Playdate...

...with a free sewing lesson thrown in.

We hid from the hideously hot weather in the air-conditioned comfort of the studio today, and invited along some little friends to play.  My girl is indeed MY girl... she took the opportunity to teach her little friend to sew on the new kid-friendly machine.

I was heartened to hear nothing but encouraging words from the little teacher and lots of giggles from both girls.  The little sewing newbie was put through the Winky Cherry* training programme of sewing along straight, curved, crooked and squiggly lines on paper, before she was allowed to sew on fabric.  By the end of the day, the girls made a moon (of sorts) and a teddy-bear (ish) and had a lovley time, altogether.

The four year old younger sister got to play with fancy stitches on the fancy-schmantzy Bernina.   Their mother and I caught up on a long-overdue chat, in between sewing and glue-and-glitter activities.  Great stuff.

When the visitors left, the wee girl noticed that I'd put together a quilt top, using my test-blocks from my adventures with  the Modern Quilt Blocks book.  She found a whole new bag of inspiration!!

Yep.  That's my girl.  Always up for a new direction.

*My goodness!  Since when did that Winky Cherry book get so expensive?!  Santa brought it to the wee girl last xmas, but I believe it was purchased  when she was about 6 months old.  The girl was destined to sew, I tell ya.

Too many bells and whistles....

...are never enough.

I got myself a great deal on a heap of new trinkets and gadgets for the fancy-schmantzy machine.

So far, I'm loving the new thread stand. I use a lot of large cones of thread on the industrial machines and they're usually a pain when I use them the domestic machines - NOT ANYMORE!!!

I'm also very lazy when it comes to changing thread colours when there's only one spool holder. With the thread stand, there's no need to go to all that bother to take the thread off the machine.... just whack another one on!!! It's easy to cut-and-tie the new thread colour on and pull it through the machine.

And finally..... FINALLY..... I have a big, slicko table attachment. Since I spied Emma's at Sewjourn last year, I've thought I WAN'T ONE OF THOSE (and I didn't even have the machine then!).

It's very shiny and clear and swish-looking. Oh, and it also makes it easier to sew big awkward heavy things (like big awkward bags ....and I suppose quilts, since it's for a quilting machine).

There are also a few new presser feet that I never knew I absolutely needed - and a new invisible zipper foot (which I DID absolutely need). Doubtless, I'll be waxing lyrical about them all at various points over the next however-long.

We're also installing lots of new bells and whistles on the website (so if you hear clanking and banging in the background while you shop, its just us fixing up a few things at the back end). Hopefully the postage calculation and automatic payments thingamy will be sorted before the 22nd Century (maybe even before the next decade). There is a lot of product weighing and data-input yet to go.

Between website tinkering and showing our new gals - Adele and Vireya - the ropes in the office (and.... ummmm... looking intently at the editing work I have to do on the book.....) not much sewing has been done.

The machine justs sits there, seductively dressed in its new accessories. Waiting.

Still finding reasons to be in love...

I discovered the overlock stitch on my beloved new Bernina has more uses than as a slow, non-trimming option for sewing stretch fabrics. (I'm used to an industrial overlocker, and I don't think you can beat that stitch on knit fabrics).

No need for more OFMK* mismatched overlocking thread on wovens!!! On pesky little seams, this stitch looks for all the world like I actually took the time to finish things properly ...and doesn't require re-threading any machines. I'm in love.


And can someone please tell me how I survived all these years without an automatic buttonhole stitch?



Of course, these stitches are not exclusive to whizzy new Berninas - they're just new to me. The overlock stitch on my old Singer was never as fast or as neat (and I've never had a computerised machine before so I'm a bit gadget-struck). I'm also prone to gushing about things I like.... especially this machine.

Pom-Pom Playdate

About six months ago, the wee girl begged me to show her how to make pom-poms..... and lost interest about a third of the way through the yarn-winding stage.

She picked the same pom-pom up last week and we finished it off. I whipped up a quick little beanie in polar fleece and sewed the pom-pom to its tip. She's been wearing it proudly ever since.

This inspired a playdate activity..... so today, we had two little girls winding wool around circles of cardboard.

There was a bit of Mummy-involvement in the construction, which we managed over tea and delicious home-made fig and walnut bread (thanks Veronika!) and we still had time to chat.

I made the first (red) beanie by freehand-cutting a shape that looked "near enough" to the right shape - and somehow it was SPOT ON! I traced off a pattern from the red hat (see below) because I don't expect to be so lucky every time.

The pattern was used to cut out two pieces of polar fleece for each hat. The overlocker (serger) was fired up to sew the hat pieces together (on the curved side seams) and then whizzed around the hemline to neaten the edges.

(The playdate girls got to choose their own colour fleece from a huge bag of offcuts in my fabric stash. I cut and sewed.)

The girls then each chose a fancy-schmantzy stitch on my fancy schmantzy machine. I turned a 3.5cm hem and stitched it up with the chosen fancy stitch.

Pom-poms were attached with a few stitches of yarn and the 'designers' were happy with the beanies 'they' made. I think they also liked the fact that they looked like little pink polar-fleece twins for the rest of the afternoon.

I wouldn't expect the pom-poms to survive a machine wash, but it's not too much effort to remove the few stitches attaching them to the hats, should the need for laundering arise. Failing that, a gentle hand-wash should be fine.

All in all, I highly recommend it as an activity for a FREEZING cold Sunday.

...

...

PS. If you missed my last post, take a peek. It's a giveaway!

You were warned...

I told you I"d be waxing-lyrical, didn't I? (Think yourself lucky you're not one of those poor ear-bashed folks in my studio...). The way I'm banging on about all it can do, anyone would think that I'd never had a new sewing machine before.

The truth is, this is the first EVER brand-new machine I've owned, and my first electronic sewing machine. I'm a bit gadget-struck and excited.

But mostly, I'm glad I went the extra expense to get the Aurora 440 for a number of reasons, and mostly it's not for the 180-odd pre-programmed stitches.

#1 reason was the motor.... Ah, the motor. Of course, there's a fancy name for the type of motor (that I've forgotten) but I just listened to it and felt it pull any thickness of fabric through with ease. Anyone could tell you that I'm not usually a huge fan of domestic machines, but this one handles like an industrial (if slower, as domestic machines are by nature). It has serious oomph - and the difference between the Aurora 440 and smaller machines means a lot when you're sewing lots of bulky, awkward shapes.

#2 The machine bed has LOTS more room. Managing bulky bags around a smaller machine can be difficult but this one is nice and roomy.

#3 Automatic needle-up and needle-down... but wait... with a foot-controlled option to change its position when you need to. If it's set for needle-up and you need to pivot on a seam, you just kick back on the foot pedal and the needle goes down. Or vise-versa. LOVING that one. Combined with the knee-lift on the presser-foot, it means you don't have to take your hands off your work.

#4 The knee lift, the walking foot, the BSR (stitch regulator) unit and lots of dinky gadgets in a cute little wardrobe box came standard with the machine (they're extra with other models).

#5 Automatic buttonhole, automatic buttonhole, automatic buttonhole..... I'm in love.

#6 Three types of automatic back-tack or lockstitch. Again - loving that I don't have to take my hands off my work and I can vary the backtack according to the work I'm doing.

#7 Automatic blind hemming with a special blind-hemming foot. With all my other mechanical machines, I've never been able to do the perfect blind hem. This one takes all the guesswork out of it. No more hand-sewn hems for me. (I can spend telly-evenings making more hair ties).

#8 A sliding seam guide that travels the width of the machine bed. Topstitching heaven, and not a Post-it note in sight.

#9 Ok - I admit it - I love pressing those buttons.

#10 Loving that the wee girl is loving it, too. I spent most of the Saturday before last with her on my lap at the machine. She had the style-card with all the stitches, chose the design she wanted to see and then pressed the appropriate buttons (it's educational too!). After several hours of calico embellishment, she brought out every t-shirt she owned and we embellished the hems. It's another step in the right direction for my plans to completely indoctrinate the poor unsuspecting child....

Edited to add:
#11 ELEVEN needle positions at the touch of a button. Being able to shift the needle position is one of my favourite features on my old Berninas, and here it is with more positions and a whizzy button control. It means you can use the presser foot as a seam, edgestitch or topstitching guide and sew exactly where you want to - adjusting by degrees if necessary.


The wee girl proudly took her calico to Show & Tell at kinder and told the class that she "sewed it on Mummy's fancy-schmantzy sewing machine". Amused the teachers no end.

My Creative Space

There's a new kid on the block.

And it has fun gadgets!

My dream machine is finally mine. There will no doubt be much waxing lyrical about this baby over the next wee while, but right now I'm too tired to type. Too much excitement for one day.

I had a lovely evening at the Emergency Northern Craft Bonanza but now I'm all talked out.

For more creative spaces, pop over to Kirsty's.

PS. The gadget that was the last new kid in town is just for looks, it seems. It won't fit any of my machines - it's for a slant machine, which are really rare here. I overlooked that bit when I was bedazzled by the cute case.

Sewing Machine Advice

I'm often asked for advice on what kind of sewing machine to buy.

Because Sew Mama Sew has been having a month of sewing machines, I thought it timely to post about the machines I own, and link to the wealth of information about all sorts of machines there and on blogs around the world. Perhaps you'd like to review your own machine and link in to the meme...?

Leisl has also started a Flickr group to show off your sewing machine/s - I'll sew you mine if you sew me yours...

I have an almost embarrassing number of sewing machines, but my favourite of favourites is my simple straight-stitch industrial Singer. Bought for $250 in about 1994 and probably the most used and best travelled machine in the world. And the overlocker below has been a constant companion.

I bought this industrial three-thread overlocker for $150 in about 1988. It used to be in a lovely black and gold antiquey-looking casing. By the mid-90's, a few parts needed replacing and (as it's an obsolete model) I had to buy another $100 machine and get a mechanic to merge the two of them. Despite my instructions to keep the lovely black casing, he gave me the dodgey grey one and kept the black one for himself.

I have a collection of old domestic machines that people can use in classes. I think these older Bernina and Janome machines are the most perfect option for home-sewing-bag-makers-on-a-budget. They have the solid metal parts and gears to handle going through the bulk of fabric that you encounter with bags. (New Berninas and Janomes are great too - but I can't afford to collect them!).

My experience of newer machines (that people bring to classes) is that you have to spend a fair bit of money to get a new machine with the equivalent ability (and accessories) to plough on through thick bag bits. Those new plastic machines for under $400 don't really cut it for lumpy sewing. I bought these Berninas through a dealer who offers a great back-up warrantee and free service within the first 12 months. You pay a bit more for that (like... about $400) but it's good to have that back-up. (My advice: Get to know your local sewing machine dealer, kids!)

I picked up this Janome at an op shop for $30. It had supposedly been electrically tested, but was blowing smoke when I took it home. Strangely enough, I knew that a machine blowing smoke is not necessarily a big problem - it's often in need of a new condenser (geez, I sound like I know what I'm talking about...!), which isn't expensive at all. A full service and a new condenser cost me $120. A good, solid machine for $150.

This Singer was an impulse buy at the sewing machine shop. $150 including warrantee and service within 12 months. Solid metal parts. Cute retro styling. I'll have that, thanks. Something broke on it just after the 12 months warrantee period expired and the mechanic still fixed it for free.... like I said, get friendly with your dealer!

Ahhh... old faithful. This is the machine I got for my 16th birthday. It's seen some action. It's travelled around the world with me. And now my wee girl won't let me near it. Apparently it's HER machine (she sews things together by using the handwheel). I still use this one when I do buttonholes.

...
Things I forgot to photograh:

I also have an old Pinnock like Lara's - which I've never used (because all those buttons confuse me... I must ask Lara for a lesson!!). My sister-in-law gave it to me. And I also have a Toyota domestic overlocker (also from the sister-in-law, who was upgrading). It's not my preferred brand but I use the overlocker all the time.

...

Now, if you think that's an embarrassing collection, don't get me started on my irons and pressing equipment!!

Sewing Tutorial HEAVEN!!!

If you think I have some good tutorials, check out Sigrid's Sewing Tutorials Blog....

Sigrid is an amazing whizz with the sewing machine (see what she did with my Snap Bag pattern!!) and has links to tutorials from all over the internet.

I didn't want to do a post without a picture, so here's the sewing machine I've had since my 16th birthday. It's a simple little thing, but sturdy and reliable, and I'm ridiculously sentimental about it. My little assistant has claimed it as her own lately (hence dodgey sewing on the last tutorial... no time to adjust the new "settings").

When I moved to Ireland in 1998 I packed my industrial machine, my industrial overlocker and this machine in a crate with as much haberdashery and fabric as would fit. When I came home five years later I crated it all up again and shipped it home again.

Who says I'm obsessed?