Merry Unbirthday to me!

So I started the process of pretreating my wool crepe for the Galaxy-inspired dress. After several swatches, my chosen method was to wash on the gentle, low-spin cycle in baby shampoo and then steam press until dry. All but one of my four 6"x6" swatches shrunk by 1/2" in the length and width. The fourth one shrunk by only a tiny bit less - and that was the swatch that was machine washed and hung to dry.

The only problem is that the steam function on my home iron is on the fritz. There is no way I want to steam press a 4 yard piece of fabric with my old home iron. As an early Christmas/merry unbirthday gift to myself, I bought a Consew Gravity Feed iron. It should be here on Friday (leave it to me to make a purchase during a holiday week). Because I really wanted to work on the dress over the holiday weekend, I will probably pretreat this length with my existing iron. I may even forego the spin cycle altogether and let the fabric generate it's own steam. One of my swatches used the soaking wet method and shrunk as much as it did in the dryer without changing the appearance or hand of the fabric.

So it looks like I have a plan B after all! But I can't wait until my new iron arrives, I've been putting it off for far too long!!

new sewing machine and 2008 SWAP

It was probably one of the toughest decisions I've had to make in a while to drop out of the 2008 Timmel SWAP. My sewing machine dying a week before the contest deadline made me feel only slightly better that I wasn't frantically trying to finish up 11 garments with nothing to sew them on! The broken sewing machine problem is no longer, though - thanks to my wonderful hubby, I am now the owner of a brand spaking new Janome HT2008!

I did quite a bit of comparison shopping online and testing at the various dealers in town before deciding on this machine. Of the machines I looked at, my favorites in my price range were the Brother Innovis 80 Project Runway edition, the Viking Emerald 183 and the Janome that I ultimately purchased. I also looked at some Singer, Pfaff and Babylock machines but wasn't as impressed with the models that were available at my local dealers - or the pricetags of some of them. I was most torn between the Janome and the Viking - the Brother was very similar to the Janome in terms of ease of use and available functions, but felt much more portable and not as sturdy as the Janome. The biggest reason I decided not to go with the Viking was that the electronic display wasn't as user-friendly as I had hoped, and it was $200 more than the Janome. If my old Viking feet were compatible with the Emerald, I would have spent the extra money since Viking feet are notoriously expensive...my walking foot cost more than $100! Since the feet were not compatible, I didn't think it was worth it and went with the Janome.

This machine doesn't have a lot of the bells and whistles of the higher-end machines, but it also does not have the high-end price tag at $399. What it does have is 50 stitches, including 3 one-step automatic buttonholes and several different utility stitches. These utility stitches include several different stretch stitches, straight stitch variations and overlock/finishing stitches. It even came with a special foot for the overlock stitches. There are also darning, heirloom and decorative stitches - most of these I probably won't use...which is one of the reasons I decided not to go with the more pricey Brother or Viking models - extra stitches = extra cost that I just couldn't justify.

I have to say that so far I really love this machine!! I have only had it a couple of days, but so far it's great. I have only sewed the strap onto my Hooter Hider (nursing cover for baby Andrew), but it sewed through the 6 layers of fabric/interfacing and the rigelene boning like BUTTER!!!!

Now I have so much reason to sew. I go back to work in 3 weeks and would really like to have some new clothes to wear when I go back. Also taking into account that we have decided that hubby is going to stay home with the baby, I am forced to be on a budget - that means I have an even better excuse to sew since I do need new clothes and can't really justify a trip to the mall in my budget since I can sew and have the stash from my original SWAP plan...now to put that plan into action!

So even though I've missed the deadline (and only really completed 2 garments before the baby was born in mid-February), I am now going to work on making the SWAP garments. Instead of doing the original 11-garment plan, I'm going to make mini-wardrobes of 5-6 garments that consist of 2-3 tops, 1-2 bottoms and a jacket. I hope to have at least one or two new outfits to wear when I go back to work. We'll see how that works. Maybe I can get a full mini-wardrobe completed.

RIP dear sewing machines

(you can't see it, but the digital display now reads "666" when it turn it on...I'm sad)
Two down, no more to go.

Until recently, I had two sewing machines. One was a Singer Slant from the 1950s and the other a Husqvarna Viking 960 computerized from the early 80s. Both have stories and now both are dead.

Until about 6 years ago, I was using sewing machines borrowed from my mother or grandmother. That is, until one day when my brother found this old Singer Slant - in a cabinet! - outside his apartment waiting to be taken by the garbage men. He brought it to our mother - a master seamstress and mechanical guru - who oiled the heck out of it, got it moving and gave it to me. It came with EVERY accessory you could imagine, including an original packet of needles (which I have never used, but found interesting). That machine was a workhorse, making several suits and dresses, including my wedding dress! The automatic buttonholer attachment made wonderful buttonholes and I had just about every template for it that existed.

Fast forward to 2 years ago and my mom received a 1980s computerized Viking as a gift for helping a friend move - he was going to sell it in a garage sale until my mom showed interest in it. She gave it to me and that was the quietest, quickest, best machine I could possibly imagine. It came just as the Singer was requiring yet another re-oiling (which would cause fabric to become stained for several weeks if I did not take precautions...it just wasn't worth the work anymore). I retired the Singer and began to sew exclusively on the Viking.

Fast forward to yesterday - after 2 months of getting the hang of being a mom, and overcoming a pretty nasty case of the flu, I finally had some sewing mojo. I decided to start by putting the finishing touches on the hooter hider that has been sitting on my dining room table for weeks. I turn on my machine and it looks like it was possessed!!! All of the digital numbers were showing up as 8's, every LED was lit up (as if I had selected EVERY available stitch to stitch at the same time!). I tried to sew and it went along at a snail's pace - literally it did one stitch per second in this teeny tiny stitch length that I cannot lengthen. So, I decided to break out the Singer that had been recently oiled but not used - it stitched along fine for about 8 stitches and then SNAP - the thread breaks and I have a birds nest of bobbin thread. Tear everything out, put in a different bobbin and rethread...same thing - 10 stitches and then SNAP...this time the needle breaks. I go through this one more time, replacing the needle and have the exact same results. The only thing we can think of is that there is a nick in the bobbin case (something I just had to deal with on my embroidery-only machine last week). The problem is, it will cost $100 to have the local Singer/Viking deal look at EITHER machine - or $150 to diagnose both - and I just don't think it's worth it for machines that are so old and I have no real attachment to.

So...now that I have my sewing mojo back and am dying to jump in and take on some new projects, I am in need of a machine. Nothing too expensive, since hubby and I are on a budget now that we have decided he will stay home with the baby (the cost of daycare and the expense of his commute with the price of gas made that decision easy) but definitely something with some lasting power. Now taking recommendations. In the meantime, I'm off to research new machines!!