Thursday, June 16, 2016

Ye Olde Easter Bonnet DIY

Here in England it is an Easter tradition to make Easter bonnets. Now, I know Easter was several months ago but the blog was on hiatus due to the move. However, when Princess ZaZa's nursery school held their bonnet contest I did make one and even remembered to take photos of the process. Since my serger is currently awaiting replacement needles, I thought now was a good time to publish this post. So hold on to your bonnets and lets make one!

Saturday, June 4, 2016

My Fossilized Serger

Sooooo.... The Princesses dress is almost done, but, it's being put on the back burner for a bit. Why? Because my ancient secondhand serger broke a needle. Broken needles are usually not an issue as you can change them out. The reason it's an issue this time is because I don't have any needles that fit this fossil of a machine. It takes round shank needles, where as most machines built from 1980s onwards take universal needles (on side rounded on side flat). I had to special order the needles from a store online and they'll take more than a week to get here.

It's maybe a late seventies to early eighties model.

Don't get me wrong, I love my serger, it's a work horse. I bought it over a year ago for $40 off of Craigslist. It works great, the only real problem I've had with it is that I lost the allen wrench that goes to the screw that holds the needles in place and I had to buy a huge set of them just to get the one that fits the screw. I've been lucky so far as nothing essential has broken on it yet. I'm afraid if something does break on it, I'll have to throw it away because it's so old that I won't be able to find parts for it!

Beautifully serged edge.

Oh woe is me, the needle broke when attaching the skirt to the bodice.

I had to dig the needle tip out of the fabric.
I guess I'll just have to save my pennies in case the fossil does break. Hopefully it won't, I don't know if I'll be able to handle a new fangled machine...

~Knotted

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Memorial Day

So I know I've got it all set up for a post about making a dress for Princess ZaZa, which will be posted soon. But in the meantime, let us talk about the fun filled Memorial Day weekend we had.