My sister Clare talks about going to the fabric store to get thread and coming home with more fabric. I am so much worse! I seem to have an instinct to hoard and I manage to give myself plausible reasons for doing it.
I started out going through my church's stash to make simple clothing for nearby refugee children. I pulled out a lot of my own fabrics I thought would work for kid's pants, pajama bottoms or summer dresses. I washed and washed load after load and ironed for hours.
With the help of elderly Donna at my church I cut out approximately 16 pairs of shorts or pants and about 8 tiered dresses. Then I sprained my foot badly. After 6 weeks it is still sore when I'm standing for more than an hour. At the same time my mind was in some kind of happy dance mode and I discovered lisette fabrics and tutti fruiti fabrics. I'd go in to use a half off coupon on one cut of fabric not already on sale. Then I'd think,, Oh I better get more prints of the tutti for the tiered dresses. I washed and ironed those fabrics. Then one day Joann had flannels on sale for $2 a yard! wow. I probably got $50 worth. Then I had to hit those $1 and $2 pattern sales. It's easier to get a separate pattern for a dress than try to size up or down and already cut out pattern. hmm
I went to the Textile Center sale at the University of MN reuse center, for the frst time. What fun! Truth is, I spent $25 to go to the presale Friday evening and then came back late Saturday afternoon to check out what was still available before the bag sale. I had hoped to find an old sewing machine that I could use standard attachments with.
I had an Elna Super 62C that was in mint condition with tons of cams and attachments and also a mint Featherweight Singer 221. However my house wasn't selling and I was trying to hang onto it and avoid foreclosure. I sold those sewing machines and the house foreclosed anyhow. I wanted a similar one again!
There weren't any sewing machines I was interested in at the Textile center garage sale. It was definitely a good idea to go to the preview night. They had about 200 people there! i grabbed some fabrics. Then I found out that patterns were 10 fo $1 and Threads magazines were also 10 for $1. I bought quite a few. I wish I had searched for vintage patterns right away when I got there. The next day I got a few things but wasn't as lucky with fabrics.
I now had an itch to get either a Featherweight or Elna. I searched ebay and craigslist. I bought three Elna's! Let me explain. I saw one on ebay that went for $90 including shipping and it said it ran but needed a knob. I thought "No big deal". When it came I began calling around to local dealers and they said they couldn't repair it as the needle position knob was not available! I saw one on Craigslist for $225 that was local and had quite a few accessories. I didn't have any money then! I emailed her a question. Turned out the machine was at the estate sale for her mother and she asked if I had any collateral. I went right over there and went for the machine. It was pretty dirty and oily. I asked to try it out and it did run well. I found some bobbins for it someplace else and she included them free along with a very old doll pattern. I handed over my 14 KT gold wedding band as collateral!
Then I saw another Elna Super on ebay for $150 and bought it. Why? I see them listed for $350 often and selling quickly, when they are clean, it's stated it's been serviced and runs well and all the parts and accessories are there. I took everything out of the two accessory cases I have now and scrubbed them down with a toothbrush, along with the cams. They just felt grimy. I sorted things out so I had one of everything I wanted in my "keep" set. I was surprised to see some of the plastic feet chipped from a sewing needle evidently breaking off pieces. How does that keep happening? There were a lot that aren't for an Elna. I hope to figure out what machines they will fit on and sell them on ebay.
I think I'd like to learn how to repair them! If nothing else, I will sell off the parts of the one that needed a knob replaced.
I did get my serger threaded and began serging about 8 pairs of the pants.
I started looking through the Threads magazines and listed them on ebay. My beautiful photos were too large and I couldn't upload. I have the DVD Archive of Threads magazines up to number 159. I do like being able to look at the actual magazine rather than moving my laptop screen back and forth to try to read. I printed off all the articles on sewing feet attachments.
So I guess I have made progress! The actual sewing of these children's clothes should go quickly.
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