Sunday, May 15, 2011

Sewing machine love

Baby D is doing better, which means mama has time for crafting. Too bad the sewing machines are all temporarily out of commission. Yes machines plural.

Machine A was left in the basement of the house we moved into when i was 15. It's lived in Pittsburgh, DC, and Denver since then. I'd fiddled with it a few times here and there- all unsuccessfully. When I was pregnant and the sewing bug hit full force I took it in to see what was wrong. I can't remember the details, just the $165 price tag.

I went back and forth. I can get a new machine with fancy stitches for that much. But it's a solid machine with metal insides. I was talking to a coworker about this and another offered her grandmother's machines, leading to machines B & C.

Machine B- A Montgomery Wards machine, circa the 1980's. It does the basics well. At least until I took the bobbin casing apart to clean it and messed it all up. I only ever work on it when I'm ready to sew- aka impatient.

Machine C- is an old Necchi that has 10 or so programmed stitches. It does the basics just fine, but with a squeak that made me fret a bit. I oiled all of the visible parts, but didn't want to unscrew any panels (see machine B's story). In one of those round about conversations with the maintenance guy at office 2 he shared that he used to be a commercial sewing machine repair person. I asked about the squeak. He offered to take a look.

So right now the closest to working machine is sitting in his shop. Half naked and soaking in oil.

Baby shoes, a tshirt tote, my first quilt (getting the layers together) and so much more are ready.


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