Janome CoverPro 1000CP

2017: The Year of Finishing Things

~ Michelle ~ 6 Comments

I don’t make many resolutions, but as I began my sewing year this year with messes all around me, I made one. I’ve decided that this year I’m going to finish a lot of the unfinished projects that are all around me.

Let me give you a few examples of what I’m going to work on.

Footstool

Our footstool is often used and looked like it. The top had split along all four seams, and my wonderful hubby suggests I make a new cover for it.

I got as far as cutting the old top off.

Then after another month or more, I tried some material on it to see how it would look.

I even cut out material to make a band all around it. All I have to do is sew it. Yet it sits there, with half my pins in it.

It’s been sitting there for two or more months just waiting for me. Part of the problem for that is I’m not 100% sure just how I want to finish it. The other part of the problem is I want fresh and new projects all the time.

Purses

Do you remember when I’d met a sewing friend a year or so ago? She had made her own handbag, and I complimented her on it. She also gave me three handbags that she’d cut out and interfaced! All I have to do is sew them! But I haven’t yet.

They’re all cut out! And interfaced!

That is one of my UFO projects I’m going to do this year. In fact, I’m not packing them all back up and putting them all away again. I’m keeping one of them out to sew up.

Pants

More specifically, hemming pants. I have a favorite pair of pants that I love, but hate to wear because they’re too long. Every time I put them on, I thinking I’m ruining them because they need hemming. Pretty much weekly, they make it to my mending pile, only to be taken back out again.

We won’t even bother going into mending…

Enough!

Craftsy Classes

I love Craftsy, and unfortunately I have a lot of classes I haven’t watched yet. I’m changing that. Once a month, I’m going to review a Craftsy class. Since I’ll have to watch them to review them… You get my logic here. I win, and hopefully, you win too with the reviews. I’ll say here, although I am an affiliate with Craftsy, any class I review will be my honest opinion.

Let me go back to those favorite pants for a minute. And while I’m there address something else – my CoverPro machine. One of the reasons I hadn’t hemmed my pants was because I have this wonderful CoverPro machine and I wanted to use it to hem the pants. But… I didn’t know how to use it!

So I bought a Craftsy class on that. Coverstitch: Basics & Beyond. I’ve watched it, and hopefully, with my new resolve to finish some UFOs, I’ll use the class info and my machine to hem my favorite pants. I think there’s another pair of pants and a skirt in that hemming pile too. Yup, it’s time to get around to this.

So, I’m trying to plan out my sewing and blogging for the year. My goals so far are to do a class review once a month. I was thinking if I also do one UFO each month, that leaves me two weeks to play with new things, which are much more motivating for me.

So, we’re into our second week of January. Did I start? I did! I repaired a blouse I’d bought. It’s a stretch knit, with chiffon below the hem. As pretty as it looked, the chiffon had no stretch but the rest of the top did. Here’s the photo from the website. There’s a link in it too.

Well, because it didn’t stretch at all at the hips, it wasn’t fitting very well. I opened those seams and did an overlock stitch along them. There! The first of my mending pile/UFOs done. The chiffon is now vented giving me that little bit of extra room where I needed it.

Do you have a UFO pile? How about your Craftsy classes? Are you getting through them? Did you make any sewing resolutions this year? I’d love to hear!

Happy creating!

My ‘New’ Serger

~ Michelle

Many, many years ago, my wonderful husband bought me a serger. He surprised me with it, so I hadn’t had any input into the decision. He just wanted to make me happy. And he did!

The serger, however, did not. It was a Kenmore. I don’t remember the model, but it was nothing but trouble. It would not stay threaded no matter what, and that was only one of its problems. I’d taken it back for repairs three times while it was still under warranty. Finally, the last time I took it in, I found out there had been a recall on it. The store replaced it on the spot. That was wonderful!

The big problem was, I wasn’t in love with the idea of a serger anymore. Yes, they can be great, but after three years of nothing but trouble, I didn’t even want to use it. I wasn’t using it. It sat for years. I finally sold it.

There were times I did regret selling it. Every once in a while I’d borrow one from a friend, because they are great in finishing everything so quickly and neatly. When they work, they’re the greatest.

Do you remember a while back I mentioned a friend had let her serger and Cover Pro machine come and stay at my house? I was going to let the Cover Pro stay here, but her serger didn’t work very well. I had taken it in to be repaired and the repair man said it wasn’t a very good machine – it wouldn’t hold the thread, it was loud and it shook a lot. Hmm, that was not what I was wanting… again. After struggling with it, I called her up, thanked her for her kind offer and gave it back to her. Now, in her defense, she’d never even used it, so had no idea.

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     I wasn’t having the best of luck with sergers, was I? However, if you’ve read my blog for any amount of time, you’ll know, I don’t give up.

Just a few weeks ago, I called another sewing friend to ask if I could borrow her serger. She said, ‘Yes, of course.’ Then she said she’s selling it and wanted to know if I was interested.

Well, to make a long story a little shorter, look who came to stay at my house:

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This is the Bernina 1300MDC. Just to assure me she’s a great machine, she came with a sticker on her front saying she’s the Consumer Choice 2010.

I just (finally) had time to sit down and start reading through the manual. I didn’t get very far before I was absolutely stunned by what I was reading. I was reading how to insert the needles, and it said how to change the Left Needle for Cover Stitch, and the Center Needle for Cover Stitch, then the Left for Overlock, and the Right. I stopped reading. I read that all again. This is a Cover Stitch machine too? I had no idea!

I called my friend and asked her. ‘Yes,’ she said. I must have sounded a little odd because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had no idea when I got the machine that it was both. I simply thought it was a great serger.

She went on to say, she’d just had it serviced to make sure it was in perfect working order before selling it. I’m thinking my serger luck has changed! Woot woot!

Happy creating!

A Pirose Clone (Look What Came to Stay)

~ Michelle ~ 6 Comments

I really wanted to make a copy of one of my favorite scarves – The Pirose scarf. I have two of these, and just love them both. However, they are rather expensive as scarves go. Then I saw a Sewing with Nancy episode: Sew Amazing Scarves. You can read about it here. And she was talking about the O Sew Easy scarf. Well, that’s pretty much the same as the Pirose. I decided I’d make a clone.

Here’s one of my originals.

Pirose

I really love this scarf. And I often wear it just like this – on the diagonal. I find it a fun and flirty this way to wear it. I cut out my clone after making a pattern, and then tried a few ways to finish the edges. Nancy says you can just overlock it with a serger, but I prefer the original finish on it – a serged rolled hem done with woolly nylon thread.

Here’s my clone.

Pirose copy

The edges are still unfinished as of yet. But not because of lack of trying on my part. I went to the fabric store and bought some woolly nylon to try in my sewing machine. I’ve read a few times that the bobbin is the problem area using woolly nylon in a sewing machine. That was not the case for me. For me, the upper thread kept breaking. I started entertaining ideas of a hand-sewn rolled hem, but didn’t act on that.

Then I decided to call a friend – and just like on the TV show, I hit the jackpot! My friend, whose husband happens to be a Producer, had a serger I could borrow.

How does the hubby fit in? Well, he produced a sewing show for a few years, and the machines went with him when the show was done. Doesn’t that sound like a dream come true?

I went to pick up the serger and my friend said she wasn’t in any hurry to get it back, but I could just keep it at my house. She said she didn’t even know how to use it!

Serger

Here’s the newest member of my sewing family. I can tell you, I’m really hoping it lives here for years! This is a Janome 1110DX.

My friend and I continued to chat and she said she had another machine I might want to take too. I asked her what it was and she said it was called Cover Pro. I’m sure my mouth fell open. I could not believe what I was hearing. Not only was I going home with a serger, but also a cover stitch machine? Really, I hit the jackpot!

Here’s the other newest member of my sewing family. This is a Janome CoverPro 1000CP. This one I’m buying from her so it can stay forever.

Cover Pro

Oh, I am such a happy sewer right now! Or is it sewist? I read on another blog a suggestion for sewster. That sounded fun. Regardless, I’m really happy!

I found the manuals online and printed them off so I have a hard copy to help me through any things I don’t remember. I haven’t had a serger for years. And the one I did have years ago had problems. I remember taking it back to the dealer to be fixed at least three times. And the last time I had it in, I mentioned I’d had the same issue repaired already. They looked it up and sure enough, I had taken it in more than once. At that point, they told me I could exchange the machine for a new one! That was amazing, but by that time I had really fallen out of love with the serger. It came home with me, and sat. I finally sold it to a dear young woman who was getting into sewing.

Back to this serger, I cleaned it out, and started it up and ran a test strip of material through it. Boy, it needed some TLC. I got some oil and oiled it. It does sound a bit better, but I’m still concerned about how it sounds.

Hmm, I’m not sure when that scarf will be finished at this point but I’m really looking forward to learning all about and using these newest members of my sewing family.

Happy creating!