Sew What!

I can sew.  As kids we were taught to sew and then in middle school we had sewing class.  Along with cooking, drafting, and wood shop. 

I can't sew like Miss Wendy or Miss Sarah.  They can sew circles around me and then add flourish to those circles.  I can get by. 

I don't often have the opportunity to sew because more often than not I have things I need to mend.

I hate mending.

I consider sewing to be creative and fun.
I consider mending to be torture. 

Sewing...let's make a new bag!

Mending...I caught the pocket of my favorite jacket on the door knob and ripped it.  Now whatever is in my pocket falls out so I either have to buy a new jack or fix this one.

Sewing...let's make an apron for the kids!

Mending...I ripped the hem of my pants on my heel and now my heel gets caught on them every time I walk and my pants get wet when it rains so I have to fix it or buy new pants.

See the difference?

Here is my current mending situation:

My swimsuit. 

You're thinking 'a swimsuit in March?'  Yes, Walt Kowalski and I swim at the gym several nights a week.  I bought a swimsuit with special material that won't fade or disintegrate in the pool.   However, they didn't use special thread to hold the pieces of the swimsuit together.  All of the seams are unraveling.  My swimsuit is literally falling apart at the seams.  The body of the suit is fine, but I accidentally mooned several children at the pool because the seam at my rear came apart.  (I wondered why I felt a breeze.)

Walt Kowalski: "Buy a new suit."
Me: "I can fix this.  It's just the seams."

I don't have the sewing machine set up on a table all the time.  That would make the process 1000 times easier.  Right now, the sewing machine is in storage.  So the mending ends up in a pile.  In this case, a bag or several bags.

Here's my sewing machine:

1977 Singer Stylist

It even does button holes. Grammy taught me. Actually, this is her sewing machine.  She does less sewing than I do.  It's got a nice carrying/storage case and I know how to use it. 

After the gym one night, Walt Kowalski stopped at storage and picked it up for me.  Brought it home and sewed his jacket pocket and my jacket pocket.  Then I brought out my swimsuit. 

The swimsuit material is slippy and slippy material doesn't always run through the machine very well. I knew this when I started. 

Started struggling, that is.  I struggled through one seam and the stitches weren't very even, but they held.  I struggled through another seam.  Then I struggled with that same seam again.

Walt Kowalski: "Buy a new suit."

I'm determined to fix this suit.  It's my favorite.  After continued struggling I came to the conclusion this material just wasn't going to feed well through the machine and I was going to have to sew it by hand. 

Walt Kowalski: "Buy a new suit."

Ok fine, I'll work some other mending in the bags.  There were at least 5 pair of jeans that needed small repairs.  These aren't good jeans, they are work jeans. Extra pairs of work jeans are always handy. 

Now I'm struggling with the jeans having the same problem I was with the suit, the material just won't feed.

OK, now I will try just a piece of simple material.  Nothing thick.  Nothing slippy. 

Nope, still won't feed through.

Crap crap crap. 

The feed dogs (the proper term) weren't moving.  The feed dog is the part under the needle that pulls the material through the sewing machine.  Logic tells me that this is a moving part so it's either jammed full of fuzz or broken. 

Walt Kowalski "Buy a new suit."

Oh no, I cannot let a sewing machine get the best of me.  Get me a screwdriver and the internet.

1 screw driver + 1 internet and 5 minutes later I get the bottom of the machine open, find a schematic of gears and lots of little broken gear pieces.

Walt Kowalski "Buy a new machine."

It's just a gear.  A little more searching, I found a replacement gear and directions how to replace it. A new machine would be a great investment if I sewed more often.  Or ever.

A new gear will be enough.

In the meantime, I just happen to have another sewing machine in storage.  It was my grandmother's and to my knowledge still works.  No, I don't have a storage full of old Singer sewing machines.

It is a Singer.  Just subtract a few more years. The internet tells me it is a late 40s early 50s model.

Walt Kowalski: "Buy a new suit."

I laced the thread through what I thought was the right way and tried it out.  Nothing.  No stitches.  After struggling to thread the machine again, I went back to the internet and found a users manual. 

Walt Kowalski: "Buy a new suit."

I was doing it backwards. 

Once I got it threaded properly, it worked!  The machine sewed perfectly.  I can now swim again.  Not nearly as many options as the newer machines, but it will get me through until I can order a new gear for the other model.  I even mended an entire bag of clothes. 

Walt Kowalski: "Buy a new suit."