Dearest Sewing Friends,
I got a lot done in my needlework queendom this week: number one was solving a problem with my vintage Brother sewing machine - and clearing up some sewing room chaos!
I confess: this is my favourite pile of beautiful chaos; all the linen and cotton and lace white things!
I finally picked up the instruction booklet and had a gander at what the main issues might be, whilst taking apart the needle and undercarriage - and FINALLY deciding that the lamp hanging down with it's casing is no longer acceptable!
This machine has been doing really well throughout my increasing activity this year in sewing BUT the lamp-hanging-down was infuriating (I'm super sensitive to bright lights at funny angles to my eyes, and yet couldn't sew easily without a good light at the needle) and in the past week, the top thread had begun to snap after just a few stitches - yikes!
The first vital point I learned in the guidebook was that the machine should be oiled all over EVERY TIME I USE IT! WHAAAAAAT?!I'd had my Brother sewing machine since 2004, and boought some oil once, but have only ever oiled it fully about once! Oopah: maybe that's why it squeaks a lot?? When I'd taken the top needle out, I also realised it had a nick out of the side of it, which must have been what was breaking the threads.I cleaned majorly inside the machine too, which had a ton of thread and fluff rattling around in it.
And the lamp: I've tried about 50 times to solve the hanging down casing, and it wasn't making sense that it wouldn't slot in mechanically to the housing. I set my mind to This Will Be Solved Today, fiddled with it for an hour using a mirror and tweezers, found that one screw was loose and the other had fallen down into the machinery... Did an incredibly difficult maneouver to put the screws back in place, and eventually recognised that the problem with the housing not closing, was a too-large light bulb! It was a fridge bulb and not a sewing machine one!
Here you can see the difference in the sizes of bulbs: I'd been pushing and pushing this big bulb trying to get the casing to close around it, and with the casing falling down - it was a simple solution in the end!
Thank goodness for the Chinese store in town - a tiny light bulb like this would've demanded a visit-to-the-city in the past, but now I can just pop up the other end of town and get almost any kind of bulb. Brilliant: this was one of the most exciting bulb purchases I've made in my entire life.
Replacing the needle, oiling a bit and then putting in the new bulb to the now firmly secured casing, I was ecstatic to get into new projects! I'd been doing a lot of hand-sewing whilst I figured out how to get the Brother machine back on track, and hope to be embarking this week on a Complete Set Of Underwears!
This is another HUGE step into new territory with my sewing, which I plan to do regularly this year (my Year Of Needlework Mastery): I've been very inspired over the past couple of years in this community (NeedleworkMonday) by the amazing endeavours of women here sewing lingerie - such a joy to see...
And I have deep reasons for wanting to reclaim making underwear, as it really is a most sacred practise of having the right energetic weaving around our root chakra and pelvic magic - it is a very negative dreamspell which is woven by slave-labour and machinery in our cheaply-made knickers and bras which cradle our most precious body in places where we are most sensitive. I've been feeling an increasing sense for a time, around not wanting to wear any underwear, but then I wear a lot of short garments and thin fabrics in summer... so it is more necessary, for not creating a stir in town!
So I began with another bralette that I've been ruminating on a while; have not got so far with it, as am in two minds about having either coloured silk or thin cotton for the main breast-covering part of it... I'm pinning in this cotton to see how it looks and feels, but think my original rumination was more for thin thin silk... I need to find the right colour combination.
During my enthusiastic work on my recycled denim coat recently, the kitchen and sewing room got super messy! There were a lot of off-cuts and cut threads. After the coat was lined and belted, I got into deep cleaning activity and also looked at my sewing area which has been accumulating fabrics for months but has no particular order to storing them so that I could access them easily...
Taking the winter woollies out of my big green tea-chest and the chest into another room was a great choice: I've been avoiding taking stock of all my fabrics; a great deal of it is wool and looking through wool in painfully hot August is not appealing, but I at least got the big bags of wool and scraps out and under the bed instead of locked in the chest (which was then jammed tightly in under the platform bed - very hard to get to). The rest of the raw materials for my reconstructing clothing techniques are still all laying about, but I am - bag by bag - putting them into more organised piles and sacks.
It helps to simply sift through them all occasionally and to remember the original inspiration that came to me at the 50c stall... Sometimes that inspiration still holds, or sometimes I see a new possibility or combination with another more-recently bought item. Taking stock is such an important part of my creative process - especially in an old home like this, where things need to be aired regularly. And where I have multiple disciplines unfolding at the same time!
And another successfully-finished project this week is my amazing exotic skirt and top:
You wouldn't believe it; I bought the skirt ages ago - non-natural fabric but glorious flowery pattern on white, which I could't resist! - and then recently at the same 50c stall as always - I found the top to match it!! The very same material and style! And a really flattering design! (I'll do a photoshoot with it another time)
I had a lot of adjustment work to do on the skirt however: it was ripped along the waistline, and the waist was just a wee bit too loose for my belly.
So I doubled-over the waistband, embroidered the holes up, added and elastic and a zip for good fit (and to be able to actually get it over my hips!)...
...Added an elaborate set of ribbons to ruche the sides and make it less boring/ more funky-elegant as per my style...
...And finally, rolled the edging to make it more neat: the old finishings were just an overlocking stitch and give it a cheapy look. I'll fix the edges of the top like this too, soon.
All in all this has been a most satisfying week with my sewing: I also moved my bedroom into this room instead of my painting room:
This marks a significant move of my main focus from painting to sewing.
It is exciting for me!
I have so much I want to express through fabric!!
OH! And I made some very cute miniature hair scrunchies a couple of days ago - sitting in the bar with an aperitivo: a project I'd been keen to do for about a decade... Hhhhhhhaaaaaa!
