Guess what I got to play with today. Really, guess. No, not that. Not that, either (you pervert). Are you ready for this?
A sewing machine!!
Woot!!! Can I get a hell yeah?!? AWESOME! WOOOO!
What? Why is no one else dancing around giving me virtual high fives? Pffft. You’re just jealous.*
Aaaanyway. So yeah, my mother-in-law let me fiddle around with her sewing machine and serger today. The former I knew of only by stories the Old Ones would tell from times when you would repair clothes instead of just buying new ones, and the former I thought was some sort of military tactic. But after tediously sewing Will’s birthday pillow by hand, I thought I should look into these mechanized stringer thingies.
As it turns out, they are completely awesome. Beyond awesome. Scary awesome. But the serger is more scary than awesome. There is a blade in that thing that could take off your freakin’ fingers. But MAN is it cool! The steampunk in me has a soft spot for gears and pulleys and this thing was brimming with both. With four different spools of thread on top all going at once, the blade slashing down at like 100 rps, the needle dancing over the fabric faster than the human eye can see…. *Blissful sigh* It was like looking into a ferrari’s engine, except from a crafter’s perspective.
The sewing machine was much more down to earth, but it still had that wonderful, powerful hum when you stepped on the pedal. I’ll leave the car analogies alone from now on. (vroom vroom) Being more user friendly, I did more work on the sewing machine than the serger.
So here are my first and second attempts at using the sewing machine:
As you can see, #1 was a learning experience. #2 was much better. I like to think I’m a fast learner 
If you don’t know what those are going to be, shame on you.
I can’t wait until this weekend. She is going to let me borrow the sewing machine. I have SOOO many geeky projects floating around in my brain and I can’t wait to get my hands on that machine again. Having enough time and fabric to complete the projects will be my only problem.
JOY!
*Note to self: No more sugar for you, young lady.
on Jul 31st, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I am pretty new to sewing but I LOVE it, and I love having my own machine - I took pictures of my first project too (including a video of threading my first bobbin… most boring video ever, but I was ecstatic about it). I was so scared that I would screw it up, but it turned out alright! Here’s the finished product if you want to see it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/silvermarquis/1312363698/in/set-72157604134834866/
Can’t wait to see what you make next!