Here's a few photos of my sewing room. 
( Cut because I care about your bandwidth and LJ Friends page )

*sigh* I bought my serger because it was easy to thread. I havent been able to get the tension right without my mechanically inclined spouse, who today had time to futz* with it. He got it working great, and I was happily finishing seams when I noticed a weird clicky noise happening every so often. Broken needle. And I couldn't find my serger box o' stuff - so no needles. After a trip to JoAnns for needles, it turns out that the needles I bought were too short (?). Grumble. I bought the machine in the Big City; I'll have to see if anyplace around here sells the recommended brand.

Phooey.

BUT - between yesterday and today I finished the sleeves and assembled the bodice for the wrap dress. It's going together very nicely - it fits great with no effort on my part beyond the original pattern. It's just this serger nonsense delaying progress. I may just finish the rest of the seams the old fashioned way so I can complete the thing. I'm considering doing a decorative topstich in a contrasting color on the collar and cuffs...though that's the sort of thing that, if not done just right, really looks bad, so I may try that on another project. Since my luck has been so mixed with regards to sewing lately, maybe I'd better not tempt fate.

I also worked on one of my UFOs from last year, a skirt (McCalls 5591). This is in a ladybug fabric; nice design, not twee at all. Ladybugs, skulls - my wardrobe is going to be funky.

*Did you know that the original meaning of "futz" is literally "to fart around"? Truefact!

I suppose I should do some dissertating now.

Here's another project that I started at least a year ago. The day I found this fabric in the local quilt store I bought it, washed it, and cut out the skirt - I even marked the darts, which is a sewing task I loathe. And then? This just sat in the sewing zone. Until now. I put ric-rac along the waistline, with larger ric-rac around the hem. I've been wanting to try this particular style of applying ric-rac, which is a delightfully kitsch sewing trim. Yay, another finished project!

I have started collecting sewing machines. I don't know how it happened...really. I have my grandmother's Singer in a cabinet (it really needs a tune-up), a Singer 301, a Genie (looks like Austin Powers' sewing machine!) and I have been looking for a Singer 500 since I first saw one. I mean, what's not to love about a machine that has been nicknamed "the Rocketeer"? Every time I drive by a yard sale I look for one of these. Usually if I see a machine it's some crummy Montgomery Wards model from the 70s. But Saturday I saw it: a Rocketeer in a cabinet. Just sitting there, kind of off to the side away from all the other stuff for sale. Fortunately when I exclaimed "They have a Rocketeer for sale!" my spouse A) knew what I was talking about, because I had showed him pictures of one and he was nice enough to look at them and B) turned the car around without me having to ask. It was marked $25, I got it for $20. It sounds a little rough but I'm actually getting pretty good at poking around under the hood, as it were. I'll take a picture in the morning, right now it's a bit too dark to take a good photo; the cabinet become a prime cat hangout.

I made a Victorian corset about a year ago - well, I haven't finished the edges, so it's mostly finished - anyway, I seem to have lost at least 15 pounds since then. Which means that the edges touch in back where it laces up. All the pictures of Victorian era corsets show a gap where they lace in the back. The shape looks right though. I'm hoping one of my LJ peeps out there with Victorian corset experience can advise me: how problematic is this? 

Oh yeah - I made the Laughing Moon Silverado corset.

It's been snowing all day! The perfect day to make a pot of chili. I make mine with curry. Yum. I'll start the cornbread shortly. Come over for dinner!

I may have lost my mojo for selecting colors for quilts. That, or the fabric isn't suitable for the pattern I'm wanting to use, something called a double rail fence for all you quilters out there. I spent an hour at the JoAnns trying to find the perfect fabric. Think I'll just pick out another pattern.

ETA: Seems that the light in the oven only comes on when you open the oven door. That's poor design, that is.

the leisure suit - with shorts!

• Pornstache!
• shorts! And a sports jacket!
  
• long socks with shorts!
• Isn't that what British boys wear at prestigious prep schools?
• I bet it's made out of itchy itchy polyester.

Did any man actually wear this look - I mean the shorts-long socks-jacket combo -  in the 1970s?

This dress is sort of cute, but the model is in such a funky pose - that and the length of her sleeves vs. the gloves and she looks way out of proportion, or at the very least uncomfortable.

funky pose

While I do have a couple of wonderful machines, I would very much like to have a pink sewing machine.

Hey, seamsters and semstresses -

What kind of sewing machines do you have? Do you love it?

I love my Bernina 830 - it's old school, sturdy, reliable, I never have to set the tension, though it does need a tune-up every couple of years. Which usually costs me $60+ at a Bernina dealer.

I do wish it did some fancier stitches though, maybe something that would look like blackwork, and automatic buttonholes. I hates making buttonholes. I was looking at some of the fancier machines at Target in the $150-$300 range. Is it crazy to get a machine just for a few pretty stitches and automatic buttonholing?