything straight! I also learnt from Arlie that I was supposed to pin everything so that it'd stay a square! I couldn't salvage it but decided to push on. 

The backside really doesn't look that bad right? The pink side was definitely the uglier side. It was the side that was facing me while I was sewing. 

This little piece here goes on the front of the potholder so you can slide your hand in. I decided to pin the darn thing in place because there was no way I could sew that bias tape without pinning. Another thing I learnt: sew along the crease, not just in the middle because when you wrap your bias tape over the fabric edge, it pulls and looks ugly. You might have no idea what I'm talking about but trust me, you want to sew right along the crease! 

Jamie helped me decide which side I should put the extra little slot for the hand. I was leaning towards this combination too. 

More fantastic pinning. You have no idea how many times I poked myself. Those suckers are sharp and when you get one of them poking you underneath your finger nail, you wanna just pick up the potholder and shred it to pieces. 

After pinning the back side and sewing it in place, I had to pin the other side. This took a long time partly because the pins I bought bend really easily and all the layers put together were really thick. It's definitely coming along though! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! 

Voila! 2 1/2 hours worth of work to make this sucker. Was it worth it? Absolutely!!! Hopefully doubling up on the Insul-Bright lining will make it heat resistant enough to pull things out of the oven. I also hope it doesn't fall apart after a few uses! Here's a look at the back. 

Now for the kicker. I thought to win the contest, they were going to do a random draw because it said something along the lines of, "No sewing machine? Pick up a needle and thread!" It definitely misled me! I went to read the contest rules and guess what? THEY JUDGE!!!

Contest consists of two (2) rounds of evaluation. In Round One, each judge in the panel (at least one of whom will be independent of Sponsor) (“Judges”) will select ten (10) entries in each Category from among all eligible entries based on the following criteria (“Judging Criteria”): (1) Originality 25%; (2) Style 25%; (3) Workmanship (25%); (4) Presentation (25%). The entries selected in Round One will proceed to Round Two. In Round Two, the Judges will collectively select two winners based on the Judging Criteria. In the event of a tie, the tied entries will be re-submitted to the Judges for a re-judging between the tied entries alone. In the event that a tie remains after re-judging, the entry with the highest score in the originality criteria will be declared the winner. Winners will be chosen on or around February 11, 2011, and notified by email. Decisions of the judges are final and binding.

Well... I wasn't original because I copied their pattern exactly. The style is also the same... My workmanship is crap and my presentation bleh. So after all that work, I realized there is no way I'm winning that cool sewing machine. Sigh. To see more pictures of the potholder, go to this post.