The Benefits of Owning a Rocketship

First off, there is less swearing. This is a benefit to all. At first I thought that my new machine didn't actually make things go faster, but I realized last week that indeed when I am swearing less and fixing things less, projects do get done more quickly. Imagine that!

This is the promised post about how very cool my new rocketship is.

Its major benefit is this thing in the photo below, called the Acu-Feed Foot. A sewing machine "foot" is whatever piece of metal or plastic is holding your fabric from the top and pressing it against the metal plate below. These feet are removable, and depending on how they are designed, they can achieve different things, like attach a zipper, darn a hole in something, or sew crazy fun stitches. This one here has little guiding grabbers that pull the fabric from the top and help it to feed evenly along under the needle. You can't really see the top grabbers in this photo but you can see the ones that grab the bottom layer of your fabric. Those are the teeth-like metal parts you see running vertically in the middle of the picture. They're called feed dogs but I don't know why. I get that they feed the fabric but I don't get the dog part.

But I am not that interested in finding out, so we'll move on. When you are sewing through a lot of layers, or if you have to go over big bumps such as at the beginning of something thick, this foot will do it. My previous machine had to be coaxed, coerced, or just throttled into going over big bumps, and it always slid the top layer off the bottom layer, making things crooked. (For those of you who are sewers and want to know why I didn't own a walking foot, I did and it made very little difference.) This machine just slides right over those bumps, hallelujah.

Another extremely cool feature is the needle plate, which is that big flat piece of metal with grooves and holes on it. This machine comes with two needle plates. The one I have installed at the moment has two little holes right next to each other which you can see in the middle of the photo above. Those are the only places the needle will go with this plate--either in the middle or slightly to the left. Why does this matter? Well, first off any flimsy fabric you want to use will not be crushed into a wide hole by the powerful needle. Secondly, any narrow piece of fabric will not get smashed into a wide hole. This is what matters to me.

Above you see me sewing a narrow strip of fabric that's going to be a tie in the back of a smock. I've told the needle (in the photo the needle has a little red dot on it, and it is poking down through the fabric) to go in the left-hand hole so that the grabbers on the left of the foot will grab as much of the fabric strip as possible, thus guiding it straight and true. This whole set-up is a gigantic time saver. The narrow little strip does not get eaten from below, the bump at the end of the tie slides under smoothly, and the layers of fabric all line up correctly at both ends. It's truly stunning and makes me want to jump for joy. I realize that for most of the world, indeed for all of the people with whom I live, this is completely not interesting, but you are reading, so...keep reading. 

The other needle plate, which just pops in and out with a little lever, has a very wide hole in it to allow the needle to move side to side and make many, many different stitches. Here is a photo of all the stitches it can make. 

That's the lid of the machine propped open, showing what each stitch looks like and which number to punch into the computer so that it will sew the stitch you want. The computer is down there at the bottom right. There are a zillion stitches and I know I will never use them all. I tend not to be wowed by the different stitches a machine can make. I bought this machine because of its power, its precision, the enormous size of it, and the features I'm talking about now. Someday I might use many of those stitches but I haven't used any of them yet. Seriously, noting except the straight stitch so far.

You can see in the photo above some of the slots for the different feet the machine comes with. I think it came with about 15 or so; only the ones the manufacturer thinks you will use most often are stored in the top. The rest live in a compartment the fits under the machine. So far I have used the zipper foot and the regular foot but I've got some applique coming up shortly and I am sure in the distant future there will be some quilting.

Here's some of the handy features that entry-level machine's don't have. At the top of the photo above you see a scissors button. This cuts the threads when you are finished sewing and brings both the top and bottom threads to the bottom so you don't have to snip them later with your itty bitty snipping scissors. Another little convenience. The double arrow button allows you to decide whether you want the machine to stop with the needle up, out of the fabric, or down, in the fabric. I like it down because I am usually stopping just to make a turn, and if your needle comes out of the fabric and you try to turn your project it doesn't work--you lose the stitching line you were making and you basically create a hole in your seam. The target-looking button is very handy. It locks the beginning and end of the stitching line for you by having the machine make several stitches in place. Next down is the reverse button, which all machines have so it's not that special. But I do like how I can program this machine to make a lock stitch or a reverse stitch at the beginning and end of every line I sew. I definitely did not have that before.

Finally, a photo of the whole thing. See the area where my pin holder is? That area is called the harp and it matters to some people how big it is, because the bigger it is the larger the project you can work with. This one is eleven inches wide, which is the widest I have heard of. I love that much of the time my pin holder can just sit there being very convenient!

You can also see that the machine comes with a large clear table that slides on from the left, which is also great for resting big projects. When heavy fabrics are pulled by their own weight off the edge of a smaller table, the stitches can come out warped, or worse, you can hurt your machine by all that sideways pulling on the needle. This big table has eliminated any of those types of problems for me.

So these are the main reasons I bought this machine. I also just like the feel of it when sewing and how very quiet it is. I actually purchased a completely different machine at first, which after a couple of days I took back to the store. It was an even more expensive thing from Bernina and it worked a lot like a princess in my view. Demanding, dainty, and very picky. Every little thing involved pushing multiple buttons on the computer. And it was insanely loud. I know quilters love, love their Berninas, but my Janome is much more my style.

Nope, no one has paid me to say all these nice things about my machine. Janome does not know I exist and I don't think the sewing machine store knows I have a blog. I'm just pretty pleased that my months of research and lengthy test drives led me to just the right choice for me, and I am so, so grateful that my shop's success made it possible for me to get it! 

Interested in Sewing? Hope You Like Ironing!

Today I made three pencil rolls in my new style. These hold twelve pencils or pens (or makeup brushes), even wider ones like fountain pens, and the roll has a flap that folds over the contents so they can't fall out when rolled and tied. Each roll uses three coordinating fabrics. That's my favorite part of making these--choosing the fabrics for them. There are so many possibilities!  If you'd like to share any ideas, please leave your thoughts in the comments. You can have a look at the fabrics available in my shop and see if there are any combos you can think of that I haven't considered.

Main fabrics, left to right: Unison "Larch," Albert Hadley "Fireworks," LuluDK "Minerva"

While I was making these today I thought (again) about how much sewing time is actually ironing. I don't really like ironing. There are napkins and tablecloths and dress shirts that have been sitting around my house for months waiting to be ironed. But ironing while sewing is essential. I would guess that I spend about half my construction time cutting and ironing at different stages rather than sewing. So I took some photos during the process of making the purple pencil roll so you could see how much ironing and other not-sewing is involved in just one little item for my shop.

First, I have to iron the huge swaths of fabric that I've purchased and hang them or store them neatly (ha! neatly!). But even before doing that I wash and dry everything. I didn't think you'd be too interested in seeing a photo of my washing machine, so I've skipped those steps. I usually try to do that right when I've brought the fabric home anyway. Next, I cut the fabric pieces according to the pattern I've made. For a pencil roll, that's seven pieces. I use my rotary cutter, which is like a pizza cutter, and a big ruler to make straight edges. I've got a number of smaller rulers I use regularly too.

Next I iron what's called interfacing to one layer of the pencil roll's fabric (no photo of this either because I forgot). Interfacing comes in many styles and adds weight and structure to what you're making. For these pencil rolls, I use a cotton interfacing that irons directly onto the back of one piece of fabric. Even though I use very high thread count fabrics, the interfacing makes the pencil roll just a little more hefty. The end product feels good and strong. If you're interested, here is a nice introduction to the different kinds of interfacing out there.

Next I iron all the little strips of fabric that make the ties and that enclose the top of the pencil pockets. Don't they look nice in the photo all together? Each of these pieces is folded (and ironed) once down the middle, then opened, then each long edge is folded (and ironed) again toward the middle. Finally, the whole thing is folded (and, yes, ironed!) again down the middle. I pin the pieces while I do the next ones so they don't undo on me.

Finally! A sewing moment! It is hard to believe how much non-sewing goes into sewing. Below is a photo of that piece of binding at the top of the pencil pockets getting sewed on. First I sew it to the pockets piece along one of those creases I made in the last step.

Then I fold the binding piece up and over to the back of the pocket piece. Naturally, I iron the seam I've just made. Every time you sew a seam, in fact, you have to press it. Every time. It sets the thread in the fabric, making it more secure. 

Above is what it looks like folded over and pressed. Below is the stitching I then did on top of the green fabric to secure that piece completely to the purple/white fabric. I try to get as close to the edge of the green fabric as possible, and I try to be really, really straight. When I first started sewing, this was not easy, but I am much better at it now. There is, by the way, a more conventional way to sew this seam below, which is to put it on the purple and white fabric, right up next to the green one, catching the green fabric underneath on the other side. It's called "stitch in the ditch." But that, I have found, is enormously difficult to do well by machine, so I just sew on the green. I think it looks very neat and trim.

 If you flip it over, it looks like this: 

See? The last set of stitching I did caught the green fabric on the back, securing it completely to the purple and white fabric. Once again, I iron. 

Then I move on to making the ties. I sew along both long edges because I think it looks better. Some people only sew along the open edge of a thing like this, but I like to do both. 

And guess what? After sewing those seams down, I go and iron the ties. 

Next up, marking where the slots will go. I use my pattern with the pencil lines and make a little blue dot with my disappearing ink pen at the top and bottom of each pocket. 

Then I join the dots with stitching, up and back on each line. I'm now attaching the pocket piece to the solid purple, which will be the inside, or lining of the pencil roll. 

When that's finished, I spray the thing with water to take off the little blue dots I made, then--woo-hoo--iron again. We are getting close to the end now, though. 

Next up, I pin the pockets/lining piece to the outside piece. I put them together so that the good sides of the fabrics are facing each other. That way I can turn them inside out later. See my cool pin holder on the left? That is a magnetized piece of Rimu wood from New Zealand that I got on my honeymoon. One of my favorite things. 

Now you see I have sewn around most of the pencil roll, leaving a space for turning it right side out, and I've clipped the corners so they will more likely come out as a point. If you don't do that then the fabric gets all bunched up there and looks pretty bad when you turn it right side out. With my trusty chopstick I poke out those corners and make sure all the edges are nice and straight. 

The very last step is to sew along the edge again, making a nice white stitching line all the way around, and closing the hole that allowed for the turning. Wait, that's actually not the last step. The real last step is, you guessed it, ironing around that new stitching along the edges. 

I didn't realize when I started these today how great they all look together, but I love the jewel tones all next to each other, don't you?

They'll be showing up in the shop soon!  Don't forget to suggest some new combos for more pencil rolls! 

My First Sewing "Teacher"

Happy Sunday! Thought I'd tell you a little story. When I first decided to learn to sew a few years ago, I went to the library and got some books. Sure, I could whip up a pillow case without directions but I wanted to be able to make something more complicated, which was going to require some research. [Quick side note. HG is currently dragging her father around the living room dancing to "No Woman No Cry," which is pretty amusing.] One of the books was the amazing Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol.

This is the perfect book for anyone wanting to learn to sew these days. You don't have to actually do any of her projects, but the unconventional directions she includes and the neat ideas offer both plenty of inspiration and plenty of practical, get-it-done advice. She's funny, she's charming, and she's a great sewer! 

Amy also has a blog, called the Angry Chicken. One of the first projects I tried from there was this fun and easy one on felt hairclips. I made a lot of hairclips. AM made a lot of hair clips. Some of ours came out pretty well, and HG even wore some for a while. She's moved on to headbands now, though. But I do still use a  bias tape application method I learned from Amy on this hysterical video. You should watch it even if you don't want to learn how to sew. What is bias tape, you ask? Bias tape is a thin folded piece of fabric that is a little stretchy (because it's cut on the bias) that covers the edge of something else. Sometimes it matches the larger fabric and sometimes it contrasts. You might have seen it along the neckline of a blouse or dress, or you can also see an example here on my snack sacks. I definitely still use her method for sewing it on!

So if you'd like sewing to be in your future, I highly recommend Amy's book to start. Go for it!  Maybe you'll open an Etsy shop too!

P.S. HG is still dancing, though the music has now progressed to Fleetwood Mac. 

P.P.S. Amy Karol has no idea who I am. I just really like her book.