No-one could ever accuse me of being hasty

I bought my sewing machine well over a month ago and until yesterday I hadn't attempted making anything with it. I'd practised sewing straight lines (not very successfully) on an old pillowcase but that was it.

Yesterday, spurred on by an epic Project Runway marathon, I decided to get brave and have a go at something. I saw this fab tutorial on What Would A Nerd Wear a while ago and have been wanting to try it ever since but lack of time and nerve meant that it just hadn't happened so far.

The end result is not entirely as I would have liked but let's look at the positives before the negatives:

I made a skirt! And it's the first thing I've ever tried to make on a sewing machine. Good work, yes?

I can sew straight lines when I try.

I can do pockets, woop!

There aren't any holes in it so my seaming and hemming is clearly not too awful either.

It's v. pretty.

And on the flipside:

I put the pockets too high up

It's a bit too short

And most annoyingly, it's really not that flattering (hence the lack of pics of me modelling it). I think there's too much fabric in it as it sort of poofs out around the hips and makes me look even wider - not helpful on a pearshaped girl! I'm going to see what I can do to make it less so but it might have to be a case of just making another one and tweaking the measurements so that I don't use so much fabric and consequently it's not so poofy.

Overall though, I am impressed with myself. I don't mind the bad points too much as the first two aren't a big deal and I never really expected that the first thing I made would be perfect. Would you think that I used to be scared of sewing machines?

Which brings me neatly to an award I've received from the lovely Nici at Giddy Little Miss . Thank you Nici! I have to tell you 5 facts about myself. Hmmm. I always find this sort of thing strangely difficult to do.

1) I am weirdly freaked out by lorry cabs. I don't mind them when they have trailers attached but the cab part driving along by itself is just not right.

2) I always save the nicest part of whatever I'm eating until last. It deeply irritates me when I'm with someone who goes "oh don't you like that?" and then helps themself to it before I get a chance to stab them in the hand with a fork.

3) I have a GCSE in Latin. Unfortunately I don't remember anything of it except "Caecilius est in horto" - Caecilius is in the garden. Useful eh?

4) I love watching sport and will watch almost anything except golf. Oh and basketball.

5) My uni degree is in Criminology and Criminal Justice. I work in the heritage/third sector so it couldn't be less relevant!