In Search of a New Sewing Machine and Possibly a Serger

For a while, I’ve known that I need a better sewing machine.  I’m currently using this old Brother Walmart special I bought back in college.  It’s functional, and does the job, but I want something with more because, for one thing, I’m tired of having to go to my mother’s house if I want to sew a button hole.  I would like some fun features like pretty stitches.  In short, I want more.

Today while at JoAnn‘s, the hubby and I decided to peak at the machines as I have no idea what model I might want.  We wound up staying and talking to one of the women there for at least 30 minutes.  I got to play with the Singer 8763 Curvy and the Singer One.  I like them both.  I am leaning towards the Curvy as it has more stitch options, but I was wondering if any of my readers had any experience with these machines and would like to share their experiences.  Any input would be welcome.

I am also considering buying a serger as I want to do more clothing sewing.  I know the Curvy has a serger stitch, but I’m wondering if it is as good as a true serger stitch as sergers use more than one spool of thread.  Does anyone have any advice or recommendations?  It would be much appreciated!

Update 7/23/14:  I now have two new pieces of equipment!  I wound up buying my friend’s gently used Singer Futura CE-150, which also does embroidery (haven’t tried that part out yet).  I also got a Singer ProFinish Serger on sale from Amazon for Mother’s Day.  I’m just starting to experiment with that and will hopefully post on it soon.

Finally! I Am Preparing for the Holiday

This year, things have seemed more hectic to me than last year.  Even though I haven’t had a totally organized Christmas plan since before I had kids, we usually at least had our tree up by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.  Not this year!  I’ve been busy doing a lot of things, some of which had to be done so that I could get my living room tree-ready.  Finally, things are coming together.

In my post “Long Time, No Blog,” I mentioned that I’d been painting some Christmas ornaments for my Etsy store.  I’m happy to say I finally finished them!  Of course, my mom saved me the trouble of posting one as she bought it for the gift exchange with her bridge group.  I had to finish these so I could straighten up the guest/craft room so I had some place to put some of the extra toys that were in the living room.

Here are two of my ornaments:

I also had to clean out our coat closet in order to move some long-term projects that I won’t be doing any time soon out of the living room.  I will spare you those photos.  It was truly frightening.

Once the living room was ready (on December 6), I got the tree put together while my daughter was playing a video game and my son was napping.  I did this so that FOR ONCE I could properly arrange the branches so the tree doesn’t look anemic.  It’s hard to do that with kids saying “can I put the ornaments on yet??”  Of course, the branch arranging was not good for my already troubled sinuses (I have a cold).  It is amazing how much dust can get on a tree that is in a box with just a small crack.  Guess that small crack is enough.

After the tree was up and I’d added the tinsel and the lights, I let the kids do the rest of it pretty much by themselves.  I was beat and ready for a rest.  I did manage to put on 3-4 ornaments, and then I had to re-arrange a couple that were causing too much sagging.  At any rate, here’s our tree.

She is a little lop-sided. I don’t think she has many years left. And I’d REALLY like a new skirt for her. But, she’s festive, and that’s all that matters.

So, how are your holiday preparations coming?  Anyone else out there feeling as behind in their preparations as I do?

Got Into Trouble at Michael’s

I don’t have much time today, but I wanted to let everyone know that Michael’s is having a one day sale on Artist’s Loft Gallery Wrapped canvases:  70% off.  I got three big ones.  I wanted more but I didn’t want to be in too much trouble with the hubby.  But, this art girl is thinking she hit the jackpot today!

They also had clear glass Christmas ball ornaments (the kind you see many ideas for on Pinterest) for 50% off.  Yeah, I got some of those, too.  My tree needs new ornaments like I need an extra hole in the head, but I couldn’t resist.