A welcome addition to my sewing kit

These are pressing hams.  (If you're not familiar with them, pressing hams are used for pressing curved areas like sleeves.  They're stuffed very firmly, so you can fit the ham into the curve, and then press against it.)  They belonged to a good family friend, who passed them on to my mom years ago.  My mom is a master quilter, but doesn't do much apparel sewing, and in preparation for the Lady Grey coat project, she passed them on to me!

A while back, the selfish seamstress discussed the merits of adding pressing hams to her minimalist collection of sewing tools.  Like her, I've been making do with a rolled-up towel for a while now.  But there's a lot of steaming and pressing involved in the Lady Grey project, and I know having the right tools will make that process easier, and perhaps yield better results.  Plus, when you consider that these hams were free, willingly offered, and have sentimental value, it was a no-brainer!

I love the geekery of old-school sewing tools like these--in fact, the Mr. and I share a geeky love of tools of all sorts.  I'm excited to add these hams to our collection.

a brave new (serged) world

Mere months ago, I was talking dismissively about sewers with fancy, modern machines. I was just fine with my vintage Kenmore straight-stitch machine, thank-you-very-much!

Well...

shows how much I know. I love the look of fabulous tailored clothes, and I've definitely been trying to integrate more dressy items into my everyday wardrobe, but realistically, most of the time I'm a jeans-and-t-shirt kind of girl. So it makes sense to sew with knits. And my last adventure sewing with sweater-knit on my Kenmore yeilded, at best, a mixed result.

So I caved and bought a serger. (Actually, it's my Christmas present--thanks Mom & Dad!) I did a good bit of online research, since I know nothing about sergers, and I don't know anyone who owns one. I read reviews and compared prices. I also found guides to serger sewing published by university extension services, like this one from the University of Missouri. The advice I found on forums really varied--people swore that both Singer and Brother machines were terrible, although I'm always a bit suspicious of broad, ranting critiques like that. It did seem, however, that people who bought bottom-of-the-line machines of any brand were rarely satisfied with them. Finally, this is what I decided on:


Its a factory-refurbished Janome 3-4 thread serger, and I bought it on ebay. From what I could tell, this was a mid-range model, but because it was refurbished, I was able to get it for under $200. For someone on a budget, I figure it was a pretty good investment.

Having never used a serger before, I'm sure I have a lot to learn. I've read the extension service guides, watched some of youtube videos, and I'm planning to check out a book on serger sewing from the public library. But so far, I'm really happy with the machine. It took me and the Mr. (who has a knack with machines) 30 minutes to get it threaded. And I've only tried one stitch--the standard, 4-thread stitch. But I love the polished results I was able to get on my Mom's jacket by serging the seams, then top-stitching them with a double needle stretch-stitch on my Kenmore.