unprepared
April 15, 2015

As I get deeper into exploring my sewing machine and trying to work on my project, I realize that I am not prepared for it. I no longer have much in the way of sewing tools, I'm afraid. My old sewing kit is a jumbled mess with most of the essentials missing or no longer usable. I found two tracing wheels, but no tracing paper, a mangled seam gauge, a broken seam ripper, and a bunch of bobbins that fit my old machine, but not the new one. I ended up cutting my fabric with the KitchenAid shears, because I no longer have a good pair of sewing scissors (they did a great job, actually). I may have to put it aside until I'm better-equipped.

Which shouldn't be too long, since I promptly went online and ordered a Dritz starter sewing kit: tracing paper & wheel. pincushion, tape measure, dressmaking pencil, seam gauge, hand needles, straight pins, angled fabric scissors, seam ripper, and thimble. And a Fiskars rotary cutting set: rotary cutter, cutting mat, and clear grid ruler. Not a bad deal; cleared the free shipping minimum by 65 cents. Of course, I have to pay sales tax now, so that was another couple of bucks, but heck--still cheaper and easier than trying to run around finding that stuff in town, not to mention the kits being way cheaper than getting everything separately.

Meanwhile, baby steps. It took me an hour and a half on Monday night to just get the machine threaded, and I spent some time last night cutting my fabric. And running one short, very uneven seam on a piece of felt. Hey, this stuff is hard! I always had a hard time with sewing, and on top of that, I'm horribly rusty.

I'm starting to think that craft felt isn't the way to go in the end; I may want to buy some of that brushed fleece fabric. The kind people use to make fringed baby blankets. The craft felt, like so many other things, has gotten so darned flimsy and cheap.

I ate into my limited playtime a bit yesterday because I had to stop at Palmen on my way home and get the car taken care of. Monday's mail contained notices from the dealership that my new plates were in, and from the state, telling me I needed to get the emissions tested. Fortunately, it couldn't have been easier to get everything taken care of--they put my plates on and ran the test and by the time I went to the restroom and got a bottle of water, they were done! Quick, friendly, courteous, professional, and accommodating. Got to give them a plug for superior customer service. The upside of buying from a high-end GM dealer: Buick, Cadillac and GMC owners get a great level of service.

I was originally planning to go to the library, but the car took precedence. I need to go, though. I have books coming due, and I need to get my online account set up. I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not, but I had to replace my library card (mislaid my old one, which was 20 years old & worn out anyway), and when I went online to check out an ebook on my tablet, I found out I needed a new online account as well, since the old one was tied to my old card number and they can't/don't tranfer data to the new number. And it turned out that the librarian has to set that up. Yep. In this day and age, you can't set up an online library account by yourself. You have to actually drive to the library and have the librarian do it for you. Good grief!

I had to stop at the store on Monday and the dealership on Tuesday, so I decided that today I was going to go straight home. I'll make the library trip on Thursday or Friday. Those weeks where I have somewhere to go every single day just wear me out.

And besides...I wanted to get home to the package from Goulet Pens! My proud purple beauty awaited.