Last night I thought I was going to have to drop out of the mini-wardrobe contest because I'm the slowest sewist in the space time continuum. I got home intending to sew non-stop from 7-11 (my official pregnant lady bedtime), and figured I could finish my reversible skirt and cardi jacket, no problem! But first I needed to put up my swollen feet, just for a few minutes... then I had to eat... cuddle with the cats...
Well, anyway, I managed to get halfway through the skirt, then realized I had mis-attached the yoke. I started to pull out the seam ripper, but practically collapsed on the sewing table in fatigue and realized that seam ripping while incapacitated is Not a Good Idea.
This morning I have a new excuse--remember how I was so pleased with myself for saving the trouble of an expensive sewing machine repair? How my Viking started sewing just fine again after I cleaned under the bobbin area with some spray air?
Well, the same problem is back--the stitches skip and the bobbin threads pull to the surface no matter what the tension setting and no matter how new the needle or basic the fabric. So the stitches don't stay--they just pull right out with one yank.
I am Not Happy. But whatever. I don't get home from childbirth class tonight til 11 and breastfeeding class tomorrow night til 10:30, so I probably would have had to drop out anyway. I just hate having to pay $50 for a car service to the repair shop way out in Queens.
I'm comforting myself by thinking about the vintage patterns I recently scored for a pittance via fuzzily photographed mystery boxes on eBay. Look at this beauty--I am SO going to sew this post-pregnant (short-sleeved version)! There's no date and I couldn't find in the Vintage Sewing Patterns Wiki but--has to be 1940s, right?
If you ever need a "loaner," I have NINE.
ReplyDeleteLove that pattern, which looks early 40s. I think I bid on that lot of blurry-photographed patterns myself!
Ooh, Mikhaela, SCORE! CoPA dates it 1940 (they have two copies!) exactly.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your machine...I may finish today, I may give up. I was loving my cardigan but now...I don't know.
Get some rest!
Peter you are too kind! But I think a week without the machine will be good for me and a chance to catch up on other projects!
ReplyDeleteSarah, that is so exciting--but what is CoPA? Sounds like a great resource... I love that it's bust size 36, too, since it won't require me to tackle extensive grading like the size 32 patterns I have...
It's the Commercial Pattern Archive, sorry, I keep assuming everyone knows about them. I am part of a group membership so I can access the full database, I'm not sure what you can see otherwise. It is an amazing resource, I use it all the time. I've even reconstructed patterns from it, here's one I wrote up.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I just decided to tap out along with you. Sigh. My cardigan needs some reworking and I already did some damage rushing last night. So I'm going to take some time off it and take my time on the fix.
oh my GOD, the dress is awesome.
ReplyDeleteForget the contest. Why make sewing stressful?
Hey sorry to hear about your set backs but you have made such progress. Contest or not, you've done awesome. I can't sew like that, and I have no bun in the oven.
ReplyDeleteI second Peter. The dead give away is the price. By the 1960s, most patterns are about $1. $.15 would be more appropriate for late Depression era!
Oh, Du Barry's are my favorite patterns -EVER- Nice score!
ReplyDeleteMy Bernina did that for a while. I ended up taking out the bobbin casing, cleaning the entire mechanism with a brush and some air, oiling it, rewinding a new bobbin and rethreading the machine and it stopped. For a while. Then it ended up going in the shop for a fix, and yadda yadda the damn thing still acts up and I'm ready to hawk it on eBay. But maybe yours could be fixed with all that?
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