She's Back...

 And we are very glad.  

It was $1 for parts ((a new upper knife) and $110  for labor, but she's all cleaned, tuned, tweaked and sharp and ready to go.  She's running a little more growly than in the old days, but, hey, she's 30 years old and she's still quieter than the new backup.  And I'm glad I now have a backup sewing machine and a back up serger that I can take to church for sewing days and still have my sewing set up at home.

On another note, I've had to turn off comments on some posts; that really shouldn't matter much because a) I only get about  3 actual comments a month and b) the posts are from the first of the year so they're not likely to get actual comments anyway.  But I've begun to be afflicted with really offensive R-rated comments.  I've got comment moderation turned on, so they're not getting any actual air play, but I have to look at them to moderate and I am not happy.  I finally noticed last week that they seemed to be recurring on the same two or three  12 Month wardrobe posts, so I turned off the comments for those posts.  We'll see if that stops the influx.  I have the comment moderation on, plus the capcha, so someone is working hard to leave yuckky stuff for no good purpose; it's not going to make it to public eyes. But maybe if I throw a leaf on the path the way will be blocked, lol.  We'll see.

Providential Timing

Some time ago, I posted somewhere about my frustration with my serger.  I thought it was on the blog, but a crawl through the last couple of years of posts didn't turn up anything, so I either posted it somewhere else...like Stitcher's Guild...or it was longer ago than I thought (more likely).

I had gotten it seriously serviced back in early 2014.  It had some dull knives, which were replaced, a dinged up throat plate, which was also replaced, and I think one of the loopers was slightly bent.

It purred when I got home with it.  But on of the first projects I sewed was my Epic Trench Coat...and some of the seams that I ran through the serger were really bulky.  I remember that there were some klunky noises coming from it as it labored through those seams and...something happened and it never quite ran perfectly after that.  I should have taken it back to the local repair guy, but, you  know, it wasn't awful and I just kept sewing....

Time passed and it got to the point that the knives were chewing the fabric...especially knits. It looked like lint/thread was getting down between the upper knife and the housing and pushing it slightly out so that the knives weren't aligning right and when I cleaned it all out it perked up and was running ok...or at least tolerable...again. But the problem kept recurring; I had to keep stopping to clean it out.  Cut threads would even just bypass the knife and get sewn into the seam, which caused all kinds of weird things. I wondered if the knife wasn't properly set, or if it had gotten knocked loose or some such thing, because I'd never had that problem before. 

But recently it was getting bad again, and cleaning out the knife didn't seem to make a big difference.  I mean, the seams were dragging going through, which was distorting them and making for ugly sewing.  I realized that the problem was actually cutting into my enjoyment of sewing, even though it wasn't cutting fabric well.  My productivity ground to a halt.

Then a week or so ago, I serged the head off a pin that had been buried in the gathered middle-of-three layers I was serging on a Hot Patterns Fast and Fabulous Lastrada T.  I was sewing very slowy, because it wasn't cutting at all well anyway, and didn't even realize that's what I'd hit until I found the headless pin in the gathers.  That pushed it over the edge.  I tried some sewing the next day (Saturday the 13th) but it was horrible.   My local sewing repair guy retired a couple of years ago, and the nearest reputable repair folks are an hour and a halfish away.  Getting my serger repaired was going to be a serious undertaking.  Late in the afternoon, I finally commented to my Sweet Babbo that the serger needed to go into the shop.  I even admitted to the possibility of getting another one...this one is over 30 years old.  'Then I would have a backup,' I said, as I headed to the computer and logged in to check the weather.

I didn't even mean to click on Facebook, but for some reason I did.  Lo and behold, a friend who lives in the same hour-and-a-half distant town had posted a serger for sale.  Reconditioned, from the same reputable folks that I need to take my limping one to.  She'd just not used it as much as she thought she would.

She posted it exactly seven minutes before I logged on.

Y'all, that's what I call Providential timing. My Sweet Babbo agreed so I messaged her immediately and got the machine today when they came to town for an appointment.

It doesn't fit the serger table I  have (I can't pull the extension up; see the tiled background photos for how my old serger snuggled up in there),  I'm going to have to get used to the noise of the differential feed (my old faithful was branded New Home...and it was the last generation before DF was standard.  I *could* have gotten DF in 1989...for an extra hundred bucks...).  Got it scooted right to the edge so I can have a thread catcher bag hanging off the table but...IT SEWS.  It'll definitely do for a backup. 

Now I just have to find the time to drive Old Faithful to the west side of the state to get her restored... and make me some time to sew some stuff for the closet!

Late night thoughts...

Doing the mom thing and waiting up on a kid to get home...might as well dust off the 'new post' page, eh?

I actually finished a top over the weekend;  I wasn't in choir this week since I was home playing post-op nurse for My Sweet Babboo.   He had a cyst removed...the CT scan showed it on his bronchial tube, but the surgeon said it appeared to be more connected to the pericardium (sac around the heart).  It also was lymphatic in nature, but the pathology all came back benign.

He looks like he had a tussle with a shark.  Pain meds are keeping him tolerably comfortable, but come with their own set of ...issues...so we'll be glad when the soreness abates and he can back off of them.  But he's on the mend, and I really  have not noticed the persistent cough that started this whole line of investigation.  So hopefully that was the culprit and he can remember what  it's like to feel good.  Sometime around Christmas.

Anyway.  Sewing.

I had an olive green jersey knit in the stash waiting for that to roll around in choir; almost missed it this go round but I will be able to wear it this Sunday, if all goes well and I can leave MSB at home for a few hours unattended.  I used Vogue 9057, the asymmetric long sleeved view that I have loved so much in the dark brown version I made a couple of years ago.

I had a time.   The presser foot on my sewing machine doesn't allow variable pressure adjustment (which probably would have been a deal breaker had I thought to ask about it when I was test sewing); it ate the first mitered corner I tried and I had to fudge it a bit in the end to cover the resulting holes.

On top of that, my serger wasn't trimming the seams cleanly; it was just kinda chewing them. By the time I sewed my last seam on the serger I was so frustrated I was ready to throw it in the car and haul it to the dealer for some maintenance. The chewing was dragging on the seam and making it waver; I couldn't stitch straight.  I got through it and pressed it and thought, well, I'll keep moving.

Then I happened to think...it HAD been a while since I gave the serger a good cleaning.

Found the oil, found my lint brush and went at it.  And found a sizeable chunk of lint in the spring that holds the moveable blade, which was probably pushing it just a hair away from the fixed blade.

Once I got it cleaned out, I ran a test seam on some scraps.  No problems.

Which just goes to show...everything needs a little TLC* from time to time. :-)

I'm going to be cooking tomorrow; turkey and apple salad and pie, in preparation for the feast of Thanksgiving.  My favorite holiday; probably more of what Christmas was like before it became such a consumer-fest.  Family and food and thanksgiving.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, I wish you joys as you reflect on your blessings; if you live elsewhere and it's business as usual on Thursday, I still wish you a day of joy and maybe a little TLC somewhere along the way.


*if you're not up on the acronym, that 's Tender Loving Care  :-)

Indy Expo Report, part 4 -- Oh, the irony...

I went to the cutting table and took a photo of the patterns I picked up;  my pattern purchasing has really dropped off of late.

Which makes sense, since I have nearly filled a second hand Simplicity pattern cabinet.  I mean, how many patterns does a girl really need?

I'm pretty much looking for details I don't have...or trying to save myself alteration time...in new patterns.

Or, in the case of Cutting Line Design patterns, I'm looking for great detailed instructions that I can use for other garments.

I actually purchased 3 patterns; the Eureka top and skirt came with the class.  Anyway:

I put the ruler in the photo, too.  I won the original version of that ruler...w/o the straight edge...in a blog giveaway and I love using it so much that I snatched the enhanced version when I saw it in Kathy Ruddy's booth.  It makes working with Burda Style and Neue Mode  patterns so much easier I can't even say.  Adding those seam allowances is a piece of cake with that baby.  Really.

I wanted a good skinny pant, and the Helix looked good...besides, there's that great t top.  I think I'm going to have fun with it.

Cynthia's jacket has a collar stand that you can't see and shoulder princess seams; the photo on the front has actually been modified a bit.  I have plans for that involving some stashed silk suiting..I really hope I can get to it in time to wear it to the next Expo...whenever that might be... ;-)

But I did make one other...minor...purchase at the Expo.  A bit ago, I mentioned that, for the first time in about 20 years, I had spotted a sewing machine model that actually interested me.

I did a little research on price and availablilty and such and found that the Janome dealer about an hour away had the  2013 model of that machine, which is virtually identical, for about the same price as what everyone seemed to be paying, and including a $50 voucher good for additional accessories.

One of my main motivations for wanting a new machine is that I'd been told by dealers here in town, who sell a hodgepodge collection of brands, that I could not get a straight stitch plate/foot for my old New Home, since it was such an ancient model, so I had plans for the voucher.

And I thought I'd look at the machine while I was at the Expo, if they had one.  They did; about 20 minutes before my last class on Saturday I sat down and sewed with it a bit and asked some questions and liked how it sounded when it was running and how nice the stitch looked.

I deliberately did that with just a little time before class so that I had to leave before I got that strong sales pitch.  I really didn't want to buy it at the Expo.  The price there was 11 dollars less than the price at Ken's, but with the voucher at Ken's that really wasn't an issue.  The only real difference was that this was the 2014 model instead of the 2013.  But, as I said, they looked to me to be the same, just a different color.  I was just getting more information...trying to decide what I wanted to do.


Now, the last class of the day was over at 3, but the Grand Prize Drawing for the day was not till 4:45.  And, as I said, that class was a pivot point.  There were only about 9 people in the class, so Cynthia just had us all come sit around the teaching table and she went over details on attaching convex curves to concave curves...think princess seams and collars to necklines.  And it all hinges on exceedingly precise stay stitching.

'Now, you can't stay stitch at a 1/8" distance with that zig zag plate,' she told us. 'Too much fabric gets sucked down into that hole and you can't control it.'

The lightbulb dinged on.  After class, I told her, 'My machine's like, 20 years old.  I can't get a straight stitch plate for it.'  She looked at me and said, 'Well, I think it's about time you got a new machine.'

Yes.  Yes, it is.

Now I just had to decide where to get it.  The 2014 at Indy...or the 2013 and the voucher at Ken's. My buddy Miss A had gone to the expo half planning to get a machine, and she had found the Pfaff she'd been thinking about and taken the plunge.  When I left class, I saw a parking place right by the entrance, so I got the car and pulled it around so she wouldn't have to carry the box far.  Then I found her and our new friend Valerie sitting by the fountain in the courtyard.  Lovely day...we chatted for a while and, just in case, I texted my Sweet Babboo...'Would I be in trouble if I bought a sewing machine?'   He replied, 'No'

Eventually, we drug ourselves away from the fountain and the lovely breeze and collected the Pfaff and got it in the car, and I decided I'd go take one last look at the 2014.  Miss A headed to the Expo stage to wait for the drawing...which was scheduled in about 30 minutes. I started down the hall to the Janome dealership, thinking.  About half way there, I made up my mind...I had to get that throat plate and foot from Ken, anyway,  I might as well just get the machine from him.  So I turned around and headed back towards the stage area.

But I passed a little seating/lounge area, and sitting in one of those seats was one of the Janome dealers.  As I walked by, he looked at me and said, 'So, did you buy your machine?'

'No, ' I said.  'I've decided to get it from my local dealer when I get home.'

So he asked me where I was from, and who the local guy was, and which machine I was looking at.

I told him, then added, 'You're selling that for 11 dollars less than Ken, but he's got a $50 voucher with his and I need some accessories, so, you know, I think I'll just go see him.'

He looked at me and said, 'I'll sell you the machine that you were sewing on for [$109 less than we've got it marked] if you'll take it home today.'

I am no fool.  Behold the new resident:

Notice that it fits the same table as the old one?  How convenient.  I haven't gotten to sew with it much yet...just a wee bit finishing up the Eureka top and a little on the knit tops that are currently in  progress.  I really like the even feed foot...

Monday night, I ordered the straight stitch plate and foot from Ken; it arrived Wednesday.  Just for grins, I tried it on the old machine.

It fits.

Ah, well, I now have a much lighter machine to haul around for any costuming I might do...

Machine Dreaming

It has been over 20 years since I last purchased a sewing machine.

I stumbled across a blog post a day or so ago that has put me into new machine fever.  The comments and reviews that I can find on it (not many, actually) seem very favorable.

However...I'm still somewhat hesitant as it has an electronic display.  Not a full out touch screen, just an LED display with the stitch selection but...

I'd really rather select my stitches with a dial. It's not gonna go out or get fried.  It just seems more reliable.


But, maybe there's the rub?  The manufacturers no longer want to make a machine that can be handed down to granddaughters?

Funny...I bought my New Home when my Kenmore was 12 years old, thinking it was time for a new machine.  In 1992.  Or maybe it was 1994.  It was either the year before or the year after The Actor was born; sad that I can't remember which.  Anyway, I really haven't found a machine that I'd even consider purchasing as a replacement.  Until this week.

I just have to get over my fear of short-lived electronics.

But, hey, I'll still have the old machines as back up, right?

Maybe I'll see if there is one available to test run at the Expo....

All cleaned up and ready to sew...

I've been in and out of my local sewing repair shop about 4 times in the last 3 weeks...took in all three machines for check ups/ tune ups/ repairs.

And ended up with a total bill of just under $300.  Which sounds like a lot, but only because it was all at once. 

The routine service is $69...and, for both sewing machines (including the one that had been dropped in the parking lot  back in August of '08) that was all I needed, although I did buy a larger rolled edge foot (the one that came with my machine was a skinny minny 2 mm!  Good for chiffon but not much else...) and replaced 2 broken feet for my New Home...cost for those pieces was about $35.  The serger, owing to the pin that hit the knives,  cost a bit more...upper and lower knives and a new throat plate.

Based on what I've read elsewhere, 70 bucks for a routine service is not at all bad.  And my machines looked so nice and clean when I got them!

So, now I want to sew and see if I can really tell they've been fixed up. ;-)