I was in bed this morning staring at the curtains we bought a few months back and wondered how much a decent sewing machine would cost.
When we bought the curtains a few months back I was surprised at the cost. They’re nice curtains, and we bought them with a gift certificate a relative gave us after our engagement, but I figured I could probably make myself some for cheaper if I had a sewing machine and a clue about sewing.
When I was growing up my mother sort of tried to teach us to sew. I was terrible at it, Heather did pretty well. Eventually I gave up and my mother graduated Heather to the sewing machine. I’ve watched both her and my mother use it, even tried it once or twice, so I knew the general idea, but as far as actually using a sewing machine I was pretty much a newbie.
So today I hit google for some recommendations for a reasonably priced sewing machine for a newbie. I had a difficult time finding very many reviews of sewing machines. Sewing machines are expensive items that you only buy once or twice a lifetime, but I’ve found plenty of reviews for other appliances I’ve bought over the years. I guess sewing machine people just don’t like writing reviews at sites that were highly google-accessible.
Anyway, I did find a few reviews and decided that I could probably be safe going with a Brother or Singer machine over $150. Pretty much everything less expensive had lousy or mixed reviews and I figured I shouldn’t take a chance.
So I headed to Target.
And came home with a Singer 7444 120 Stitch Function Sewing Machine.
I had it unpacked from it’s box around 5:30PM.
It’s shiny.
I had it threaded by 5:50PM.
Spent the next hour or so playing with bits of fabric.
I can make it sew straight!
I can make it sew zig-zags!
At 8:30 I successfully sewed a button back on a pair of khaki pants.
Now this all might not seem much to grand master sewers out there, but I was never any good at this sewing thing. The fact that I could sew buttons on with this machine 3 hours after pulling it out of the box is mind-boggling. I’ll certainly need tons of practice to get any good with this (even to get to curtain making), but it’s fun and shockingly relaxing.
And now I am going downstairs. It’s past my bedtime and I’m all wound up from playing with my new toy. I downloaded the first couple episodes of Eureka this evening, it’s a new show on SciFi that a co-worker recommended. I watched the first 10 minutes or so of the pilot a few minutes ago and it actually doesn’t suck too bad so far. It’d be nice if this was some good scifi, I haven’t been impressed with anything the SciFi has released as far as TV goes recently (no, not even BSG).