First of all, thanks for all your kind comments and oh-so-entertaining guesses on our baby pool! We've been taking these weekly-progress photos of me since about 6 weeks ago, I'll post these later and maybe they'll inspire you to alter your entries ;)
Anyway, I finally got my new sewing machine this week! Yippee!! Which, as you might have guessed, is responsible for my brief absence from the blog this week.
So what happened to my old Viking machine that I've been b*tching about, you ask? Well, a couple trips to Joann and some moments of false hope later (boy, the people there really tried), I was told that the machine is dead. RIP. The line's been discontinued for years because the machine's design was faulty to begin with. I was told to take it home, bury it and get a new one. Grrrrr, was I pissed!
Luckily, I soon found that Costco carries this computerized Brother sewing machine, XR7700, that has great reviews for $177.99 (S/H included), and best of all, comes with the iron-clad Costco lifetime return policy! That's cheaper than that dead Viking I got 3 years ago! Needless to say, it was at our doorstep 3 days later, and here it is on my make-shift sewing table:
And what a difference a functional machine makes (no duh...). I can now sew curse-free!
It's so quiet, sews oh-so-smoothly, comes with an automatic threader, and even the "computerized" functions (e.g. auto needle up/down function, various speed, stitch selection, etc), which I thought would be a hassle to learn are totally user-friendly. And it comes with an instructional DVD that makes it almost fool-proof.
Plus you can't beat that cute puppy picture on the window that comes with it (soon to be replaced by Bryson's mug, of course) ;)
I have a gazillion things I want to sew with my new and fancy fabrics, but I decided to test it out on some of these leftover funky monkey flannel I got, in case I still manage to mess up... And here's what I got so far:
Ta dah! A reversible set of swaddling blanket, burp cloth and baby bib. I'm surprised that they turn out pretty well, although don't look too closely, the rounded parts (especially the bib, which doesn't really have a straight line as I somehow was surprised to learn after cutting out the fabric) are all a bit angly and wonky:
I know more practice is in order, but if you have any tips on how to sew these rounded parts, well, rounder, please advise! And thanks in advance as usual :)
