Regrouping for the summer

Last week was a really low key week, and I think this week is going to be another one as I catch up with things around the house. There are numerous small projects, like mending, that I put off in favor of larger, more fun projects like quilting. The small projects create a certain amount of physical and mental clutter that eventually buries me.

Yesterday, I mended two little slips of dresses that are really handy for summer when it's too hot to wear much of anything, and I remodeled a third (Clio) that I had purchased from a thrift store last year. All three had been sitting on top of my sewing desk for a year. How nice to have those done and out of my sight.

Among the to-do things I did last week was get out the sewing manual for my Kenmore machine to remind myself of some of the things it can do. I have looked for a year for a switch to lower the feed dogs so I could so some free-style sewing with it. I had finally come to the conclusion that I would have to set the feed dogs to zero, take off the foot, and just make the best of it if I wanted to use this machine for embroidery. I was hoping I wouldn't have to go the extra step to tape over the feed dogs - tape tends to leave a sticky residue, and that causes all kinds of other problems. Low and behold, the manual told me that there was a feed-dog switch on the almost-underside back of the free-arm. Sure enough, it was there. I had to tilt the machine toward me and lean over it to find it. I would have never found it without the manual!

It's not that I will do much free-style embroidery or sewing on the Kenmore; it's just that I have this urge to make that inexpensive little Kenmore perform like my expensive Bernina.

I suppose what partly drives that urge is a comment from a friend of ours who said she couldn't quilt because she didn't have an expensive machine like my Bernina. Poppycock, I said to myself! And poppycock it turns out to be. I do as much or more sewing on the Kenmore as I do on the Bernina. The Kenmore has a beautiful little stitch.

The other part of my determination to make the Kenmore perform like the Bernina, of course, is the difference in cost. Although I love the Bernina, the price I paid for it, more than eight years after I purchased it, still makes me cringe.

(My friend, by the way, gave me a couple dozen nearly full spools of thread when she decided to give up sewing. I think sewing just wasn't her thing any longer, although in the days she was sewing, she proved to be a really fine seamstress. She is a very talented woman, dabbling in all types of artistic endeavors, from oils to textiles! We have two of her oils hung on our walls, and I proudly point them out when we have guests. )


Crayola Crayon test for crayon quilt
Originally uploaded by Suzie Rozie.

Having a low key week and handling only small tasks has its rewards. In preparation for making the Plaid Cats crayon quilt, I dug out some pre-stamped pillow-cases I had purchased for Mom a number of years ago, colored them with crayons, and then free-motion embroidered them (using the Bernina). Connie sent me the recipe for a vinegar bath before I wash them, and I'll eventually get around to doing that. The work isn't exactly polished, but it's a start.


Bethany's bag - front
Originally uploaded by Suzie Rozie.

After making the baby quilt for Bethany's shower the week before we went to Colorado, the need for a matching bag was nagging me, especially since I had some squares left over, so I made the bag last week. The front quilt square is a pocket. I put another square, on point, on the back just as decoration. I was pleased with that. The entire bag is made using the Kenmore, plus the serger.


Karen's purse
Originally uploaded by Suzie Rozie.

And then there's Karen's bag, on my to-do list since my visit to Judy this spring. Like all the things on my to-do list, I had a fear that it would stay there forever. I was so pleased to start and finish it last week and pleased with the way it turned out. The picture isn't good (taken in the mirror in our dark entry-way, colors washed out by the flash), so I'll describe it a little. The bag is fully lined with muslin, has one inside zipper pocket for small things, a drawstring closure to keep things from falling out, an outside patch pocket to slip things in, a large flap to cover all the openings when the bag is worn, and an adjustable strap with a belt-buckle closure. I found the belt, which was just the perfect size, hanging in the garage, where it's been for years, and Lauren took the buckle off for me the morning I finished the strap. The purse was made entirely on the Kenmore and the serger.

And speaking of the serger, I learned something new and useful about it yesterday. I changed my threads from black to white so I could put an overlock stitch on the bottom of the thrift store Clio dress before I shortened it, and when I change threads, I need to re-do and test the tensions again.

Sergers are nothing like sewing machines. Even if the instructions were well written, I would be confused, but the instructions for this serger (Singer) are not exactly well written. I generally use the two loopers and one of the needles (usually the left one). The instruction I use is No. 7. How to sew three-thread standard overlock, flatlock and wrapped edge overlock. This instruction has 6 steps to it, and I generally stop at Step 4 because that seems to get me a serger-looking stitch. I never could figure out what Steps 5 and 6 were. Yesterday, in a rare moment of clarity, I stumbled on the fact that Step 4 tells you how to do a three-thread standard overlock, Step 5 tells you how to do a flatlock, and Step 6 tells you how to do a wrapped edge overlock. The only difference is the setting for the tension discs, and each setting produces a unique stitch.

As the former manager of a technical documentation department, I mourned the fact that the Singer tech writers didn't have our standards. Numbered steps mean sequential tasks. Steps 4, 5, and 6 are not sequential. They are mutually exclusive instructions and each should have been listed as a unique, not sequential, procedure under the subtitle How to sew a three-thread ... Aargh! (As an aside, the Singer writers don't use the 2 commas-in-a-series-of-three rule, either. In my opinion, that's always a mistake.)

I am hooked on the serger for finishing seams and securing raw edges. For years, I used a sewing machine zig-zag or overlock-type stitch, but there's no comparison. The sewing machine tends to provide a less polished, bulkier finish than the serger. Now that I've unlocked more serger overlock secrets, I'm sure I'll use it even more!