Getting Ready

The first craft fair of the season is quickly approaching and I've been very busy sewing up new items and freshening up my stock.

Ironing board covers in plastic bags with hot mitts and towels

That comes up to five new ironing board covers, new aprons, twenty additional hot mitts, a few matching towels, couple dozen hanger covers, and some miscellaneous items I hope to get done before Saturday morning. Besides just the process of sewing, I've been using a variety of my sewing machines to put them through their paces. Using a Singer 15-91 with a walking foot, I quilted the hot mitts and added the bias binding. From there I took off the walking foot and made the casings for the ironing board covers on a few but then switched to a Kenmore 158-1980 to hem the last of them. I discovered this model did not seem to have the needle centered and the electronic foot control drove me crazy: even the slightest touch made it hum so I needed to remember to remove my foot completely each and every time. Didn't I always? Apparently not but it might have been due to its rather large size and the need to pick up my foot. This does not make the Kenmore 1980 a winner for me.

Kenmore 158-1980

The real big news is both cars are back in the garage! Two more cabinet sewing machines were sold over the weekend and that only left three to come inside. My ever generous husband agreed on their placement and we were good to go until I got a call about someone wanting to return a sewing machine. In a cabinet.

Kenmore 158-1690

Since I guarantee all sales, I was obligated to take it back but I wasn't too happy since it was a rather longer in length desk and a so-so model. I actually got talked into selling it when the man called about a sewing machine that had sold earlier in the week. He printed off the information while the listing was still active but didn't check to see if it was still available and it was not. He asked about other machines that would be similar and I suggested the Kenmore 158-1690 but he pushed for a much lower price. Since I hadn't listed it yet I figured that was worth something to me so I let it go for only $5 more than what I had paid. When picking it up he explained his circumstances and kept asking if it could be returned and I should have heeded his inquiry. Sure enough, a week later I get a call from his son asking if it could be returned because his mother wanted something more computerized. Well, not at that price point! It came home last night and is sitting where the garbage cans will end up when it snows but needs to be moved. It needs to be moved out of my garage into someone else's house.

I'm very carefully not buying any more cabinet models. Unless...they are those cute built in chair desks. Or a highly desired model. Yea, I picked up a Viking 19 last night but it's a portable...

Viking Husqvarna 19

and in pristine condition. Very excited but that's not the end of the story because this was a two-for.

Stay tuned to see which model came home with the Viking Husqvarna 19 (and, no, it's not in a cabinet!).