Random musings from the haze of antibiotics

Having acquired a bad case of tonsillitis, I find myself unable to do much of anything productive. Most of my spare time has been spent sleeping, whining, or watching TV. With that said, here are my random musings.

The sewing blogosphere seems to be quite the fan of The Great British Sewing Bee. I would love to find a way to watch it in Germany, but I am rather wary of trying anything less than strictly legal. All moral issues aside, the German government has been know to track down and then fine or arrest people who download illegal things, and I don't really feel like risking that.

It suddenly occurred to me that I can buy a Burda magazine from the kiosk here! I'm rather tempted to buy one just so I will have bought one. Without fabric or a sewing machine, of course I can't sew very much.

However, it's apparently possible to borrow a sewing machine from somebody who lives in my student village, which is something I might have to check out. Maybe I could buy a Burda, find something easy, buy fabric, and go on a sewing sprint. Once I'm better.

And last but not least, I wish I could participate in Me-Made-May, but given that my capsule wardrobe includes two hand-made things, that seems rather silly. Next year!

Sewing machines in the ground

One of the great things about Freiburg is how old and beautiful it is. One of the ways in which Freiburg is special is these stone designs:

There is one in front of almost every store, and the design usually tells you what is inside the store. (There are a few cases where the stone sign is wrong because the newest store didn't want to spend the money to replace it.) This is the sign in front of a little store called "The World of Handwork" where I bought a ball of yarn. I hope that I will be able to be finished with that project soon, so I can show you all. I will be doing some traveling in the next week, so perhaps when I get back I will be all done!

The Technikmuseum in Berlin

There is a museum of technology in Berlin. It's incredibly large! I agreed to go because I thought K would really enjoy it, and I had nothing against seeing old trains, airplanes, and so on. To my surprise, there was a lot of sewing related stuff as well! Here are a few photos from the day.

 This enormous loom can create several ribbons at once. Each ribbon has a different pattern, too!

 The loom runs on punch cards. I had no idea that was a thing.

 One of the finished ribbons.

 A vintage Singer you could touch.

 It also had a description of how sewing machines work.

 This machine turned the threads from the spools below into a thicker cord.

 A machine for hat making.

 This machine was so pretty. I wanted to keep it. I believe it was used for making sails.

This machine is the monster one. Those proportions you're seeing in the photo are real. It was huge! This one was used to sew multiple layers of thick sailcloth. Imagine what you could do with a machine this size! (Answer: anything!)

That's not all my photos, of course, but those are the sewing highlights of the technical museum. If anyone is ever in Berlin, I would recommend it. (Caveat: the signs are mostly in German only.)

G Street Fabrics

After our fabric and pattern swap, we headed to G Street Fabrics in Rockville. Others said it was disappointing compared to the old location, but I had never been there before, so I was impressed.

Some of these fabrics were just so much fun to look at. I can't imagine making something out of some of them, though!

 

So. Much. Fabric. So. Many. Zippers.

 

I did buy one piece of fabric, but I'll save all my acquisitions for another post. While I was there, I saw the machine we have in the costume shop. I asked the lady how much it costs. $986. Time to find a new dream sewing machine! Haha.

Sewing machine musings

So, as people who have heard me talk about sewing machines know, I would like a new one. My sewing machine is very simple, which is ok, but I would like more features. Mine can go backwards and forwards and that's it. I don't need a lot of bells and whistles, but I would like the capability to do buttonholes and zigzag stitches! (I don't think there's anything else that's necessary...am I forgetting something?)

My first thought was to get the Bernina 1008. This is the machine we have in the costume shop, so I know how it works. It's also reliable and sturdy, since it withstands the abuse that novice sewers pour on it every day. Sounds great. Except for the price tag. $1400 MSRP. Ouch, and I mean OUCH. That's a ton of money. I have read that you can get it for about $800 if you shop around, but that's still a pretty hefty sum.

So. I was looking around on Amazon for something else, and the Janome HD1000 popped up at the edge of my screen. That seems more reasonable--$300 selling price, with a list price of $600. Janome is the brand of my first sewing machine, Marianne. (I gave her to a friend last month, by the way, in an effort to declutter.) So I have pretty good experiences with them--yes, Marianne developed what I think were some timing issues, but that was after I shoved her in a trunk and drove her 1200 miles. So I will cheerfully accept responsibility for that!

Does anyone have any comments on either of these machines, or a suggestion as to another brand or specific machine to look at? I don't have a specific price range in mind, but all other things being equal cheaper is better. I don't want to pay more than I need to, but I don't want garbage. I want a machine that will last, and last well.

Suggestions? Thoughts? What machine do you have? What are its pros and cons?

Today's Duh, I'm a Moron Moment

Sewing machines work a lot better if you put the bobbin in. You know, just in case you were wondering.

It's not you, it's me. Or maybe her.

Apparently I kill sewing machines. I own two vintage sewing machines, for some reason I don't really remember. My first one, Marianne, developed some timing issues which I attributed to taking her on a long car trip in a car whose shocks were dying. Charlotte was doing fine until yesterday. Now she's having the same problem that Marianne was. The faceplate (I think that's the correct word?) is getting all scratched up around the hole where the needle goes in.

I'm getting frustrated. I seem to be terrible for sewing machines, but I don't know what I'm doing that's screwing them up. I wonder if this could be related to the fact that my little sister likes to use my sewing machine (without permission) and doesn't know how to thread it and usually uses the wrong kind of needle. Is that likely to have been causing a problem? Or have I just had bad luck? I don't know what causes timing issues, but I'm reluctant to go spend $150 to get it fixed if it's just going to happen again and again. On the other hand, I can't exactly keep sewing on a machine that works like this...

Argh. It hasn't been a good week. Any advice?

Sewing machine troubles

So, sadly, I think it is time to admit something I've been trying to deny for quite a while. I think the timing on my sewing machine is off, and I think it may be time to take it in for a tune-up of some sort. The issue may not be timing exactly, but something is definitely wrong with this poor machine.

Exhibit A:
See those brown scratches around the hole where the needles goes in? I am pretty darn sure that those are scratches from where the needle scrapes the faceplate (is that what it's called?) instead of going into the hole cleanly. There were some of those scratches when I got the machine, but there are now more of them, and my needles do go dull pretty quickly.

Exhibit B:
This picture is much harder to see, because my camera doesn't do very good close-ups, but inside that red box is a little dark line. That dark line is a dent. That dent is new. I think the needle dented the bobbin case.

Now, I have several questions for you. First of all, does this seem like a timing issue to anyone else? My sewing machine has been getting crankier and crankier, and it also started working much more poorly after the trip back from Montreal (which may have been a bad idea, in retrospect). If you don't think it's a timing issue, what might it be?

And, the main question: Do I have any hope of fixing this myself? The affordable machine repair shop in the area closed, and I am looking at a bill of $90 just to look at the thing from the only other store in the area that I know of. I don't think I have any local readers, but any suggestions for a sewing machine repair shop in the DC area would be gratefully appreciated, especially if they're cheap. But, again, if I have any hope of fixing this myself, please let me know!

Some progress,..but mostly not

So here's the thing. Everything is waiting on something else.

Teresa's coat fits okay, as I said earlier. However, I think the main fit problem is not the coat, it's Teresa. Her shoulders are very different heights. I have decided to use shoulder pads of two different thicknesses. So I have to wait for the other shoulder pad to come in the mail, as JoAnn's doesn't sell anything thinner than the ones I've got. (And I have to order them before they can come in the mail. Ahem.) The pictures I have are very poor, as the pattern is so busy that they coat looks weird and shapeless. It looks much much better in person.



Teresa's first pair of jeans are waiting on the hem. This means they are waiting on Teresa and me to both be free at the same time. This sounds easier than it actually is, because Teresa has an out-of-town visitor visiting her, and they are usually away doing touristy things. And I am tired, and I hate hemming, so I am perhaps not as pressuring as I could be.

Teresa's second pair of jeans, which I cut out a few days ago, is waiting on top-stitching thread. We have decided to go ahead with the rainbow top-stitching, but I am not sure where to get that locally, and am resistant to paying shipping on a spool of thread. I also have never actually top-stitched anything properly--how many yards of thread per pair of pants do you need, roughly?

I am sure you are wondering where the "some progress" part comes in. You probably have forgotten all about this sewing machine. Well, I sort of had, too. But today I dragged it out onto the front porch and cleaned it with some lamp oil. It seems to work much better. At any rate the wheel turns more nicely. I am going to let it dry overnight, then oil it and give it a test run. It would be super convenient to have a second machine set up for the top-stitching. (Um. That assumes I can get it upstairs and fit it into my bedroom. Maybe not.)

I may start a fourth project while I am waiting for the various things I am waiting for. This sewing is getting me down--in fact, I'm starting to worry that I may not be able to finish these things in time for Teresa to take them with her when she leaves.

My other sewing machine

This is my second sewing machine, a Janome New Home 663. It came to me through FreeCycle, just like the last one. The difference, of course, is that this one works properly. Sadly, its functions are very limited. It can do a straight stitch and a Christmas tree stitch. It should have pattern cams to enable it to do more things, but they had been lost by the time I got the machine, and I haven't found any on eBay or anywhere else on the web.

I like this machine a lot--it's a workhorse. It can sew through multiple layers of denim, which was very handy for sewing jeans. It does have a bit of what I call an attitude problem, meaning that sometimes it just won't sew properly, and I haven't ever been able to figure out any rhyme or reason to when it will and won't sew. Luckily it works most of the time, and when it doesn't, I find the best cure is simply to leave it alone for an hour or two.

In case you're wondering, the machine was threaded with nylon thread when I took a picture of it. I had been sewing white tulle, and I thought nylon thread would be better than white.

My newest sewing machine

I thought I'd do a post about each of my sewing machines. Let me brag for a minute--I have two sewing machines and a serger, and I paid a grand total of $0.00 for the three of them. My two machines came from FreeCycle, and my serger was given to me by a friend of my mother's.

The sewing machine I will introduce to you today is an old Sears Kenmore I just got on Friday. It *cough*doesn'tactuallyworkproperly*cough*, but I have high hopes that all it needs is a deep cleaning. This afternoon I plan to go out to CVS and buy some cleaning solvent.

One of the things I love about this machine is the table it came on. The table is a desk with a flip-top lid, and the sewing machine folds down inside and is covered with the lid. So the table can be a desk, as well as a sewing machine table.

If I buy the right accessories, which seem to be easily available off eBay, this machine is capable of doing a stretch stitch and a zigzag stitch, as well as sewing buttonholes. My other machine needs attachments which I can't find anywhere for these things. That's why I got this machine. It will broaden my sewing capabilities greatly--for example, I tend to avoid things with more than one buttonhole.(Of course, this assumes I can get the machine working properly....)

Enough words! How about some photos:




My apologies for the horrible photo quality. The machine and table are too heavy for me to carry upstairs alone, and as a result they are sitting in the living room, where the lighting is quite poor after sunset, when these photos were taken.