Geeking out...

[etakyma]

So I have to geek out for a minute here. I love my sewing machine. Love love love. It has decorative stitches, but they are not the focus of the love at the moment. I've been using the button holer. What fun it is! You pop your button in the specially designed place, an it will size the hole to your button, so there is no guess work of too small/too large button holes!

So damn cool. I want to put button holes in everything. More fun than eyelet grommets. And I love pounding eyelet holes into things. And lining up the button holes to buttons is so easy with my chalk pencil.

The last time I did costumes I had to put a zipper in the back of a dress. What a pain in the ass that was! Zippers suck. Buttons are awesome. And prettier. Way way prettier.

Okay, done with my geek out over my toys. Isn't it nice to geek out over toys you've had for years?

Comments

[ksl2025.livejournal.com]

Sweet. So nice when things you like to use prove to be so damn useful. :-)

[conjured-1.livejournal.com]

TEACH ME! I tried the whole sewing thing once in Home Ec. The teacher passed me out of pity. (True story)

[etakyma.livejournal.com]

I am mostly self-taught. I never took home ec in school. I took art instead. I started sewing because a youth group I was part of as a very young teenager (early eighties) made some quilts for patients of the "new" disease AIDS. It was a very simple pinwheel pattern, and we used a template and cut the fabric by hand. And it was so much fun, I decided I wanted to make one for myself.

My mom had an old singer sewing machine and let me use it. And then, when I was just out of college, I spent $300 (which at the time was a huge amount of money! LOL, so wee and naive!) for a machine of my own. A very simple, and yet, well-made machine. It still works - but needs service, so I use my newer, fancier machine, which I bought for over a thousand, because it can do a hell of a lot - and I use it ALL THE TIME. And I got a rotary cutter as a gift one Christmas - and wow, that made cutting so EASY!

I just keep learning new stuff - I started doing really simple quilts, with just straight stitching. Fabric is a very easy, forgiving medium. You can always pick out things that go wrong. And the biggest thing? Don't tense up. I'm not going to say relax, because there is nothing more annoying than someone telling you to relax.

But don't tense up. There is nothing you can do that bad on a sewing machine. You can't even really injure yourself. And trust me, if I could, I would!

I love my quilt books - the more innovative the quilt or technique, the more interesting. I love landscape quilts. I haven't actually made one yet, but I want to. I think they are amazing. Here is a link to one: http://www.gilgenart.com/gallery/wisconsin-summer.htm

I'm actually a bit bored with traditional quilting now. I've done the whole "log cabin" thing, and a number of other traditional patterns. My great love at the moment? Quilts without corners. I've got a both 10 degree and a 9 degree ruler and have made a couple of round quilts. They are so much fun! So yeah - sewing is love.

Of course I can't knit or crochet to save my life. I always always always get tangled up in the yarn. It makes no sense to me!

[conjured-1.livejournal.com]

Hmm, see, it sounds good and then I remember the last time I tried to thread a bobbin...*snort*

Now knitting, that I can do.

[bekkio.livejournal.com]

I can't stand eyelets - I mess them up every single time. They bend, break, and I end up smashing my finger at least one during the ordeal. *shudders*

Give me a good ol' zipper any day of the week.

I had a quick flash of jealousy over the description of your machine. But then I remembered that mine's a workhorse and I love it. *pats it*

[jennclack.livejournal.com]

That's so cool! I want a sewing machine. I almost enrolled in a costuming class up here at ASU. But it would have been too crazy to add into my schedule. Someday. : )