Blessing in disguise

I am utterly and completely in love with the new toy that I've recently acquired. It happened like this: it was last Wednesday; I was working really hard to finish off a birthday present for a dear friend on the sewing machine, and I could see the end coming near. Then my sewing machine had other plans and decided to stop working! Needless to say, I was feeling absolutely frustrated by it!!! So I rang up the company I bought it from just to be told that the whole of their service department is shut till end of June!! Alas! One whole month without sewing? So, being the way I am, I've decided that the solution to my problem, is to get another machine while I wait till the end of the month to send my machine to be repaired. Drastic but absolutely necessary.

It was almost love at first sight. Although being sensible, I did originally purchase a much, much cheaper reconditioned New Home sewing machine just to find that I was struggling with it every five minutes so I had to take it back the next day. It was destined, the union between me and my beloved.

Although I did make an effort to start looking at other new machines that were a lot cheaper than my beloved, my mind and attention kept drifting back to 'the one'.

To be honest, even if the salesman had been speaking Russian, I would have bought it, regardless. Steve calls me 'every salesman's wet dream'. But to be fair, just so you don't think that I'm a complete loony, the salesman made his sales with two things - all original packaging, manuals and accessories that came with the machine were still there, even with the free thread that came with it. Pretty amazing! Also, if it turns out that I wasn't coping well with the machine, I can take it back to the shop(when I made that request, the salesman said confidently - Trust me, you wont bring this back to us!) So away we went, 15 minutes later, me lugging the big brick of the machine back to my car and i was grinning from ear to ear. When I said all original packaging, I really meant all ORIGINAL packaging. Check this out!


Can you see the label? I find it so fascinating! So out comes the machine in its hard case.


The first glimpse of my beloved. By now, you can probably see that it's the famous Bernina. But this is not just any Bernina! Let's see more pictures.


Side view of the case. Are you as excited as I am?


I read up extensively about this range and knew that this 'cord' that keeps the box shut is most commonly missing so I made sure that it was there.



Tada!! Open sesame! I love how the power cable coils around the back. And you can just about see the extension table clipped on the inside of the case.


Yup, it's a Bernina 900 Nova from the 80's! And I L.O.V.E it!


I especially love this. See the flower symbol? How cute is that?


Handy drawer at the bottom of the case.


How cute is that?! I just had to have it! And this vintage baby, is a solid metal beauty!!


All original accessories in tact. The gap is of course the presser foot that's attached to the machine.


I'm already thinking about expending this. The best thing is, although the machine's no longer being manufactured, I can still get the parts online.


Full set of tools. Including even the tube of oil at the end slot.

For a spare and reconditioned machine, it wasn't cheap. And I've probably paid over the odds too. That night, I didn't get to 'testdrive' it as we were heading to Taunton for a wedding, so I had to wait an agonising two days before I could get my hands on it. And when I finally had chance to try it, I knew then, that I had made the right decision... It was a dream, sewing on it. I mean my Husqvarna Viking 203 isn't bad at all, but this vintage Bernina Nova 900 was, different.

So I managed to finish the project in no time at all. The stitch quality was superb; and it was in every way, perfect! Although the machine was almost 30 years old, it didn't feel like that at all.

Upon seeing how excited I was by the Bernina, Steve planted an evil seed in my mind - get my Husqvarna Viking fixed, and then trade that in for a new, modern Bernina! To that I replied, but the new ones are so expensive!! But deep down, I'm mulling over the possibility...

Dangerous! I think i'll let me bank account recover first, and then i'll probably think about it. For the time being, I'm still smitten with my new love...(forgive my disloyalty my dear Husqvarna Viking)...

Labour of Love

A few months back, Mum expressed her wish to have a handbag made for her. So I started sketching ideas and thinking of bag patterns. Then the iPad came along and everything ground to a halt and I thought I had plenty of time. Then I finally managed to get something started but half way through, I became quite unhappy with the bag I was making and decided to start afresh because it was really important that my mum will like the bag I've made for her. This time, I decided to try a pattern that I had bought online. And before I could start doing anything, I went on holiday and another week has gone before I could start picking the fabric and started cutting the bits and pieces needed to make the bag with. Step by step I followed the pattern and joined the fabric that I've cut, piece by piece. Although I would have loved to make my mum's bag from a pattern I had designed myself, I was pressed for time so using a pattern seemed a sensible idea. And using this pattern, I have really learned a lot from making this bag. It wasn't always plain sailing; there was frustration and there was satisfaction.

Finally, today I came really close to finishing it. Although I still have to put the lining of the bag in place, I couldn't wait any longer and decided to share the pictures of this near-finish bag.

With Steve's help, I chose oilcloth as the front and bag panels of the bag; and a plain, matching cotton fabric for the zip section. I wouldn't say this bag is perfectly made, but i am quite happy with the result so far. A few pictures to show you.

 Really didn't expect it to be quite so big.

 Before the straps got sewn on. You can see the instructions on the sewing table, and my 'best friend'.

A rather challenging step, piecing the front and bag panels together with the zippered section.

Can't wait to carry on with the project, finish the lining and send this bag off to my Mum. Bless her she's waited long enough.

In the meantime, I'm already thinking of more projects to embark upon. How exciting!

It's time to get productive

Ever since I've made my very first oil cloth bag from my own pattern last year, I've not really made anything else with oil cloth so I thought since Beatrice has especially requested for a wallet as her birthday present, I have decided to use oil cloth to try and make it.

I must say I was quite pleased with the result although the colour scheme was not 'Spring' enough for her so I agreed to make another which was more colourful. Meanwhile, another friend of mine saw the wallet and wanted me to make and sell her one.


Although it wasn't a big sum of money, I still managed to get a certain kind of satisfaction from making a small amount of money from such an enjoyable and fulfilling hobby.

Next week i'll be heading off to York to visit Beatrice and I really look forward to it as we always have a great time together on our short get-togethers.

Meanwhile, I did manage to make another wallet for her which has a more Spring look to it.

Take a look at these pictures.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Chinese New Year Eve

Today is Chinese New Year Eve and unfortunately I'm working. Come to think of it, even if I wasn't working, what would I be doing at home? Bumming on the couch in my PJ's watching/ flicking through some boring daytime telly. This is the time when I miss home and family the most. Listening to Chinese New Year songs on Youtube; reading blogposts from others about CNY preparations; talking on the phone to mum and listening to her tell me about her preparations -- always makes me feel a bit sad and nostalgic. This year(as with two or three previous years), due to poor planning, I wasn't able to make it home to celebrate CNY with the family. I am determined that next year, I will book my tickets early so that I can be home for Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is not complete without all your family  members around you. And I do feel guilty come this time of year, knowing that my family will be missing me, yet again, during their reunion dinner. So having to work today really sucks, and not only that, I am working till 10pm tonight, so tripple S.U.C.K.S !!! But luckily, one of my colleagues from my evening shift is kind enough to cover for me tomorrow night so at least I can do something special then in the evening just as a small mark of celebration to usher in this year of the cute bunny rabbit.

Anyhoooo, let's move on and I shall show you in a picture sequence of what has been happening lately. I know, I know, didn't I mention at the beginning that I will put in a bit more effort in updating my blog and so far that hasn't yet materialised. You  must forgive me as ever since we've moved to the new place, we have not had the internet so that has made things a bit tricky, especially in terms of blogging after work. But, today being Chinese New Year Eve, I am in the mood to update my blog, for some strange reason.

Last year, Travelodge was doing some great deals on their room rate and one can get a room for as low as £9 per night so we booked three weekends away to three different places that we've always wanted to visit but never got round to because ordinarily it's too expensive. So the weekend before last, it was a weekend away to Brighton and we only paid 12.50 per night, for a room in the heart of the Brighton City Centre and it was brilliant. We explored the famous and cultural North Laines, went for drinks at the pub, and of course had an excellent Indian lunch at the famous Chilli Pickle restaurant and it was absolutely mind-blowing. Some pictures to show you.

Steve ordered the chicken curry dosa and it came looking like two gigantic horns on a plate and it was delicious and authentic.

I ordered fish curry thali which came with rice, dal, pickle and bread. It was a bit too hot and spicy for me but the mixture of spices in the dishes were amazing. Not too over-powerful; just the right touch. 

We spent a considerable amount of time at the Amusement park at the pier mainly because Steve was determined to win me a teddy bear from the teddy bear clawing machines. And also I was addicted to the 'coin machine' and the phrase for the day was '10p more', '10p more'... ie, if I slot in another 10p, the machine will push the coins further to the edge so that more coins will drop out. Steve had to practically drag me out of the amusement centre so that I don't lose another 20 lot of '10p more'... here's a picture of Steve working hard at those teddy bear 'clawing' machines.

We didn't get the big teddy from this machine but Steve eventually managed to get me a smaller and cuter dog from another machine. And we both left the amusement park feeling smug and contented with me hugging the doggy to my chest and looking proud (great weekend huh? lol)

In my last post, I was excited about my latest sewing project and I can now reveal that it's a beanbag for the lounge and I can tell you I am very satisfied with it. 

This picture shows the inner and the outer bag before the big operation of white fluffy bean filling into the bag.

And here's the beanbag and it's really comfortable too. ps, note to self, must start making other things too. I haven't seen my sewing machine in ages.

On a seperate subject, I have been buying honey pomelos from Lidls and they only cost a pound and it's always juicy and lovely, although the last one was a bit too sharp for me so it's still sitting in the fridge.

Not many people know about this fruit in this country and people always shy away from things they are not familiar with. People love grapefruits and this is almost like a grapefruit, but three times bigger !! So if you see a honey pomelo when you're next in Lidls, get one, and follow my example to cut it open. It's juicy, tangy and sweet.

I am very lucky to have DSC working in the office. She often surprises me with lots of goodies.

Chocolate mice, that is.

How cute are they?!?!

Okay, this concludes my non-Chinese Chinese New Year Eve post and Gong Xi Fa Chai to all and wishing you a full year of health, wealth and happiness, just like the bunny.

And it's December...

A couple of posts ago, I was whining and whinging about the challenges and difficulties  that I was facing trying to complete a set of Roman blinds. I knew I could do it, but I just felt like whinging and whining about it... part and parcel of completing a project...

Anyway, the pair of Roman blinds were duly completed at 11pm the night before we had to go up to London to 'deliver the goods' and I was overcome with a sense of relief, mixed with pride and a tinge of smugness. Here are some pictures to show you their complete state,  before they were hung in their proper place.

The two greatest challenges when making them were 1. they were too big for the limited work/ sewing space that I had, seeing the fact that I only own a household sewing machine, and also the fact that my cutting/ measuring table was actually just a 110cm x 80cm dropleaf table, and 2. I didn't have a specific pattern/ instructions that I could follow. I had watched quite a few youtube videos of roman blind making and also read up on a few articles about it but I had to device my own pattern and it was a bit of a 'hit and miss' and I was so nervous the whole time about making mistakes, especially when I was cutting the pieces out because the fabric wasn't cheap.

But I did manage to complete them and thought they looked absolutely beautiful. They were not 100% perfect but I think for a first roman blind, it wasn't too bad. Of course after completing them, I then had another worry that they weren't going to fit the windows properly and as you can imagine I was worrying about it all night and all next morning until Steve's brother finally said, "Okay let's see if we can fit the blinds up then". Here's a picture to show you a comparison of the old curtain, and the new blind.

So overall, a happy me and a satisfied 'client'.

What I like about this whole sewing addiction is that you learn something new after each project and the level of satisfaction you get from completing a project no matter how big or small is so great! And I've been thinking to myself for the past few months -- sewing, where have you been all my life?!

On a separate subject, you would have probably read somewhere by now that the UK was hit by a sudden cold snap which brought along plenty of snow, even Bournemouth, a place which rarely snows, had such a thick layer of snow that we couldn't get to work for almost two days ! I took some pictures and here they are, as a nice way of ending this first post for the December month.

Time for bed now I think. It's been a longggg day.

A Rainy Sunday...

At 10.15am, I was still lazing in bed.

I have a confession to make. Two months ago, I would have jumped out of bed on a Sunday as early as 7.30am, eager to continue with a sewing project that I have got going.

Not this morning. I mean, I do have a project going at the moment, but 'eagerness' is the last word I would use to describe my feelings about it right now. For the first time, I don't feel excited about a project I'm working on. As usual, I have done all the necessary research before embarking on this project and have got all my materials ready and I know exactly what to do. Until I got started. I started measuring and cutting out the material and so far it has taken more than a day, just to cut out one of the front pieces, with wonky edges and corners. And I'm still trying to get it straight.

This project I'm working on is a pair of Roman blinds which Steve and I have promised his brother as a birthday present... it's very simple :- Steve buys the materials, and I put the blinds together. Only, it's not quite as simple as it sounds. For the first time, I dread going into the sewing room.

The fabric is long and stretchy and difficult to handle. Although I now have a good size measuring table, it's not made it any easier. Measuring out the right size to cut is a disaster; trying to cut it out on a straight line, is beyond catastrophic.

The edge of the fabric kept fraying and bits of fluff kept coming off, making it impossible to work with. Fely has kindly suggested a pair of pinking shears and pinking shears were obtained but that didn't help eiter.

Why am I blogging about this?

Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is behind every beautiful and succesful sewing project, there is a certain degree of frustration, depression, anger and exasperation. This one in particular, is at an exceptionally high level. And I haven't even yet started sewing it. But the past few months of sewing has taught me that resilience, determination and patience are the three main ingredients to completing a beautiful and neat project and as much as I dread it at this stage, I will certainly push myself to get past this stage and start to enjoy the project a bit more when I've made some great progress with it.

I remember a month back I started a project making my mum a blouse for her birthday following a pattern from a Japanese pattern book. That was also a challenge to me clearly because a. I can't read Japanese (whatever possessed me to buy a book with Japanese instructions??!?!) and b. the fabric I was working on for it was silky, smooth and stretchy and it kept falling off the table and 'running' away from me hence the cutting was no fun either. But I ploughed through it and was proud to be able to pack the blouse a few days before Mum's birthday and send it off. Hopefully it is now safely on its way to her.

The only thing I worry slightly about is the size. I didn't have her measurement but I used myself as the model throughout the entire process but the trouble is I am slightly bigger than Mum and the blouse itself is quite baggy. But we'll see :)

Anyway, back to my rainy Sunday...

So when Steve suggested that we go for a movie, I saw it as a means of 'escaping' from the task at hand. It was a movie called 'Unstoppable' featuring Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson, based on a true story. Due to the negligence and stupidity of a rail worker, an unmanned train carrying highly toxic and explosive chemicals was heading at full throttle towards densely populated cities and somebody has to stop it. It was an excellent movie based on a few factors :: it wasn't dragged on for too long; the introduction and background to build up the characters was relevant and sufficient and not too soppy; and during the entire movie, I was kept on the edge of my seat. The best thing of all about the movie yesterday -- it was free. Steve had managed to find a voucher off the internet which he printed and which gave us two free tickets to watch the movie. So all in all, a great experience!

To finish off this post, a couple of photos to show you who Sasha always favours in the house.

  

Those legs belong to Steve and that's where you'd normally find Sasha when Steve's sat at the computer doing his work. And no, it wasn't a Thursday when I took these photos. The man clearly has issues with his days...

Hopefully when I update my post again, I shall have more pictures to show you of the progress I've made with the blinds.

Take care now and thanks for dropping by.

November...

Looking back at the month of October, I can say that it was rather unproductive in terms of blogging as well as sewing. It was a slow, slow month where day just passed after another day...

So now that we've just hit November, I am determined to change that trend! So let's start with me telling you all about my rather successful trip to IKEA this Sunday just gone. It is a general known fact (don't quote me) that most men hate shopping and 'browsing' through loads and loads of items in a shop unless they have to buy something. I know there are a small proportion of men out there who geniunely enjoy window shop with their other half and will suggest doing that on a beautiful weekend. But I can tell you they are of the rare exception and ladies if you happen to be going out with one, well done!

So it didn't come as a surprise that my man was an unwilling victim in this scheme of mine, to spend half a day in IKEA looking at pretty things, gasping and 'appreciating' the arrays of colourful and wonderful plastic goods that IKEA has to offer at affordable prices. Mind you, I have been browsing through their catalogue online and I did have specific items that I wanted to purchase. But that didn't stop me from wanting other things as well when I saw them there. You can't help it, it happens in all IKEA to most women. 

When I started off my sewing hobby, my beloved sewing corner aka 'my retreat' looked like this.

You might be asking, where's the sewing machine? Well this picture was taken before the sewing machine arrived and the feeling I was experiencing at that time was akin to an expectant mother preparing her nursery for the arrival of the new born baby. I mean, not exactly the same, but you get my idea.

And when the machine's arrived, it was transformed to this. By then I had purchased a few more essential items that I needed. When I started getting interested at patterns and ideas from various sewing books, I started buying them like mad from Amazon and slowly but surely developed a collection on the shelf.

Because I couldn't find a single bookend in the house, I had to stack them up on the shelf like that because I had learnt through the hard way that standing them up wasn't such a good idea especially when the books came tumbling down onto the sewing machine. Let's just say 'thank god for hard covers.'

Anyway, through these past few months, I wasn't just collecting books. Bit by bit, I slowly built up my lovely sewing corner with fabric, and accessories and the latest puchase was a much needed drop leaf table where I could do all my measuring and cutting. After using this table to measure out and to cut fabric for a project I'm currently working on, I did wonder how I had managed to cope with measuring and cutting my fabric pieces on the bed before I had this table. Of course what you couldn't see was that what used to be in that spot was Steve's exercise bike which has been pushed aside. So the best thing about this drop leaf table is that it's perfect for me and that space. When it's not needed, it can be collapsed and hidden away in the corner.Even better, I bought this second-hand so it didn't even cost me too much money.

Anyway, it is with much pleasure for me to show you my sewing corner at its present state.

This is my retreat. This is the corner where I spent many enjoyable hours making fun things while listening to my Ipod dock (which is well-hidden by the way due to lack of space). What I managed to purchase from IKEA made a lot of difference in helping me organise my space better. The two hanging baskets which I got meant that I can now organise my sewing boxes and bits and pieces under the shelf and that freed up more space for books (Oh dear) and I managed to get bookends too which meant that my books won't come tumbling down anymore. And I also managed to get a cute clamp lamp which ideally was going to replace the table lamp but because it was not bright enough, the table lamp had to stay. Let's zoom in closer to look at those tiny creatures on my shelf.

 Honestly I had no use for them at the moment but when I saw them at the charity shop I couldn't help myself.

 These are the wooden pegs that my DSC got me during one of her trips to Cornwall and they are so cute.

Some of my book collection.

For the past few weeks, I've been driving round and noticing how beautiful the autumn leaves are so this morning, armed with my camera, I decided to capture some autumn colours to show you and very much lacking in skills and knowledge on how to fully utilize my camera, I present to you some mediocre shots that I took with the auto mode on my Canon G11.

Autumn on my desk.

I have just bought a book called 'From snapshots to greatshots' from Amazon. So hopefully, very soon I'll be able to share some good quality pictures here with you. In the meantime, I'll just have to settle for the auto mode.

Have a great week ahead.