Well, at least I got that out of the way.
I showed Connor the sewing machine this morning, and he immediately suggested I make a new pillowcase for his Little Pillow, since he somehow lost one of his pillowcases. (In his bedroom. I have no idea.)
I learned a few important things, some of which I already knew:
Ironing is worth it. Necessary, even. It made things go a lot smoother than they might otherwise have gone.
Measure twice, cut once. Actually, make sure to WRITE THE MEASUREMENTS DOWN. Because that’s how I ended up with a short pillowcase: I measured the dimensions, then (supposedly) committed them to memory. What would have worked better would have been to just get one of his other pillowcases and use it as a template.
Also, with cutting: a rotary cutter is most definitely in my future.
Have a full bobbin before starting the work, especially if you do some experimentation and practice runs before starting the real thing, like I did:
I ran out of bobbin thread partway through my decorative zig-zag hem, and was confused about how to recover from that. What I ended up doing was starting my sewing from the other end of the fabric after I wound a new bobbin.
Which brings me to my next lesson: always check and recheck all the settings before sewing! While winding the bobbin, I had to twist the stitch length dial to get it out of the way, and I totally forgot to set it back before I started sewing again. D’oh!
So, yeah, basically, this was my chance to mess up, and I did that splendidly. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, I’m free to make some different mistakes next time!