Current Mood : Sleepy again
Was a little busier today, since I wanted to attempt using "KJ", my lovely sewing machine, again. My last few brief attempts have been...lacking. I know I shouldn't be surprised, it's been months since I last sewed, but even a simple hem has been a pain. So I planned some larger projects, loaded up the right thread, and got to it.
Still had lots of tension problems. Changed needles, re-threaded several times, changed thread. Last time I sewed with some rarely used yellow thread, I had no end of problems with it, and decided to toss out the spool. Luckily I hadn't yet, because I was still having issues.
Today's projects included repairing and hemming the sleeves to a fuzzy sort of beltless trench-coat I got from somewhere, but it fits the MH guys, so... Also doing the same to a pair of Barbie jeans that once had a blouse-matching design on the cuffs. Took off the fabric bits, but that left raw fabric instead of hems, so I had to split part of the leg open to hem, then resew the leg. And, while I was at it, I could machine-sew the adjusted Velcro closure. Several small projects, each a hassle if KJ and I weren't agreeing.
I got the trench-coat sleeves done well enough - if I were doing it for anyone but me, I'd have redone them - but the stitching on the jean hems was all over the place. After the usual efforts, I decided that I needed to just clean and oil everything, it was past time for that anyway.
Glad I did, since there's no way I would have found the bit of brown thread wedged around the bobbin race. I have no idea how long it's been there, or how it messed with everything else, but it did. Guess it pulled at the current thread and got it tangled, or pulled it out of tension just enough. Also found a huge dust bunny behind the bobbin, and that took tape and brushes to remove, since we're out of canned air. Dusted around the feed dogs, oiled the three points the manual says to, and got her put back together. Ahhh. Like a new machine, quiet and perfect. Made me sad and upset at m'self that I'd wrestled with it without checking everything before.
The rest of the alterations took about two minutes since I didn't have to redo them twice and rethread anything, so today, you get Jackson. VW Beetle is also Dearest Son's, a 50c yard sale find, and the jeans are Barbie's. The sports jersey came from kids meal toys - I think they were from Burger King. They were on little plastic figures that bent to dunk a basketball, also included. We got them a couple times when BK ran out of the toy du jour, and I found dozens unopened at yard sales, so I doubt they were very popular. I split 'em up the back, where the name was, applied Velcro, intending to use them for my dolls. But they were too tight on Ken, and fit wrong on Barbie, so they went into the 'discard' box. Turns out, they fit Monster High guys pretty well ! There's three more besides the one Jackson's wearing, so you'll probably see 'em around.
But now, I wanna sew more for the dudes ! Haven't made anything new for Clawd yet ! Hmmm....
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