Serger is actually an "overlocking sewing machine", I guess. One of the many facts I continue to learn in this journey of learning to sew. Most of you know that my lovely hubby gave me a serger/over-locker sewing machine for my birthday this year (never mind that was April and it is now the end of June...). Feeling very nervous to open it up and try it out, I recruited the help of my amazing sewing/serging momma. She denied me at first because she claims that because she was self-taught when it came to her over-locker machine, she wasn't qualified to help me with mine! ;-) I think that self taught ventures are actually the best way to learn a lot of the time. You actually use your own brain to discover, it may take longer, but I think there is more retention. 

Speaking of taking a long time... here is the story of how it took my mother and I about 4 hours to even get my new Janome New Home My Lock 634D machine to even start.!. :-O

We started by taking it out of the box, which went flawlessly. Next we we plugged in the power cord/foot pedal. Which, by the way, is extremely short. It barely reaches the floor with very little table overlap! I might  start researching if there are such things as "sewing machine cord extenders" because it is pretty annoying that the only way my foot pedal can reach the ground is to have it draped in font of my table.  I would much prefer to have it neatly around the back!! 

We then oooo and ahhh at all of the intricate thread weaving that already came set up when it was shipped. "How nice" we commented, that we wouldn't have to deal with threading the machine for the first time, because threading a serger is like playing Operation....you literally use tweezers! So, thank goodness came all threaded up. 

The needles (yes there are two) came in the down position, I am sure for safety reasons during shipping. So to get started all we had to do was rotate the balance wheel by hand (just like a regular sewing machine) to move the needles to a higher position. Easy enough, right? Apparently not. The wheel would not budge! My Mom tried to rotate the wheel forwards, backwards, to no avail. It was definitely "locked" we decided. Again, probably for safety reasons.

So here is the part of our evening that took up a good two hours, trying to unlock the balance wheel. We pushed on anything that resembled a button. We opened up both bottom sections and rotated anything that would rotate, flipped anything that would flip, turned the machine off and on, pulled the threads in every direction, raised and lowered the presser foot, tried different tension settings, literally anything we could think of. After each "change" my mom would try again to rotate the wheel, with no luck.

We finally gave in and un-threaded the machine. Nooooooo!!! All that nice thread weaving that was already done for us. We thought, perhaps the thread was tangled somewhere which was preventing the wheel from moving. Nope, not it. 

At one point we were convinced that there was this tiny black piece too close to the needles underneath, and it looked maybe plastic, like it was more of a safety measure. We almost took out the screw driver and to remove this mysterious piece. Just to be sure though, my Mom took out a magnet to test it and sure enough it was metal, and therefore, most likely a permanent, important piece that should stay put. 

OK, so by this point, we had looked on sewing forums online, watched weird monotone YouTube videos that were no help, and I had even called and left a voice mail at the Janome company. We were about ready to give up and I was very frustrated. Using this rare frustrated state I put some muscle behind my rotation and yanked on the wheel.. and what do you know, it rotated!! My mom looked up from her intense concentration on the thick owners manual in disbelief. "What did you do? What did you push?" she jolted! "I just turned it really really hard!" I answered. All that time, no special trick lever, all we needed was a little bit more elbow grease.  

My mother, defeated and embarrassed, I think was only trying to be a little bit more cautious as to not break my very expensive birthday present before I even got to use it once. It's okay mom, without you there I would have been too scared to even take it out of the box. So, even though I didn't need your strength (or lack there of) I needed your guidance, intelligence, support and confidence to accomplish this momentous task of simply turning on my sewing machine. 

Lesson learned: my mother and I are both weak...err.... strong in our own ways! We compliment each other perfectly for any project at hand! I love you Mom!! 

We then, re-threaded the machine, which took another good hour, and I serged about 12 inches! That was all I had patience for in the end. But, I did it! I actually serged! In the end, I am glad I had to re-thread the machine, because I have a basic understanding of how to do it now. Not that I remember much, but at least I've done it once. We still think that they balance wheel is too sticky and hard to move manually., My mom's machine does not feel the same. So I might still talk to someone at the company just to be safe. 

I am not ready to give a review of this particular machine just yet, 12 inches isn't quite enough to judge yet. However, I can say it felt amazing to finish an edge with no pinning, no folding and no ironing! :) Can't wait to do more! 

I am not going to be the blogger that apologizes for not posting in a while... giving excuses about how I am sooo busy, my #blessedbusylife.... So here is a post about something I just completed (well half completed) for a friend.

Photographer friend, Courtney Karban, is taking a road trip with her husband and 3 little boys, and to try and maintain her sanity she thought that perhaps a "quiet book" would be good for the two older ones in the car. She offered to pay me to make one rather than buy some! I agreed, not really realizing that I only had a couple weeks, one of which would be the last week of school.  So I only managed to finish a couple of pages for the toddler, hopefully they help!

I had seen "quiet books" on Pinterest and have wanted to attempt the project for a while. I will point out one positive and one negative for this DIY project:

Positive: The pages are all unique and it is so much fun to use creativity and find things around the house to re-purpose (IE: The buckle from an old dog collar--because those things are like $4 at JoAnn's!!!)

Negative: These things are super time consuming. There is a lot of cutting out of tiny pieces, and lots of hand stitching (which is OK because you can do that in front of the TV). And then the fasteners have to be sewed on (buckles, snaps, buttons, zippers). The pieces that come off should be double layer to be strong, and then the grommets to hold the pages together take some time. 

However, I think the positive outweighs the negative because though it takes some time, it is not repetitive sewing...each thing is unique. So for me, they are many hours, but not boring hours.  

I told Courtney that I would make a few more pages and I already have.  I hope that she will take some good actions shots of her boys with the pages and I can update this post! 
;-) Check our her photography blog: http://courtneykarban.com/


Here are the 4 pages I completed and gave her her already:

And here are some pages that are cut out but not put together yet. The car page will have string through the cars so they can "drive", the shoe will have laces, and the robot will have snaps under his hands and feet. :) 

I will update when I make some more pages, and also if Courtney takes some lifestyle shots of her boys with the book!