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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

New Sewing Machine

Well it was time to upgrade my sewing machine. It's amazing how you can really make things last when you have to and by taking care of your things. My poor old Janome was 17 years old and it has served me well. I took it apart a couple of months ago and gave it a good cleaning out and oiling, but alas, I think it's needing some new parts. So rather than put out money on repairs on such an old machine, I decided a new one was in order. The local store is going to be at the Sewing Show coming up this weekend, so I was able to get a $50 discount because they would be on sale at the show, and they gave me $50 for the old one, so I got this new one for $500.00.
A while ago I had that brilliant idea that maybe I would go for one of those really expensive, fully featured, comes with a laptop kind of machines.........well who needs that if you aren't going to use it all. This sweet little machine ( Janome Decor Computer DC3050), comes with 50 stitches, has the needle down feature ( how did I live without that all these years), 3 speeds for times when I have sew those teeny tiny little dollie fingers....how great is that. The picture shows it set at 19...that's my favourite stitch on there. Why??? Because it does a stitch that looks like you hand stitched a quilt, and who wouldn't like to make people believe that you are an absolutely amazing quilter to be able to get those perfect stitches by hand each time.... ;o) Alright, so I wouldn't let them believe that for long, but maybe a minute or two until they catch me smirking... I did a quick little sampler of that quilting stitch.
With the pink, green and purple thread there is more definition to the stitch. I experimented with a blue varigated thread that is finer, and you can see that those two rows are not nearly as well defined. I will experiment using a bit heavier thread to and see the difference that way. The top thread for this stitch is invisible thread, and the bobbin thread is coloured. The tension is turned up and what happens, is that the bobbin thread gets pulled up to the top, the invisible thread leaves a stitch between each coloured thread that you can't really see unless you go looking for it. It's neat. My second favourite stitch is the little hearts. I can see stitching them onto ribbons (and all the fancy stitches for that matter).... So that's my news for today. I had to have a play with the machine before actually doing some serious stitching and finding out that I haven't threaded it right, or some other horror that sewers face when in a hurry...but I have declared that tomorrow is my "at home, I'm not going anywhere, not answering the phone and hunkering down in my room" day.












5 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your new machine. Just like you, I wonder how I could live without the needle down feature for so long (my old machine was 25 years old). I think I tried the same stitches as you as my first experiment with the new machine :-)Be careful, it can be addictive!

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  2. CONGRATULATIONS!!! What a snazzy looking machine and those stitches are so pretty!

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  3. Congratulations on your new machine, you're going to enjoy playing with it and experimenting.......have fun.
    Michelle

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  4. Hello, My name is Joyce White and I love this machine, I have an old Brother Pacesetter.

    I have had it for about 15 yrs. Just now starting to saw again on it from when I first got it about 15yrs ago.

    Your work is beautiful. Ilove the dolls.

    I just started this month to work on cloth dolls. I want to make the body cloth and make the head,hands, and feet clay.

    My email is joyce@joycewhiteafricanjewlery.com. I also have a blog I just started this evening.

    http://joycewhiteafricanjewelry.blogspot.com. I am still learnig it. My website is joycewhiteafricanjewelry.com.

    I am a jewelry artist. If there are any suggestions or comments you can suggest about the dolls please let me know.

    Thank you in advance for your promopt response.

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  5. Thank you ladies for your posts. I have been really enjoying the new machine. I love all the features I've missed having for so long and had I known what a treat they are, I would certainly have changed machines sooner... ;o) Romona

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