sewing on a different level.....

This week a few monumental things happened to sneak into my life...  They certainly didn't seem that way at first but I've become aware of the possibilities.   


The image at right was created by Tim who shares a love of vintage sewing machines.  I think it's pretty cool myself and I'm excited for him to work with other vintage machines.  He actually sent me a signed and FRAMED print of this art which is about the coolest thing ever...  I just realized exactly where I want to hang it.  The sewing room is a little hectic but the office will work out great.  I spend more time here anyway so I think that's fitting.

Oh speaking of fitting....  I sewed up another Burda 7768 in the pants version.  
OH man were they terrible!  Ok first off I had just enough fabric to get them going.  Have you ever cut out a garment and only had this much fabric left for practicing your stitches?  It was rough going to begin with and it didn't get any better.  I was thinking I'd be doing my top stitching on the new Pfaff 260 but it wasn't cooperating with the really heavy thread I wanted to use in the needle AND the bobbin.  Mind you I had done some initial testing when I first got the machine and it seemed like it was fine but when it came down to it the stitches weren't perfect.  So I switched gears. 
 Ok, I have an industrial machine that's made for this type of work.  What exactly is my problem by avoiding using this machine in the first place anyway?  Well I think I know and it's a bit of psychology going on here that I'll explain real quick.  I've always been one to reject the common knowledge, maybe call it a rebel streak.  Everyone knows that industrial machines are the best right?  Exactly.  I will make it my mission to squeeze those perfect stitches with thick thread out of a home machine just because I like a challenge. Ok, now you know...  it's much deeper and more vast than that but we don't need get bogged down in the depths of my brain do we?...  So I threaded up the industrial, took a minute to oil it up since i'm sure it was pretty dry and got sewing.  Oh, wouldn't you know it.  
Big long stitch length and beautiful stitches with the thickest thread I have.  The stitches on the inside are the Pfaff 138 pictured above and the ones along the outside are with thinner thread and the Pfaff 260.  I've got this baby adjusted so it's no harder to sew with than any home machine, perfect control.  I will say that it's so fast it'll break the thread if you're not careful but you don't have to sew that fast with it, just ease off the gas. I can go just as slow as any other machine....  It's like a sports car.  You can drive 20 mph in a school zone but if you stomp on that gas you'll leave tread marks on the road and likely won't even see those people crossing the street.


Ok back on track..  That Burda pattern.  The pants were horrific.  Big huge baggy legs that went out of style oh so very long ago.  I cut the legs off to make them shorts but still hated them even though I made the shorts version before and thought they were ok.  So getting away from what I didn't like which was the fit, let's talk about what I did like.  Or better yet why don't I make a little slide show with commentary to lighten the text load on this entry.  I threw this together fast although really it took longer than I expected since I've never done the picture in picture deal before.  

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Gosh I have a few other things to talk about but maybe I should save them for another entry this weekend!  There is a point to this whole issue of yet another ill fitting project but I haven't got there yet.