Martti: those little flower embroideries are lovely! And if you are hand sewing heavy fabric, do you have a thimble? Or a saddlers' palm if you can find one? I find such tools very useful for sewing canvas or leather; if you go to a craft shop you should find several gadgets for making heavy hand sewing easier and safer. Such tools were once used by shoemakers, harness repairers and the like, and now for leather crafts.
I've never mastered a sewing machine, but can hand sew well enough. One of my sisters is a tailor, and she thinks it's very silly of me, but I've never managed to machine-sew without breaking the machine or sewing my fingers!
well, I know what thimble is, I saw it when I was little, but never used (used it as a toy like using as a hat or glass or something for a barbie-like doll or something lol), but we don't have one here. when it was really hard I usually picked something metal around (mostly scissors) to help me push through.
I never knew it was for that. I asked my grandma (she is the only one who had) what it was, she said it protects my finger to be sewn to the cloths, but I didn't image that way UNTIL NOW that it could help me push just through the fabric, wow....
and I actually sew my finger/hand to some fabric few times (not with sewing machine). I was always laughing like "oops I sew my finger to it again" xD