I'm in love

with my new (to me) serger sewing machine. I've had it since December and it has been sitting in my sewing room, taunting me, chanting "you're too dumb, you're too dumb." I opened it up and tried to figure out how to thread it a couple of times. Honestly, I never even plugged it in because it scared me so much.

I'm usually pretty fearless - especially with power tools. (Yes, I consider sewing machines and sergers power tools.) I asked for a drill for Christmas while I was in college. My boyfriend was skeptical, apparently thinking I was just going to drill random holes in the wall in my apartment. I have used it (constructively) a million times.

A few years ago it was a jigsaw for my birthday. Again, people laughed at me and wondered what I thought I was going to do with a saw. I immediately made a regulation set of cornhole goals (or bag-o or bags or bag toss - whatever you call it in your area). When those didn't fit in the trunk to go to and from the cabin, I wanted to make a travel set, but didn't feel like hand sanding the whole thing, so I ask for a belt sander. Thanks, Dad. Now the completed travel cornhole goals are smooth as glass.

(This is my friend Stacy at our Halloween party two years ago. She was Juno and is not really pregnant and drinking wine!)

Whoops, that turned into a long tangent. My point is, if I can pick up a saw or a sander with no help or training, you'd think I'd be able to figure out a serger sewing machine on my own.

On Saturday my mom's family gathered at my aunt's house for a late Easter celebration. My aunt Linda is the best seamstress I know, so I enlisted her help. The machine was being finicky and not working correctly but Linda has the patience of a saint and got it going. I brought it home and after a couple of hiccups, including a broken needle, it's running wonderfully! I've even rethreaded it myself a couple of times. I made the bodies and handles for 8 totes yesterday - before lunch! It's so much fun and saved me a ton of time, not having to French seam everything. I haven't been this excited since I successfully made goat cheese myself.

HUGE thank you to my aunt Linda for having the patience of a saint getting it working and showing me how to use it. I bought fabric yesterday to make her "thank you" totes. Also, thank you to Cheryll, my former boss, who dug the serger out of her closet and sold it to me for a ridiculously low price.