I did some embroidery to make a condolences card for the widow of a builder (bricklayer originally) friend.
I also sewed something else, buggered if I can remember now, which is really annoying.
And today, I managed to repair one of my made to measure bras!
These feel like fairly significant achievements, for different reasons.
The embroidery one was great, because everything worked well. I also did some work prepping another couple of pieces, but I haven't stitched those out. I attempted to buy a new embroidery machine, but was too late. It did help me sort our what I'm going to do (currently, anyway), and I feel happy with my decision (currently anyway).
If When I get my replacement machine, it will use a different format to the one I currently use, which is an unimaginable exercise in redownloading (or extracting) all the designs I own, in the new format. And, everything will need to be recatalogued, again. I did this once before when I switched from my lovely Janome single needle to the Brother 6 needle, so I am well aware of just how much effort it will be.
I've actually made a start already, and I'm working through downloading (or extracting) the new format for the designs I own. This is tedious work, time consuming, but at least will mean I can start cataloguing when I'm ready. If I don't get the machine I'm interested in, well, I've just wasted some time. It's not the end of the world. If When I do, I will be happy that all the grunt work is done.
Going through the designs, redownloading them, makes me see all soiorts of designs I haven't thought about for years, and I've really quite enjoyed seeing what I own.
On the sewing front, I started by cutting up some old bras to "harvest" the hardware. Today, I decided to do the repair on one of my bras, it was "just" a case of replacing the hooks. I looked carefully at how they were fixed, and I went through my harvested goods to find one of a similar colour and size.
I then went to the trouble and care of unpicking the donor one. I was amazed that I'd managed to salvage it in really good shape,
It was much more tricky than I expected, because the hooks got in the way of the presser foot. I tried several feet, even my straight stitch leg, foot and plate, and it was just a mess. Either the foot wasin the way, or the feed dogs wouldn't work, or blah blah blah.
I was amazed at my patience. I think I managed to be patient because the problems were not of my making, and each of my decisions and attempts were done on sound principles.
In the end I decided I'd just use a straight stitch, with a very short length, and that worked really well. The end result is a bit of a mess because of the earlier issues, but it's still wearable. And I'll know better what to do when it comes to repairing the next one (which I am currently wearing).
I'm not posting a pic, because it'll look frightful in closeup.
I'm hoping that a surge (serge, ha ha) of sewing enthusiasm will overtake me soon, as my list of things to make is getting ever longer.
