Machinery

I'm a woman of many talents (not my words, but why contradict?), and one is sewing. But in order to sew you need a sewing machine, and I got 2, 'cause I've also got an overlock serger. This is the machine which takes your finished garment from looking home-made to professional, even from the inside. I've had both my machines for quite some time now, and they work just fine. Or used to anyway; the overlock suddenly behaved very strangely, but it didn't take me long to see where the problem was. How to solve it on the other hand was a total different matter. And here's where another talent comes in handy.

Resolutely I opened up the whole machine, only to discover that the "problem area" could have been reached by simply loosen a small cover on the side, and what's worse is that by performing this unnecessary procedure I also f&¤%d it up even more. Now the thread tension was all out of wack... Not very talented so far. But I'm no surrender, so I jumped on the task with even greater determination than before. Put it all together to the best of my ability. Unfortunately the result still wasn't satisfactory, and at this point I realized that one can only reach a certain point by talent - the rest is something else. Learning, training and hard work should never be underestimated.

This attempt at fixing my sewing machine I did a while ago, and since then I've been playing with the idea of actually buying a new one. Foolish, since they cost a fortune, and as a student I don't have that much time to use it anyway. But you know how good you feel when you buy a new toy? A new car? Or a new power tool maybe? We have all different hobbies and likings, but the feeling is the same. You have just ripped a huge hole in your wallet, but the delirious feeling of well-being and contentment is the same. Bliss, happiness, and yes - it can be bought by money... ;) Temporarily.

So when I was in Sweden last weekend I ventured into the local sewing machine dealer. Only looky, looky. And that intent wasn't hard to follow, 'cause this shop had more emphasis on repairs than marketing brand new machines. Which turned out to be a good thing, since the old guy was more than willing to share his technical knowledge. Although he could have talked me into scrap my old wreck, and buy a fancy new one, he took out a piece of paper and with drawings explained exactly I should do it when I got home. Along with a few general inside tips on how to clean the tension devices and so on.

Yesterday I tried it out, and what d'ya know? It seems to work! And the bliss and contentment didn't cost me a dime.