My New Sewing Machine: elna 7300

I told you once I got the machine, I would take a photo of it on my sewing table.



I got the call yesterday about 11:30 am. "Your machine is in!" I told Mr. Sprocket that I wanted to go pick it up right away. We decided to take a break from our current project so we drove out to Pasadena to pick up the sewing machine and do some much needed shopping. When we got to the store he said, "This will just take a few minutes, right?" I looked at him like he was crazy. I replied, "Why don't you drop me off. I'm sure they're going to give me a short hands-on training session with it." As we got closer to the store, he mentioned that he wanted to stop off at an HVAC salvage shop that was just a few blocks away so this worked out fine.

When I got to the store, the partner who manages the books and time payments said to me, "That's a great friend you have who paid off your balance." He's right. donchias had offered for months to pay off the balance so I could get my machine earlier than planned. I finally relented and let her do it. Understand this is not a gift. I do have to pay her back, but she is still a wonderful friend just the same.

I was so excited I could hardly wait, yet, at the same time I'm apprehensive. I'm a bit stubborn about learning the newest electronic technology and have resisted each and every time Mr. Sprocket decides to get us new cell phones. I still struggling with learning the remote for the new DVD-TV (and Home Theater system) we had to purchase last week because our 20 year old TV had a cerebral aneurysm and consequently, instant death. It's on the front porch while I decide what type of burial to give it.

When I bought my last 1473 Pfaff used in 2005, I didn't even open the manual to find out all it could do. I kept sewing on the refurbished 1171 I had in bought in 1994 until its mother board died eight months later and I was forced to learn the 1473.

This is the first time in over 20 years of sewing that I've ever owned a brand new machine. I've never been able to afford one before. After the holidays, I took some of my Christmas sewing earnings and made almost a 50% down payment on this machine. It was finally paid off two weeks ago.

They opened the box and put it on the table and I knew immediately I would have to spend hours pouring over the manual. Althea went over all the accessories with me, pointing to each item and then pointing to the image in the manual. The other partner of the shop, Joe, went over the threading of the machine, the bobbin placement (this is the first machine I've sewn with that has a top drop in bobbin), needle up and down button, which feet will work with the top feed, which buttons control the programming, and all the other various features. During all that, Mr. Sprocket shows up sooner than expected and is trying to get me out of the store. "So are you done yet?" he impatiently asks. I give him the look and he replies, "I'm just askin'!"

And then Mr. Sprocket proceeds to tell Joe all about his arm injury, the incompetence of the Kaiser Health care system and how they missed properly diagnosing his arm and now needs surgery to repair one of his bicepital tendons that was completely sheered off. Once "Kaiser" is mentioned Joe starts talking about when he got his pacemaker over a year ago and how it was going to take three months to get a surgery date. This is all about them and their health issues now.

Before I leave the shop I want to make sure I understand how to get that bobbin in right and I mention about knotting threads and Joe shows me how my new machine will knot the thread for me and this little button here will cut it and leave both cut threads on the underside of the fabric. No forkin' way! Does it quite fast, too. I'm ecstatic about that, but still overwhelmed about learning everything this machine can do. Here it is out of the box and on my table.

Out On A Limb

Updated!



Kinda says it all doesn't it? A freak wind came through yesterday afternoon and I didn't even hear the limb snap. Just stepped outside and saw all this foliage where it shouldn't be. We may wait until the gardener comes on Tuesday and have him break it up, or I just might wait until the sun goes down ~it's been blistering hot in the SFV with temps topping 100 in several areas~ and take Mr. Sprocket's saws-all and cut the sucker up myself.

Mr. Sprocket has been down for the count for the last three weeks with a severe sprain/strain to his right arm and can't even lift 10 pounds, which is why I'm considering tackling the job. We were lucky that it didn't puncture the garage or snap any power lines.

The limb span of our favorite tree passes the property line of our neighbors on either side of us by a good ten feet each direction. As much as I don't want to trim this tree back, it's long over due. Time to find an arborist since I would hate to have it butchered.

Unfortunately, sewing and blogging has taken a back seat since I've been swamped with RL responsibilities. I have been able to attend a few pretrial hearings that I haven't had time to write about on the main blog, but plan to as soon as I get caught up. After that, it will be Market Bag Madness, Redeux, where I will be posting some images again, so please look for them in the near future.

Update: 7:24 pm
Wouldn't you know, just when I need to use one of the gazillion tools Mr. Sprocket has ~and he really does have every tool imaginable~ he's left them over at a friend's house. Both the saws-all AND the good manual saw. What a pisser.

When you need something done, best do it yourself. So I used the old worn out hand saw and went to town on that limb. Here it is all under the tree. You can see the base of the big limb where it broke off, in front of the brush pile.

Cotton Cosmetic Bag Madness Construction

I'm making some special cosmetic bags for the Buffalo store out of cotton. The construction is very similar to the Asian silk cosmetic bags with just a few added steps. When I'm done, I'll have about 30 bags total in 13 different prints.

I start with some Warm&Natural batting. I bond Heat & Bond Vinyl to one side in large sheets. On the other side, I bond Heat & Bond adhesive in large sheets. I do this until I have a piece of Warm & Natural that is about 36" wide by 90" long, covered in vinyl on one side, and glue on the other. I then cut that into 36" by 6 or 7" strips.

I then select the fabrics that I'm going to make cosmetic bags out of. I cut 6" and 7" strips of each fabric by 45" wide. I peel off the glue paper backing off of one of the strips and then iron onto the glue side of the batting, one of my fabric selections. I then cut that finished strip of bonded materals into 6" x 8" rectangles, which will make the small size cosmetic bag, or 7" x 9" rectangles which will make the larger size bag. Once I have all my pieces bonded and cut out, I use my serger to overlock the edges.

Here are my completed stacks of overlocked pieces.


Next step is to pin the pieces together and sew a 5/8 inch seam using a basting stitch along the top edge. This is were the zipper will be sewn in. As you can see, I use binder clips to hold the pieces together when I sew. This means I don't have to puncture the vinyl with a straight pin.


The next step is pressing open the seams, gluing in the zipper and putting in a limited edition label on the inside of the bag. I glue in my zippers because it just makes the process go a lot faster.



Once the zipper and label are glued in, I choose a matching thread for the fabric and sew in the zipper.



I then pull out the basting stitch, fold the right sides together and binder clip the pieces again. I then sew the bag together.



Once the bag is sewn together, I clip all the corner edges and turn the bag right side out. Here is a photo of the cosmetic bags in various stages.


It will be a while before I'm finished. I am also making at the same time, some place mats and matching napkin sets out of some of these fabrics, and we are working on building some platforms on our roof so that Mr. Sprocket can work on our HVAC unit easier. Later this evening, I'll put up some more photos of that project.

The Joann Fabric Store...In My Attic

Do you know Kim, of The Darwin Exception? She is an exceptionally witty blogger and awesome knitter who has posted these wonderful photos of her sewing room and the ton of yarn and fabric she has in stock. She has quite a bit, but I think I've got her beat.

I've been longing to have my sewing room back. Our upstairs has been without walls or ceilings for over four years now. It's a real PITA to live in half a house and have your sewing projects strewn about virtually every room. And that's literally the case. My sewing table is in the living room and there are fabric bolts in the bedroom,


(That's a 60 yard roll of very soft polar fleece. And below are bolts of upholstery fabrics.)


cotton print bolts in my treatment room,



on the stairs,



miscellaneous stuff in the dining room . . .





and that's just the stuff that I'm currently working with or plan to, soon. The only rooms that don't have any sewing items are the kitchen and the bathroom. There's also a mini Joann Fabrics store in my attic, and I still have about eleven crates of finished items in the still-in construction-stage sewing room.


When I first moved into this house about 11 years ago, I only used the second floor rooms for storage. Years later when I got married, we made the downstairs room I was sewing in into an office for the both of us and moved my sewing and cutting tables upstairs. But that presented me with a problem. The upstairs rooms did not have air conditioning. They were unusable during the 100+ temps in the summer and autumn months. So in late 2003, we debated the merits of several plans to air condition the upstairs and finally decided on installing a central air and heating system in this 67 year old house. We planned on doing all of the HVAC installation ourselves.

Although Mr. Sprocket is an HVAC service technician with about 20 years experience in the field, he specializes in service for large complex commercial spaces with one or more 100 ton units on the roof of tall office buildings. Most people don't know that HVAC service is a specialized field. There are those who do installations (mostly grunt work) and there are those who finish a system install by starting up the system as well as service and troubleshoot complex systems. People who do installations rarely have the knowledge to do service and vice versa. This would be Mr. Sprocket's first residential install, with duct work and everything. Usually when he is involved in the install on a commercial building, it's at the end of the job when the unit is being craned onto the roof and he performs the system start up, which can take several days to do it properly.

In the first stages of planning this project, we were trying to think "where" we could put all my fabric and other stuff while we tore out the walls and ceilings in the upstairs rooms. I suggested putting a floor in our attic with a thin outdoor carpeting to make it easy to move around. Renting a storage space would have been a pain in the arse to have to go to, just to get my fabric. We had already spent months in our first floor attic installing insulation, rewiring the entire house and upgrading the electrical box to something that wouldn't be such a fire hazard. So installing a floor and lighting in there was like, Wow, we should have done that sooner!

We started our HVAC project in May of 2004, and exactly two years later, the city signed off on the building permit, the electrical system upgrades we did ourselves as well as the new tankless water heating system, which was also installed on the roof. (That's a story for another day!) I now know how to properly wrap metal ductwork with insulation, since I wrapped virtually every metal duct box myself and the many branching "T-Y's" but I don't think this is a skill I'm going to be using anytime soon. It is almost two years since the system was installed, yet, there are no walls or ceilings upstairs and I'm still sewing in my living room.

But back to that fabric store in my attic. Here is a photo of the main attic space soon after we finished the attic duct work and before we removed our tools and left over insulation:



As you can see, we raised the cross beams by replacing them with metal strut at a higher level so it would be easier to crawl around. Here are some photos I took today of the Joann Fabric Store in my attic. This first one is the entrance to the first floor attic. It's through a closet off the smaller second floor room.



And here's a view of the attic as it looks now, just as you enter:



On the left near the entrance are boxes full of wilderness and western print bolts for the Buffalo store:



In the middle left, just beyond the two crates of eyelet, blackout material and scrap flannel, are my bolts of Asian prints. There is another row of boxes behind the ones you see in the photo.



And in the far left are eleven boxes of flannel bolts, all organized by type of print:



Off to the far right are about twelve crates of upholstery and tapestry fabrics as well as scrap panne:



On the right side of the attic near the entrance are six crates of small cotton pieces (2 yards or less) and Christmas fabrics. Farther down beyond the crates are four boxes filled with different colored bolts of panne and two boxes filled with rolls of the Asian silks.


One of these days I hope to have a finished sewing room, with special cabinets along several walls to hold all my cotton and flannel fabrics. Until then, I will have to keep my mini store in the attic!

The Donchais Tea Napkins

My Etsy Store has the last of my tea napkins in the CLEARANCE section.

Mr. Sprocket and I have been working every weekend on a very time consuming house project but I've finally had some time to get back to sewing. I'm gearing up for a big production of several items for the store in Buffalo that carries my western and wilderness prints. I haven't sent them anything in well over a year and I have a few new items planned in limited edition prints.

One of the new items I'm planning are "Tea Napkins." Some might call them a cocktail napkin but I like calling them Tea Napkins. Since my friend donchais suggested the idea of a small, dainty napkin, I'm naming them after her.

Here are some photos to give you an idea of what they look like. The donchais tea napkins are 10" square and are finished with a rolled hem. They will sell as a package of four, but a retail price has not been set yet. They will probably run about $12 for a set. Some of these prints are limited editions purchased just for these napkins.

These napkins are exclusive to the Buffalo store.



The napkins below are in new prints that are available to everyone.



You can order a set of the Donchais Tea Napkins in any cotton print I have in stock. All of my table linens are made from cotton or cotton and muslin are pre-washed before they are sewn, so the size you see in the image is the size you get.

And here is the complete stack of Donchais Tea Napkins I just finished. All of these are headed for the Buffalo store.

Handkerchiefs

I'm almost caught up with my sewing orders. Believe it or not, I'm only about 2-3 days behind. That means I'll be able to concentrate on designing some new bags for the store in Buffalo that carries my Western Line of bags, blankets, table linens and hot/cold packs. I've got an idea for a small bag that goes over the arm, and I might make a slightly bigger one that goes over the shoulder. I picked up some new fabrics a few months ago, and if you check out my photobucket COTTONS page, there are some new sub albums where you can see some of the new stuff I've put up. I haven't had time to give any of the new prints a name and number, but you can let me know what you think of them. This photobucket album of prints will only be in the Buffalo store.

I wanted to share with you some handkerchief photos. For Christmas, everyone on my list got a hankie. My Aunt Julie liked hers so much she wanted a dozen more. I've really enjoyed making these and am continually trying different stitch combinations with different threads just to see how they will turn out. Here are the hankies I made for my Aunt that I photographed right here on my laptop.



I am now making two sizes of hankies. 15" and 12" square, with a name or message embroidered in script, block or outline letters. The latest thing I've been experimenting with are the new blended threads. They work best with a filled in stitch design verses an outline design. Here are some vibrant ones.



I also like the pastels.



You can see all the handkerchiefs I made for my Aunt at this link, which has also been added to my Places To Go link listings.

The BK Bag: One of a Kind

This is a special, one of a kind bag I made for someone I really admire.

I did have quite a bit of problem putting in the diagonal pin tucks. That's because I decided to do them at the last minute, instead of putting them in before the firm bottom insert and the feet. That meant I could not get the pin tucks all the way to the bottom of the bag. Still, they do give the bag a better shape on the diagonal line, and the bottom line of the bag is still wide enough for her to get some files in. This bag has metal feet, pockets on both sides inside the bag and a magnetic snap closure. The straps are just an inch or two longer than my standard "over the shoulder straps" just to give a bit more room.



Here is an image to show you the scale of the bag.

Fabric and other things

I just had to share this image that bchand sent me. It brought a chuckle to my face. At the same time, I agree. Fabric can really spruce up a space.


I'm sorry I haven't shared any pictures of what I've been working on for so long. Mostly, I've been working on embroidering handkerchiefs as gifts, and a few other one-of-a-kind gift items. A special handbag I've been working on had been giving me trouble, and I finally finished it yesterday. It's a surprise present, and as soon as it's in the mail and received on the other end, I'll put up a photo.

Later on today, I'll put up some images of the handkerchiefs I've been working on. I will be offering monogrammed embroidered handkerchiefs on my price list of things I make. A 15" square linen hankie is $18.00, and a 12" square linen hankie is $15.00 I have a ton of different pattterns and thread colors available.

One reader here was asking about a bag to hang from the arm of their wheelchair. I've never made a bag like that before, but in the coming weeks I hope to get over to my girlfriend's house and measure her power wheelchair to see if I can design something stylish and inexpensive at the same time.

My Christmas Present

I am getting a brand new sewing machine for Christmas. It won't be "under the tree" so to speak on 12/25, but I did put a deposit on it about a week ago. I'm quite excited about it. The machine I am getting is the elna 7300 Pro Quilting Queen. Even though I'm not a quilter, this is the machine I'm getting.

I've never owned a new machine before, so this will be new experience for me. Every sewing machine I've ever owned has either been given to me used, or purchased used. When I had taken my Pfaff 1473 in for regular maintenance two weeks ago, I was asking him about getting a used back up machine or purchasing a second Pfaff for parts. He sat me down and told me that for the type of sewing I was doing, I really needed to get a new, more powerful machine. Besides, if/when the electronic board goes out on my Pfaff, that's it. I can't get a new one.

I didn't want to hear that of course, because who can just open up their wallet and put down two grand on a new machine? Not me. But what he did offer me was to make payments and when I was two weeks away from making the last payment to let him know and he would order the machine. And, if I put a down payment on it before 12/31, he would knock 15% off the price.

Back in 1994 I bought my first used Pfaff from him, an 1171 the same way. On a payment plan. It was quite old when I did buy it and it lasted me ten years. About three years ago I bought the 1473 and I really love it. I'm a "love the Pfaff brand" sewer, but this machine has some wonderful features that any hard core sewer would love to have. Most important to me is the fact that it has a more powerful motor in it than my Pfaff, which will help me tremendously in sewing the heavy upholstery fabrics as well as the glued/bonded fabrics.

Once I finally have my machine, I'll take a photo of it on my sewing table and put it up on the blog.

This entry will be cross posted on the main blog.

Blanket Sale

Shop my Etsy Store for all blankets in inventory.

THIS SALE HAS ENDED.
The baseball fleece and flannel blankie is still available, and I am putting one more stock blankie on sale too. Both blankies below are regularly $49.00 + shipping. On sale at $30.00 + $8.00 shipping. CA residents must add Los Angeles sales tax.

One of a kind Baseball Blankie



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