Sunday, May 11, 2008

Fixies.


I'm not friends with my sewing machine.

The reverse is broken which means I have to tie my seams by hand. That wouldn't be so bad if I didn't always seem to run out of bobbin thread in the middle of a complicated manoeuvre. The tension seizes regularily. And let's not forget the many, many times the thread pulls out of the needle just as I prepare to position it over the fabric.

I knew my relationship with the sewing machine would be less than cordial that day in Home Ec class, oh, it would have been Grade Seven or so, yes, the day I put the sewing machine right through the tip of my index finger (nail and all). It wasn't a freak accident either. I managed to do it again, many years later, as an adult.

Anyway, in an effort to be frugal, I have at last tackled the pile of clothing I sorted from the basement as "worth saving."

Mended (ie, seams that were ripped are now sewn):
  • one pair of hubby's PJ pants.
  • two pairs of children's shorts (left over from the days when my son wore them, they are now almost too small for my daughter).
  • one pair of shorts for me (I had thought to pack them and take them, but they have a small hole in the front. So, technically, I now have zero pairs of shorts that pass the "Grandmother test".)
  • one pair of kid's flannel PJ pants.
  • a pair of kid's stretch pants.


  • Patched:
  • one pair of work jeans for my husband.
  • one pair of jeans for my daughter.
  • no, I didn't patch my own jeans, yet. I want to do something "funky" with them, so they can wait 'til we get back.


  • Awaiting decisions and folks to try them on:
  • two pairs of kid's pants that if they fit should be made into shorts
  • another pair of kid's pants which need re-hemming

    Gave up on:
  • a pair of kid's shorts.
  • a pair of kid's PJ bottoms.
  • a pair of kid's PJ's (both top and bottom need work).

  • Oh--and just in case you don't believe my sewing is cursed--remember the curtain panels I hemmed in the Fall Cure for the bedroom? One of them turned out to be about 1 1/2" too long. So, last Saturday, I took them down and washed them. The dust didn't come off too well, so I spent a lot of time and used up a lot of tape taking it all off. I re-hemmed the panel that was too long and hung them back up yesterday. (Yes, it took a week.)

    I hemmed the wrong panel.

    3 comments :

    Mella DP said...

    I've had the machine needle through the finger! Except, ahem, my mother did it to me. I was about 16.

    drwende said...

    Oh -- you've summed up why I don't sew. But good for you in getting so much done!

    When I want something sewed, I take it on a visit to my mother to "use her machine." Then I look big-eyed and helpless as she tells me it'll take her just a minute to do it herself.

    thefarmersdaughter said...

    The needle through the finger is my biggest fear ! I love to sew but sometimes I make stuff inside out by accident- it happens to us all.
    My last machine would ONLY go in reverse so I had to buy a new one, less than 100.00 and I have a fantastic new machine that sews in both directions. It seems that you sew and hem and fix things a lot, maybe a new machine would be a good investment...

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