My new-but-really-old Singer

I have a new family member to introduce you to! It's my new Singer, which is older than I am.



I got it from eBay Singerman12, who fully refurbishes and tests the machines he sells. It's adorable and tiny and extremely heavy. That's because it is made of all metal, in a they-sure-don't-make-'em-like-the-used-to kind of way.



It's an industrial strength machine, which means it can handle thick, heavy fabric in a way my Kenmore can't.



It's basic. It can only do a straight stitch. It came with lots of presser feet to do gathering, piping, zippers, etc., but no zig-zag, overcast or blind hem. But that's fine, because I can use my Kenmore for that. I was having some trouble doing free-motion quilting because the fabric was catching on the face plate. Then I noticed the metal was all chewed up, I guess from the needle striking it. The sewing machine repair shop said it was from sewing too-heavy fabric and forcing it through, thus bending the needle slightly out of whack.

Now I can get my Kenmore fixed up and use my Singer for heavy-duty work!

One more thing I should consider cleaning once in awhile

My sewing machine has been acting naughty lately. The bobbin gets all messed up for no apparent reason. Finally, I unscrewed the plate and took out the bobbin holder. Dear God, there was a lot of lint in there. Like pounds of it. And it was packed into solid formation like this lint here, which I broke in half. That's right, I broke lint.



I used a little brush and some tweezers and got most of it out. Then I used canned air to blow everything else out. No wonder the little cogs and gears couldn't turn properly.

After I put things back together and resumed sewing, it purred like a kitten. I hadn't realized that it wasn't supposed to sound so loud and clunky. I had to actually stop and check that it was really sewing because it was so smooth and quiet. Yay!

Who's a happy little Kenmore? Koochie coo!

I got my sewing machine three and a half years ago, not ever having sewed. As we all know, I took quite a liking to it. But I'm sure I have mistreated it in my ignorance on more than a few occasions. As a matter of fact, it's just today that I figured out that the reason my thread won't stay around this little screw is that it's not supposed to go there in the first place! No wonder! As for my machine, I have had some trouble with it, and found out that, like a car, it needs maintenance work from time to time. And lord knows I make that thing work for its room and board.

Problem is, everywhere I called wanted around $85 and you had to leave your machine for up to two weeks. TWO WEEKS! Without my sewing machine? Could I live? No.

So then I found At-Home Services. This guy comes and picks it up and drops it back off later! Or, he works right at your house. No two-week wait! And he's reasonably priced -- better than those other guys.

So this man, the caller ID says Douglas, but I'm a jerk who never remembers names and I regret that I forgot his name, comes to get my machine, and I'm thinking that he'll bring it back later in the week, which sounded great. But he says that he can actually do the work right then and there, for $60! And as I told him all my little problems (sewing machine related, of course), he knew all the answers.
example:
Me: "Can you make the presser foot clamp down stronger? I'm having trouble with heavier fabrics."
Douglas: "Actually, your presser foot pressure is great. Your feed dogs are the problem. They have dropped slightly. I can fix that."

Me: "My bobbin stitches act up sometimes, and sometimes you can see where the machine became misthreaded and fix that. But often it just does it for no apparent reason and then goes back to normal."
Douglas: "You are using the wrong size of bobbins. They look close, but they don't fit in right and start flopping around."
Me: "My hero!"

See what I mean? At-Home Services is great!

Now I have a happily tuned machine with properly aligned feed dogs and proper bobbins! Douglas gave me new bobbins for just 25 cents each!

At-Home Services, here is your free commercial -- read by all three people who look at my blog!

I have hope for this room

It is difficult for me to allow the public to see this room. If you know me, you know I am very organized. You might wonder how it is I can stand to work in this room. Well, I can't.

This is my sewing room, and my computer room. All those boxes along the wall are my husband's thousands of record albums. Well, good news! I think after almost 5 years I have talked him into letting me move these boxes out of this room. Ultimately, we want to have a carpenter build sturdy shelves in the living room and take them out of boxes. But until then, I'd really like a comfortable, organized, less-cramped work space.
So in my mind, when I look at this room, I see something entirely different. I see access to the walls, where there will be shelves and a magnet for my rulers. I see a folding, waist-high cutting table to work on (it's hard to draft patterns when you're sitting, and hunching over a regular-height table hurts).
I see this table here being just for my sewing machine and serger (which I still haven't used because I'm still scared of it). I see space for my ironing board (which you can't see here -- it's to the far right, blocking the closet). Oh, and wouldn't it be dreamy to have the kind of ironing board with a little shelf under it for my pressing hams and seam roll? Dare to dream, I say.