Necchi_sewing_machine

Learning a New Skill: Keeping the Brain in Shape

In a post early this year, I wrote about how useless New Year’s resolutions are and how I wanted to forgo traditional resolutions and replace them with goals. I talked about either learning German or taking a creative writing class.

Having been foiled by scheduling conflicts for the creative writing class, and having ruled out the German class, I find myself turning to other options.

Enter, my grandmother Frances’ 1966 Necchi sewing machine:

Necchi_sewing_machine
Talk about vintage, baby!

My mom mentioned this spring that she wanted me to take the machine and put it to good use. As it was, it was sitting in our house in Massachusetts, rusting.

A senior citizen learns quilting in order to keep sharp. Source: NPR.
A senior citizen learns quilting in order to keep sharp. Source: NPR.

Earlier this year, I read an NPR article discussing how research shows that learning a new skill helps to keep your brain sharp. The more challenging the skill, the better. So I decided that sewing would be a good skill to pick up!

My girlfriends from the Montreal Stitch n’ Bitch were delighted when I mentioned this to them, and they plotted together to give me a kit for my birthday that would draw me into the sewing world.

See that book on the table by the machine? That was one of my gifts. The other was some fabric and a little sewing kit, as well as a “gift certificate” for one sewing class to learn to make a baby’s bib.

A long, rainy Sunday afternoon later, this was the result:

Okay, so it's not quite straight, but it's a start...
Okay, so it’s not quite straight, but it’s a start…

Thanks to Taloline, PerrinPimPim and OuakiDou for the lesson!

All this has combined to lead me to contact the Zig Zag sewing school here in the Plateau to enquire about sewing classes this fall. Today, my enrollment was confirmed and starting on the 15th of October, I’ll be taking a beginner’s sewing class!

My goal is to start quilting, as I just love the designs I’ve seen, especially from my sister-in-law’s twin sister on Instagram (here’s a link, though she might be private). We’ll see where this goes!

Jane

The Brain In Jane works mainly in the rain. It's always raining somewhere. Find me on Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

One thought to “Learning a New Skill: Keeping the Brain in Shape”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.