Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Never say never

Sewing machine only
I was always happy with just a straight sewing machine.  I didn't need a serger or any of these other fancy, non-essential doodads.  Nope, not me, never.  Not gonna happen.

The first crack was my sudden, burning need for a coverstitch.  Still didn't see the need for a serger, but I was really tired of trying to do a neat twin needle hem on knits.  So I got a coverstitch, and I liked it.

Long, long stretch where I used my regular machine and coverstitch, and then mostly just the machine because in the last two years I've probably only made two garments for myself.  So for craft show and Etsy sewing, I haven't needed the coverstitch but I've used the hell out of the sewing machine.

Then I got a call from a friend that her neighbor had died and his family was liquidating all his sewing supplies, including a Baby Lock serger with jet air threading.  It was free.  It was also mine, very quickly, and we got acquainted fast.

Why did no one ever tell me my life wouldn't be complete without a serger?

Machine embroidered doll faces
Recently I started selling cloth dolls at shows and online.  I was hand embroidering the faces, which was fine when I was only selling a few of them.  I like embroidery.  I find it relaxing -- or I did until I sold ten dolls at a one show and had another show the following weekend, with no stock left.  Then I had to embroider ten faces and construct the dolls too, in a week when I was scheduled to be temping at least three days.

I started thinking idly about embroidery machines.  I knew I'd use it -- for the dolls if nothing else -- but I wasn't sure how expensive they were, or what the learning curve was like.  I did some online research and quite a few people said that the Brother SE400 was a good basic machine if you weren't planning on doing large, elaborate designs.  That sounded good.

Amazon had it for $300.  Which also sounded good, but I wasn't convinced.  I waffled a little bit more, and then got an amazing email from my credit card company.  It reminded me that I had a lot of unused rewards points, which could be turned into an Amazon gift card.

Which could be turned into an embroidery machine.

Hand embroidered face
I love this machine.  I can turn out a half dozen doll faces in an afternoon, while I'm sitting next to it sewing something else.  Since it's a basic machine, I have to change thread colors (there are machines where you can pre-load up to ten colors, which makes me hyperventilate a little) but I can live with this.  Easily.

So if there's some new kind of machine out there and I make the blanket statement, "I don't need it," just remind me that things change.

P.S.  It's getting crowded in my workroom now with all these machines.  I need to reorganize soon.


3 comments:

Cherie said...

Better late than never! The new machines have already earned their real estate! And, it's fun! You deserve it!

badmomgoodmom said...

I'm impressed that you went so long w/o a serger. I think the embroidery machine is totally worth it for your productivity.

Valerie said...

Love your display! In terms of your time, the embroidery machine has already paid for itself.