First attempt.

So today I made my first attempt at machine piecing using the sewing machine my mother passed my way at Christmastime.

Wait, back up: it was not my first attempt at sewing with this machine. When I got home, I immediately took it in for servicing, but once I got it home, I took a stab at a drawstring project bag for my knitting.

I mean, how hard could that be? Just seam two sides of a fat quarter and make the opening for the drawstring?

It turns out that reverse engineering, even for something so simple, is not so simple. That is one thing I learned that day.

Another is: do not sew the body seams for the bag before making the long seams necessary for the drawstring part.

Another is: you have to finish off the ends of that drawstring tube.

Another is: do not sew shut the opening of the drawstring tube.

All of which add up to maybe I should use a pattern instead of trying to reverse engineer right out of the gate.

But my seam ripper and I are good friends now.

Today, though, today ended with a satisfactory result:

First, there were some learning experiences. Such as when, in making one of those nice strips of squares, I sewed the seams so that one was on the wrong side, as it should be, and the other was on the right side.

Oops.

And then I did it again.

Seriously, seam ripper?

But now it looks pretty good. Here is the back:

You can see there is one wonky place where the seams did not quite line up right:

My cutting could have been more perfect, but at least I did not lose any digits or parts of digits to my razor cutter.

My seaming could definitely be straighter, but I'm getting the hang of looking at the edge of the foot instead of the needle. And sometimes I can even maintain steady pressure on the pedal.

Zoom!