Adventures in March

A year and a half ago, someone offered me an embroidery sewing machine. Although I have two sewing machines neither are that great so I accepted. It took another 7 months or so to actually get the machine. By this time my enthusiasm had waned. I used to do a fair amount of sewing but then I started working full-time. A month or so after I got the machine I took it out of the box to try it out. It was then that I realized that I had no power cord or foot pedal. So the donor said that she'd mail it to me. When I received it, I lugged it out again and it was not the correct power cord/foot pedal. I returned the power cord to her as it may be needed some day.

More time passed and my husband decided to help me out. He ordered the power cord/foot pedal online. When it arrived I thought that the package was way too small. It was the power cord but no foot pedal. It turns out that on this model they are two separate items. By that time I was thoroughly disgusted. The power cord had cost $18 plus s&h.

I'm a bit of a procrastinator. A friend of mine started to make purses. They are gorgeous. I was telling her about the above. It turned out I had told my sad story before. I decided it was time to take action. I went the website to order the foot pedal. If I hadn't been sitting in a recliner, I'd have fallen off my chair. The foot pedal was $49 plus s&h. Ouch! My husband graciously said go ahead and get it.

The power cord arrived this week. My husband said to me, "What are you going to do this weekend?" I replied that I was going to try out the sewing machine. So this morning, I pulled it out of the packaging yet again. Attached the power cord and foot pedal. After rearranging it on the table a few times to enable the cord to reach the outlet, I was ready to give it a go. My husband (who does know how to sew) had sat down and put in the material and lowered the pressure foot and gave it a go. The material was hopping all over the place. Well, it turned out he had lowered the arm where the pressure foot should be. There was NO pressure foot. By this time I was about to pull out my hair.

I do realize that pressure feet are NOT always interchangeable. However, the only way I was going to get to see if this machine worked was to find a pressure foot. As I previously mentioned, I have two other sewing machines. The first I obtained after my mother died. It appears that my mother had told everyone but me that she wanted me to have one of her sewing machines. I do not remember how many she had but I believe it was 3. I have no idea why I chose the one I did. I picked one and it came home with me. I also took what I thought was the accessories. Well, it turned out that the sewing machine did work, but the tension was off. My mother's #1 sewing rule (other than do no sew your fingers--- that is another story) was NEVER TOUCH THE TENSION. NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! Well, my husband broke my mother's rule. He did try to help me adjust it, but I never could get it right.

So about 4? years ago, I heard that Kmart had cheap sewing machines. All I could afford was a cheap machine. I do not remember how much I paid but I believe it was $50 or less. Now any of you who sew alot know that unless I had gotten the deal of the century, I was going to get what I paid for. Well, I did do quite a lot of sewing on the machine. I do not know why I stopped sewing other than beginning to work full-time.

Thinking that I needed to make a trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics, I called my friend who I hoped I could pick up along the way. It turned out she had other plans, but we had a nice chat. Getting back to my situation I still needed a pressure foot.

I looked in our storage area for sewing machine accessories. I was unable to find any. So I stole the pressure foot from my Kmart machine. Ready to give it ago once again. Went to try it out and now the needle is broken. My husband stated that it had not been broken earlier. Well now it is broken. I knew I had needles around. I looked and then gave up. It was about this time I remembered that there is a small quilting shop not too far from my house.

I hopped into my car. I had to go to the store first. There I got ripped off on cookies but that is another story. Go to the quilting shop. The nice store lady asked if she can help me. I asked about sewing machine needles. I wanted to blab the whole long but funny story, but decided she probably didn't want to hear my woes. Really though by this time it was getting absurd. It was either laugh or cry and I wasn't going to cry over a sewing machine. Ok, so the saleslady showed me two kinds and I took the cheaper set because I know I have needles. I was certain that once I got home that I'd find the other needles rather quickly. They would have no more reason to hide.

Thinking that I deserved to look at material after all the frustration I had been through, I looked around. Wow, beautiful fabric surrounded me. She had some purse samples hanging here and there. Yummy! Patterns, material in many colors, what more could a person ask for. Well, I had decided to get 2 yards of fabric (I will explain later). The lady asked me if I was looking for anything in particular and out spilled my whole story. She didn't burst out laughing as I expected. Maybe she understood my plight, or maybe she was being polite. So I found a pink print and a deep pink/red. I did check with the saleslady to see if they matched.

Small digression. My first husband had told me many a time I had no fashion sense. So I have little confidence in picking out anything with colors. The lady assured me that was a perfect match. She quickly cut a yard. Again my mouth opens and I tell her what I just stated about my first husband. She stated she'd lived with one of those types for awhile. I really think she was quite a sympathetic soul.

To cut to the chase (before you get bored), I came home tried to sew and the thread broke. I have no idea how to thread this machine. No manual came with it. I do have 2 cds. My husband says you need to put the cd in your computer and find out how to thread it and while you are at it, you may want to ready about how to use it. What strange advice from a man. I thought men were supposed to hate instructions? I rethreaded it the way I imagined it should go. I tried to finish the seam I had started. Voila! It worked! It appears that it does work. Yeah! Then I realized that it was threaded with red thread as was the bobbin red thread. The bobbin ... oh yea, I think I need more bobbins. Well after all the above that seems like a small thing. If not, I'll have to add to this with the rest of the story.