Mayday! Mayday!

Sad day, guys, sad day. As I finished the below activities (read on after I get this tragedy out of the way) I went to change the color of my thread and I happened to notice a ball of something inside my machine.That's right - INSIDE. In a place that I could not get to. Upon closer inspection I figured out what it was.

 

A ball of thread. Mangled and tying together a few of the gears in my machine.

 

Panic ensued. I have no idea if this is normal, or if this is my machine doing something terribly wrong, but I decided to stop what I was doing right away and freak out. Afterwards, I did the only logical thing and complained like a 5 year old to my husband. If you've been a reader for a bit, you'll know my husband likes to tinker and tear things apart. Despite some recent trips to urgent care (2 visits in the same amount of weeks, actually) he is very handy and usually can take things apart and put it all back together like nothing happened. He offered numerous times to rip my machine apart and get out the ball of thread and un-mess it up. This idea made me panic again - what if he can't put it back together? What if it's messed up forever? What if he can't do it by the time I have to post next Thursday? I'm usually very confident in his engineering abilities, but this one was so close to home it scared me.

 

Grudgingly, I agreed - but not without a bit of a bet. He bet that he could fix it, I bet that he could not. If I "win", he will buy me a new machine. If he "wins"... well, we haven't decided on that quite yet. Either way though, I think I legitimately win. (Honestly, I think that's why there's no prize on his end. He's being "betting supportive" and just wants me to get back to doing the thing I enjoy.)

 

Plus, he kind of hates when I have my lady-panic fits.

In other news, I've been a shopping fiend lately! Now, don't get too excited - my "fiend" is equivalent of a hundred bucks or so, but I did go out and get myself some new fancy digs. This is where I break readers hearts though - it wasn't anything from a thrift store, and nothing is an intended project. Sad day. I know a few people get upset that I broke my trend - I was supposed to be buying everything second-hand! Here's what I have to say to those folks: I know the value of a dollar. I know I can buy really, really nice fabrics and items at a thrift store for a dollar so if I'm going to  spend 20 of those dollars on one shirt I know it better be a good. gosh. darn. shirt.

In high school, I admit, I used to buy brands, not clothes. It didn't quite matter the fabric or the quality. If it said "AE" or "Aero" it was meant to be in my closet. I noticed when I was shopping recently I totally surpassed brands and paid attention to the garment itself - were they well constructed? Was the fabric durable? Did it fit well? Long story short - I found a new way to appreciate thrift stores and making my own clothes. I know that I don't have to settle for odd fitting clothes or see-through, thin cottons. If I'm going to spend my hard earned money, it is going to be on quality and durability.

What else was included in my haul, you may ask? I finally broke down and bought myself a zipper foot and a hemmer foot. I know, I know - they aren't huge purchases, especially since they were ebay buys for less than 20 dollars and free shipping, but it's more an exciting purchase. I was ready to move on to all the fancy stuff that real sewists (again, not sewers, never sewers) do!

First thing I tried was the hemmer foot. I do admit - I bought the feet from a seller that was advertising that these feet fit Brothers, Singers, etc. A "one foot fits all", if you will. The first success was that it did, in fact, fit my Brother sewing machine.

Hot off this first success, I decided to try my hand at actually using it. I took a swatch of fabric from the last project and tried it out.

Nailed it.

 

So that didn't quite, what one would say, "work". Was it all my fault? Probably. What am I going to blame it on? Having the wrong bobbin. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

So I couldn't get one flippin' hem to come out right. I had wanted to hem the dress from this post. I wasn't sure if the cotton/spandex blend was too thick or too stretchy, but it was not feeling like going through the hemmer foot. Eventually, I gave up and just did a hem with the good ol' fashioned straight stitch.

 

And I have to say... it's kind of the best I've ever done. I even rolled it twice all official and stuff! Check this win out!



 

I will be back next week. If I don't have a sewing machine, it may not be the most impressive project but I'll do some hand-sewing to get something done. Meanwhile, I'll keep you updated on the bet with my husband. It's pretty unusual to say - but I'm really hoping he wins this one.

 

P.S. The ring in the above picture is my new favorite! It's a handmade aluminum right (thank you, Etsy) that wraps around my thumb and says "Hakuna Matata" on it. I love love love it. Not only is it a fantastic saying and theory, the Lion King was by far one of the best Disney movies. Win.