Over the years I have been an on-again, off-again seamstress. When the girls were little I made dresses and play clothes, a prom gown, costumes and many, many drapes and curtains. I have a handy dandy Singer Zig Zag machine that my mother gave me when I left home oh those many years ago. This year in a burst of creativity I went on line to fine some attachments - a buttonholer and a ruffler foot. The ruffler foot was for bedskirts - so much easier than the method of zig zag stitching in dental floss and then trying to adjust the gathers for a king size bed. That is when I learned the very sad news that this lovely sewing machine was now so far out of date (40+years) and that parts were a pittance, usually arriving from e-bay in a musty smelling box with badly photocopied instructions. But I pushed on oblivious to modern trends. Then, last week the light blew out and the machine STOPPED.
This was a crisis, I am mid project finishing drapes for the living room windows in West Virginia so you can see the tv when the sun is out. Beautiful long windows make for a great view but also great glare. And I am mid project finishing the bedding for Madi's cradle. But I digress.
I went to my faithful research tool, Google, and looked up how to change the light bulb. I turned, pushed and nothing happened. My light bulb did not look like any of the pictures I could find. So next step I called a sewing machine repair shop near home. The nice lady said "Sure honey, just bring it in and leave it, he will get to it sometime in the next two weeks." That was not a good solution. So I tried another sewing shop about 15 miles to the south in Charlotte. The nice lady said, "Just bring it in, I am sure he can fix it while you wait." Music to my ears. I took out the sewing machine, put it in the back of my car and drove to the shop.
Well that is almost how it happened. When I took the machine out and put it on the kitchen counter I realized that it was horribly dusty and dirty. I had tape still stuck to the machine as guides for some long forgotten project, there was strange crusty dust in the nooks and crannies. If my Dad taught me one thing it was "A clean machine always works better than a dirty machine". This was a machine I could not have shown my Dad. If this repair person was going to have pity on me I was going to have to shape up. Out came the toothbrush, windex and some goo-be-gone. With a little work it looked pretty darn good.
Then, I headed out to South Charlotte to the Sewing Center. Little did I know what dangerous territory I was heading into. Worse than a whole shoe store full of cute shoes just my size.
I brought my little machine into the counter. He took one look at it and said "Oh". Got out his pliers, popped out the light bulb, put in a new light bulb, plugged it in and there it was ready to go. Salvation for $5.15. Except, there were two rooms with neat rows of sewing machines with samples of their wonderfulness. The walls were covered with projects that had been done by the many seamstresses who had come to the classes. Quilts, embroidered pillowcases, little girls dresses with flowers and initials, Projects!!! everywhere.
Being a good salesman he let me wander from machine to machine, each more wonderful that the one before until I came to the "one". It was not in a row, it was off by itself in the corner clearly not part of the group. What was this! Turns out it is a Baby Lock - sewing, embroidery, makes coffee and -- well just let it be said that it was amazing. Here it was just traded in that week by a seamstress who was moving up - he would sell it to me for a deal, it was less than a year old, had all of the attachments, instructions, case, (and it was clean) for $2,000. He said a new one was $3,500 -- that made this one a bargain and he would give me a full warranty and throw in unlimited classes too boot.
I ran my hands over its amazing little body, he set it up to embroider my name, and as quick as a blink there was Jinni in a lovely italic script.
I sadly carried my little 40+year old Singer Zig Zag machine out to my car (covered it's little ears so it wouldn't hear me yearn for the Baby Lock) and drove home. The drapes are almost done, it has done its cute little zig zag stitch to keep the edges from fraying and has so far resisted turning the bobbin thread into a rats nest - but if I was a girl who bought lottery tickets -- I would be looking for one of those $2,000 ones. Who knew you could fall in love with a sewing machine.
I was telling this story to my husband who rolled his eyes and said with a little fear in his voice - you didn't buy it did you? And when I asked him what he would do with a $2,000 windfall -- he said he would go on vacation. As a matter of fact I think one of the golf magazines was turned to a page advertising something about Play like a Pro. Ahh priorities.
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