Denied

It is sad when you get an enormous urge to do something, and are prevented from doing it by circumstances beyond your control.

I am experiencing this right now with my sick sewing machine. I have a project I am having a lot of fun with, but it is just sitting there waiting for my machine to come back from the shop.

For a few hours there, I thought I would actually be spared a repair bill. My husband managed to put the darn thing back together after all. Yay! I was so happy.

There I was, sewing for all I was worth, when PLOP!, out comes the whole needle-shebang again. I put it back on. It comes out again. I put it back on. It comes out again.

My craft room is upstairs. I was ready to throw the darn thing out the window.

Well, it was still pretty early in the day when all this happened. So I packed up the machine, got me and my problem in the car, and drove the whole mess to Plano, TX which is where the nearest Brother Authorized Dealer/Repair shop is. That isn’t too far from where I live, so I thought I might as well take it right to the horse’s mouth, so to speak, rather than to a generic repair shop.

Now, I’ve been in these types of stores before, just going along for the ride with others who were looking to buy a super-fancy machine. The people who work at these places are like car salesmen. So I was a little worried I would be subjected to the hard-sell. Oh, and to a not-so-subtle mockery of my very humble machine.

But, what a relief, nothing like that at all. They just took a look and said, “Don’t worry, we will get this all taken care of for you. It will be done by the end of the week.” That was so nice. They were so nice. I’m glad I took it there.

While I was there, I decided to just take a little peeky-peek of the the latest and greatest. The clerk just let me look, and didn’t follow me around and try to sell me a $5,000.00 machine. That sort of thing always makes me very uncomfortable, so I really appreciate that.

I can’t wait to get my machine back. I think it will be in great shape and have an even bigger lease on life, since I decided to go ahead and get it “tuned-up” too. I have never had this done, and the machine is a few years old, so I thought about it and decided it was worth it.

I am going to start looking around for another machine, though. I’m not in a hurry because I want to get something just right.

I am in two minds about a “new” machine. For about $500.00 I can get a brand-new computerized machine that will have more bells and whistles than I will ever need. That is a lot of fun. But I am also attracted to excellent condition all-metal “vintage”-type machines. These are not as “versatile” as modern machines, but they can be excellent quality. There seems to be a pretty good supply of these, and they seem like they are relatively easy and inexpensive to fix and maintain.

I learned to sew on my mom’s Singer Touch and Sew. She still has it, and still uses it as far as I know. Boy, that thing really took a beating from us three girls and it always worked great. I don’t remember it ever breaking down. But I do remember my mom regularly oiling it and taking it to the shop for maintenance every once in a while.

So another consideration is that from what I’m hearing, computerized machines are expensive to maintain and fix. My current machine is mechanical, so it’s pretty simple to work on. And all machines need to be worked on sooner or later, so it’s something to think about.

I can use my fixed-up Brother as the fancy-pants backup. It has 26 stitches (I’ve used two), does a blind hem and buttons and one type of buttonhole. Compared to some of these awesome new sewing machines, that’s not much. But then I thought about it really hard, and I kind of concluded that these features might serve the absolute limit of my personal reservoir of sewing skills.

Hmmm. Any opinions out there? Keep in mind that I’m just a “hobbyist”. I’ve picked up some decent skills here and there, just by virtue of a lifetime spent around excellent seamstresses (my mother and sisters). I’m not in their league, but I do alright.

This will be fun to think about and research. I wonder what I’ll end up with. Stay tuned….