Trauma

There was rather a lot of distress and trauma this week when my sewing machine decided to jam up and refuse to stitch. If you look at the photo closely you will see the box of painkillers in the background. When I am in a sewing mood and loving it, cutting me off suddenly in mid project is torture. I have had it serviced a few months ago, so it shlould be in top form, but it refused to baste my sleeve caps and then jammed completely. Johnny and I both pored over the inner workings. I rethreaded after cleaning out the crevices. It jammed up in a mass of threads. A day later I went back in, untangled it again and it worked. What?????

Anyway, I am now thinking about needing a replacement at some stage. So many models to choose from. I have studied lots of reviews and it seems that many machines are both loved and loathed by different users. I need one that is very accurate with excellent quality stitches. It needs to be able to cope with quilting and must be able to have the feed dogs lowered so that I can embroider and free machine quilt. I also want fantastic buttonholes, as my current machine is very dodgy in that department. My machine has loads of stitches, which I rarely use, but possibly would if the quality was better. I love sewing so having a fantastic sewing machine is really important. 

Now I can show you the finished project. It is another version of Gertie's Portrait Blouse. A little prim and proper, but will be sweet with jeans. 

The fabric is a piece of vintage cotton from Auntie Jenny's stash. Possibly Liberty. Gertie's original blouse has wee cap sleeves all-in-one with the bodice. I cut back the shoulders and drafted my own sleeves. I used darts instead of tucks to shape the front and lenghthened the blouse a fair bit. 

The back had tucks to shape, plus there was a side zip. I used shirring instead. It turned out perfectly. 

I added dear wee lemon coloured cupped flower buttons from my button collection. 

I am very pleased with the result, which looks a bit more interesting on me because my dressmaker's dummy, Ruby, is not quite as nipped in at the waist as me, so the shirring produces a sort of peplum effect when I wear it - less frumpy, I think. Ruby looks like she is developing a dowager's hump!

My next project may be something using some very prettty tartan cotton. Hope my machine wants to co-operate.