The ottoman pouf has hit a snag
So we're regrouping and finding our path forward, me and Elna, the sewing machine.
I had hoped that this project would be complete by the time I wrote next, but as it is, the handmade process is a slow one and obstacles arise.
I managed to sew up the handles and pockets.
I sewed the bottom pieces together, attaching the center circle to the outer combination of pieces, forgetting in my haughtiness, how to pin a circle, or in this case, a half circle, and instead of trusting my initial measurements, I trusted the result and trimmed a bit of an edge that was sticking out, it should have been taken apart and reconfigured.
However, I am nothing if not a forward thinker, and I sewed the bottom together first just for such insights.
I am using the sewing machine my maternal grandfather bought for my grandmother on their first anniversary if I remember correctly. I do hope she desired a sewing machine because let’s not talk about how unromantic a sewing machine is.
Grandma Kathy gifted me this machine more than ten years ago and I didn’t use it for a long time. I couldn’t get it to run properly, the gears moved extremely slowly. I finally sent it off to my paternal grandmother who has a guy who fixes these kinds of things (I now assume it only needed some oil).
In the meantime, Grandma Joannie sent me home with a Kenmore that worked well enough for a while (though, as I stated, I didn’t use it much, and just when I decided I’d like to) it stopped working.
I brought it to a sewing machine repair place in Iowa City, the woman working plugged it in and it worked just fine, I got it home and nothing, no matter how hard I pushed that plug into the machine.
Gina (my mum) set it up once a couple of years ago and it worked fine, Grandma Joannie, the same result, so for a while, I left it plugged in on the kitchen table just in case I got around to starting any of these sewing projects I’ve got building in my brain, however, the last time Grandma Joannie was here she used it and much to my utter disappointment, she unplugged it and put it away.
I gave up and turned back to this little pink Elna.
She had said it was a great machine, it ran really well after being oiled, but she and her friend couldn’t for the life of them figure out how to thread it. Well, a quick video made easy peasy work of it for me and She was up and running in no time.
Over the last year, the few times I’ve sat down to work out a sewing project with Her (Elna), it’s as if we’re learning together.
She seemed a bit dry some months ago so I opened her up and gave her a good oil.
The bobbin thread kept getting stuck and so I inexpertly took apart the bobbin case thinking that was the problem. I sure wish I’d watched a few videos before I did that. I unscrewed some very tiny pieces that were a bitch to get back together once I stopped losing them on the floor or down in the machine.
It was touch and go.
After all that, turns out she just gets tetchy when I use a bobbin that doesn’t belong to her.
And yet, and yet, I continue to use bobbins that don’t belong to her. She lets me know.
My thread gets caught and breaks and wraps around the bobbin holder (I had to take it out again, though this time, properly!, just to release a three-inch thread that was wedged between tiny parts.
That was yesterday. I finally admitted that I needed to get a proper bobbin, which meant transferring some thread from an Elna bobbin to a different bobbin. I was just lazy. And the bobbin winder seemed fickle, apparently I simply need to help guide the thread to wind evenly.
And just when I got everything all worked out, she jammed more ferociously, she won’t move this way or that at all. And nearing a completed ottoman pouf, I am without a machine. So this project is on hold until I can either sort the problem out myself, which is of course also beyond my skill level and knowledge, or turn it over to a repair service.
Don’t worry, I went out and purchased a few additional small tools that will, I hope, allow me to take a few more pieces of Her apart and get a closer look. Wink. We’ll find out what’s going on in there.
Now as soon as the roofers finish up replacing the steel roof damaged this autumn in an intense hail storm, I’ll get back up to the studio to root around.
In the mean time, I hope y’all are having a very cosy vibes holiday season.
And happy solstice. As my seven yr old nephew says: Please like and subscribe. And browse the Ko-Fi shop for a little something for yourself this holiday season. Nothing says I dig myself like a handbound bird book. ;)
Cheers,
