Say Hello ... Wave Goodbye

I have good news and I have bad  news ... And I have very mixed feelings ...

Although it's not quite as bad as standing at the door of the Pink Flamingo crying in the rain, I'll give you the bad news first .. Despite my naming competition, and loving attention towards Maisie in the first few heady weeks of her living here, her arrival was a step too far for Mr Marmalade, and frankly, there wasn't room in his life - or his conservatory - for both of us .. So, as much as it pained me to make the necessary 'arrangements', Maisie is leaving The House of Marmalade tomorrow.  :(

To make up for her loss, I had to find myself a new companion, and I had heard say of a veritable "wonder machine" on corsetmaker forums and communities.  I went forth to search for this sewing wonder, and my journey took me to the Sewing Machine shop in town.  I asked the resident expert about these fabled machines which caused him to break into an enthusiastic skip towards the back of his workshop practically singing "Oh Yesssss! I've got one of those - BEST machine ever made, you'll never beat them" ... He then proceeded to compare this wonder machine to the biggest and best of the modern machines in his shop, running them down in 'her' favour and softly coo'ing over the purr of her mechanisms ... Sigh ..

How could I leave without her?  

Her name is Sabrina the StitchWitch, she was born on 15 December 1953 - the importance of that year marked on her body by a blue ring around the trademark badge - in Scotland, and she is a Singer 201K who lives with me now - in my new sewing room upstairs, and I love her even more than I loved Maisie .. which is alot!  She is the BEST machine I have ever operated.  Stitch perfect, so smooth, and also the first machine I have ever referred to as "she" and meant it!  If you have an old Singer, you can look up it's origins on the Singer database of serial numbers HERE.  Apparently, this type of Singer machine has an 'industrial' mechanism - seems very technical to me, i just can't see how that would work without the huge engine, but nevertheless, apparently this model is favoured by tailors and corsetiers alike, for that reason.  

ps:  Sarah - your mag is on the way - I was a bit delayed posting it what with all the "trauma" of moving rooms! Sorry!  Maisie is forever immortalised as I have told the new owner her name :)

The Invisible Woman

I've got another new toy. It's called Gimp. No, it's not something I made with the use of my "making latex clothes" book which some of you eagle eyed people spotted in a post of mine back in May. No. It's a FREE photo-editing download which does most of what Adobe Photoshop does and can be downloaded to Windows easily, and Mac with a little help.

It means that I can at last "model" my corsets for sale without modelling them, if you see what I mean. I was wearing this when the picture was taken. Beleive me, it looks better without! Clever don't you think?

It's quite difficult to operate until you get the knack - I had to have a tutorial from a friend of mine. Do you think the odd tip here would be handy?

And now for an Overlocker update: NEVER, and I mean NEVER EVER do what you do with a sewing machine, that is, leave your pins in while you sew. You will end up with one of these ...

I Think I Might be Able to Fly an Aeroplane Now

Guess what? it's raining again! Infact, we have yet another severe weather warning here in Oxfordshire. Storms they say. But Am I Bovvered? NO! Because today has been my first chance to be alone with my lovely new overlocker. It's been like pilot training I tell you. I haven't written this many notes since I did my science O-Levels back in the 80's.

After a few false, but not unenthusiastic starts, I decided to go through the manual page by page, ticking each item as I went. This is rather methodical for me, but it seems to be the only way to make sure all functions are embedded into the brain properly. Thank you to Florence for assuring me that endurance is the best policy here because there were many times this afternoon, when I thought I might have received a faulty machine and would have to send it back.
The model of Overlocker that I chose has colour coded tension dials and threading holes. So the thread which goes through dial 1 which is green, follows through all the green coded holes and loops and so on. Easy peasy (easier if you are an elf with elf sized fingers!).

Actually, despite being thoroughly intimidated at first, threading this overlocker is not difficult. Fiddly yes. Hard no. Even then, after a bit of practice, it's no less bother than threading your sewing machine.

Each step took quite a long time to master. I started off with 4 thread overlocking, then progressed to three threads with left or right needle, then two threads, then rolled hems. Each setting is different and produces a different result. As with most instruction manuals , it was sometimes hard to follow. So working left to right in the picture above, you can see my progress during each step as I worked out the bits the manual didn't cover! Like, HOW to insert the "spreader" for 2 thread sewing, amongst other things.

Following advice from Marmadaisy (who's review and pictures I was firmly glued to for the whole afternoon) , I decided that the best policy is to make lots of samples with notes on.

There was a lorralorra tea drinking going on, followed by a lorralorra mess!

But FINALLY, with the basics mastered, it was time to sew something for real.

A top I made a few weeks ago and never hemmed. This is the edge my sewing machine made with it's fake overlock stitch.

And THIS, is the finished result with overlocker, complete with automatically sawn off rough edge. It took a death defying 10 seconds to do, as opposed to the many more minutes, possibly even hours, it would have taken to press, sew, press in the traditional way.

The difference perhaps, between Concorde and a Jumbo Jet.

Sew you think your Sewing Machine is Complicated?

Apologies for the break in service. I have been looking for a university degree course in "how to use your new overlocker" because i've never had such a headache trying to work something out in my life! I think an AstroPhysics course might do the trick. The manufacturers very helpfully enclosed an instructional video in the package but can anybody please tell me why?? Who has a video machine these days? You can't even buy them anymore - or at least not for a price cheaper than an overlocker! (oh! perhaps there is a slot IN the overlocker - it seems to do everything else?)!!

Along with all the freebies - 5 boxes of thread, scissors, needles, tape measure, seam ripper ..

And the "standard" accessories - tweezers, needle holder (!), spool cones, spool nets, spanner, 2 screwdrivers and other "un-identified as yet" equipment ..

I ordered extra feet because they were on offer - and it seemed a good idea at the time ...

hmmmm...

But I also have "the Italian connection" visiting, which has, very pleasurably, held up investigations.

"At least in Italy when it rains, it's still warm" She said gloomily ...

Lead me not into Temptation

But deliver me from ... Sewing Machines Direct!!

It all started with Joleo when a friend loaned her one. Then Lisa bought a super snazzy one. Then Florence got one from her dad, and Anna's already made more stuff that you can shake a needle at with hers which only arrived last week! Call me weak, but I couldn't resist any more! Largely because if I'm going to make lots of stock for craft fairs and festivals, then what I really need is speed. And an overlocker machine = speed!

Oh lordy .. it looks very complicated. Lucky this little chap has turned up to help me.