Fancy Feet

Yes, my foot obsession continues. I broke my rule of not buying any new feet until I had become intimately familiar with the ones I already had, but for good reason.
I recently received a copy of Shirtmaking by David Page Coffin and was considering buying a flat felled foot and a roll hem foot. This past Friday, I found out the deadline for a sample for the shirtmaking class I plan to teach at my Bernina dealer was needed by Aug 1st. So I bought the feet, picked out fabric and made the shirt this weekend. I was unable to get a good hem with the rolled hem foot (too many sharp curves), but the felled seam foot looked like a charm. I also used a completely different technique to attach the collar and stand which makes it much easier to get the stand lined up with the front placket.

Oh, Baby!

I attending a baby shower this weekend. Much to my delight, my friends are expecting a girl. Baby girl dresses are the most fun to make. They're small quick and you can do sweet, cute details you can't do on anything else. I made a dress and 3 coordinating bibs.
The applique designs are from Urban Threads (http://www.urbanthreads.com).
The stitching on the dress bodice is stitch-stacking--a technique using multiple decorative stitches to create a lace effect.

My on-going foot fetish...

I've already accumulated quite a few presser feet for my lovely new machine, and am proud to say I used quite a few of them this weekend:

1C Reverse pattern (of course--this is the all-purpose that you can do most basic stitches
3C automatic buttonhole with slider--for a little dress I made for a friend's baby due in August
7 Tailor tack--for (drumroll, please) tailor tacks on a suit I'm making for ASDP/Threads challenge
10C Edge stitch--a few people have named this as their favorite foot, and it is def one of my faves
16 Wide Gathering--also for the baby dress. Loving this foot after getting the hang of it.
18 button sew on--have one for my Elna, but never used it since it seems easier to sew buttons by hand. No more--this foot works great, as does the button sewing program
35 Invisible zipper--SOOOO much better than the foot for my Elna which required me to sew twice to get it just right. The Bernina foot is perfect the first time, so it now takes me half the time to put in an invisible zipper

I still covet a few feet I don't have yet: Binding foot, Ruffler, piping. I am trying to get myself to master all the feet I've already bought before buying more. Will post again when I've tackles a few more...

You can't have enough (presser) feet

Last Saturday I had my first lesson at the dealer. I thought I had already learned quite a bit about the machine, but there is so much more to it. As I suspected (feared) I was offered a 15% discount on anything I bought that day. I picked up the roller foot (for leather), a cording foot, and an edge-stitching foot. I was happy I had purchased the roller foot, since my husband had asked me to repair a vintage guitar strap. Thanks to a friend in California, I have piles of leather samples of all sorts of colors and had just the right color/thickness to reinforce the tab.
I also used the edge stitch foot for a new purse I made for myself. I copied the purse from one I bought in Montreal last year, and the embroidery is a free design from Urban Threads.

The Most Awesome Machine Ever

This is the most amazing machine I have ever touched. Everything about it makes things easier, faster and more accurate. I've sewn dozens of invisible zippers with my Elna, but the Bernina foot is so much better that it took me half the time to set a zipper.
I also tried a corded pintuck last night--it was magic! As per the manual, I ran the "cord" (in this case embroidery floss) through the bobbin case and into the small round hold in the sole plate. The floss was lined up perfectly and a beautiful pintuck emerged from behind the presser foot.

My New BFF

I have sewn since I was 4, making clothes for my Barbie and Mrs. Sunshine by hand. By 12, I had a hand-me-down machine all my own, in my room. I've mostly made clothes, but have ventured into other areas: bags, laptop cases, sofa cushions.
I bought my first brand-new machine in 2000--an Elna 6005 Heirloom Edition--a good machine with lots of bells and whistles. But I've lusted after Berninas for years, and after attending a workshop at conference for a trade group (ASDP--Association of Sewing and Design Professionals), I knew my life would not be complete until I possessed one of these works of Swiss perfection. (Much like I still to this day know my childhood would only have been perfect if I had owned a Barbie van. Alas, my childhood was RV free and thus incomplete.)
About a week ago I purchased my first Bernina and first embroidery machine. It was love at first stitch.
This is where I prove my true sewing nerdiness in listing my favorite features:
9mm stitch width--YES!!
stainless steel arm (other than being more durable, I just like it because it looks cool)
computer! (wish it ran Mac instead of windows, but still cool)
automatic thread cutter and knee presser foot lift
insane number of pre-programmed stitches including 3 different styles of keyhole buttonholes Nirvana!
Yes, I am obsessed with this machine. I find myself giggling like a schoolgirl (though don't recall giggling all that much when I was a school girl) and singing "Secret Love" while my dearest new companion happily chugs away at an embroidery design.

I'll include some of my recent projects on the next post and bore you with my insane ranting over the perfect jeans and awesomely snarky embroidery designs.

The very first post!

I've decided to finally start a blog, because like most people, I have the completely unsubstantiated belief that I have something to say(write) that others may actually want to hear(read). I've always been a talker (just ask my family). Less than an hour after having my tonsils removed at 27, I was talking. Even my brother was stunned by my will to speak. Since blogs seem to be the talkaholic's modern medium, here I am.
I'll warn you right off the bat that I can be downright schizophrenic in my interests. Sewing is my primary passion, but I'm also a major Francophile, love to cook and bake, own two Pugs, a Lab, and 4 donkeys, and am a pretty major geek. Anything is fair game for posts, so visitor beware...