yay! Congratulations on almost having your sewing machine. You can definitely sew pieces together by hand in a basting stitch, if you wish, and then later replace them with a machine stitch. Just make sure you have a lot of good movies queued up as it will make all that hand sewing less monotonous. I’m probably one of the few people that do enjoy hand sewing as I find it quite relaxing, especially if I have a good movie to watch as I sit there. If you haven’t bought any of your basic sewing supplies yet, you can purchase a Start-to-Sew Kit at the fabric store. It’s found in the notions department. Usually, you get all the basic supplies that you need and you can usually get this kit for under $20. It comes with sewing gauge, tracing wheel, seam ripper, tape measure, pincushion, straight pins, sewing needles, fabric pencil, thimble and scissors. I don’t know if it’s cheaper than buying all these things individually, but it is easier and gets you started off on the right foot. You’ll, probably, eventually want to upgrade to a nicer pair of fabric scissors though. Nice scissors are always a good investment. The other notion you’ll have to buy would be thread to go with your project. Buy matching all purpose thread and, when you’re sewing machine arrives, you can go ahead and use it in the machine and be ready to go.