An oldie but goodie

I really wanted to sew today, but I had to take my machine in for repair. I won't get it back until some time next week. Of course, they do not provide loaners. Hmmph! Well, I pulled out my old machine that was my grandmothers and decided to give it a try. It worked wonderfully. There were a few drawbacks though. First I had to fix it because it was falling out of the cabinet. I'm glad my doctor wasn't here because I'm sure that machine weighs a lot more than a carton of milk (my weight limit for lifting) but I was very careful. After I got it so it would stand up, I had to remember how to thread it and where all the functions were. This machine needle threads left to right and the threading pattern is almost opposite of my other machine. It has one speed - super FAST, so I had to learn to work with that. And of course, I was making a blouse with button holes and this machine does not have automatic buttonholes. It took me a few practices, but I finally worked it out by changing the zigzag width back and forth and raising and lowering the feed dog. They actually came out OK. Not great, just OK. I think I will leave my other buttoned projects until after I get back my machine. I guess I'll have to cut out and make that lavender top after all. This is a picture of MCCalls 2646 which is out of print

I am so excited that PR is starting a SWAP. I'm already picking out my fabrics, most of which I have in my stash. The rules are a little bit different than the Timmel swap, so some of the pre-planning I did will be changed. This one calls for 1 jacket, 4 bottoms, and 6 tops. All of the tops have to go with all of the bottoms. I think I will still stick with black, white, and turquoise with accents of purple. I'm going to make up a story board and I'll post it as soon as I get it finished. I would like to go on and do the other phases of the SWAP as outlined in this article. Anyone interested in a sew-along? I go back to work in a week, so I'll be lucky to complete the 11 garments in 13 weeks, Of course, the rest of the swap will have no time limit.