Two more days

And the bulk of the move will be finished. On Tuesday we move the furniture, with the exception of the pool table. While we may be able to move it ourselves (others have done it, I know), we have opted to have professionals do it for us. It will be the very last thing to move, though.

Today, after the Texans game, I’ll be headed to the new place to clean up a bit. We’ve moved all the boxes over, and the kitchen is unpacked and my studio is mostly unpacked. Once we get furniture in, I can finish unpacking the clothes that go in the dresser (the kids do their own moving stuff like packing & unpacking), and making some changes to the house to make it more livable for us – like removing the towel bars in both bathrooms to make room for bookcases. While the house is large, storage is at a premium, particularly in the bathrooms, so we’re having to make some changes there.

But, the bathrooms DO have clean towels, and have been cleaned (and will be cleaned again before we move in, probably tomorrow). In fact, about the only thing missing at this point is furniture. I was determined that since my vacation officially begins tomorrow, I didn’t want to spend the entire time packing, moving, and unpacking. I think we’ve done a decent job of having things unpacked that could be unpacked, so we won’t be living with a mountain of boxes for several weeks – which would drive me nuts, and cause me to spend my entire vacation unpacking, at least until everything was sufficiently put away. My closet is slowly filling up with clothes – I take a few every time I go over there, leaving only enough here to get me through till Tuesday. I’ll be so glad when this move is over!

What I’m really looking forward to is some studio time, even though it will now be in my bedroom. And Thanksgiving! I can’t believe it’s less than two weeks away. And of course, I’m really looking forward to spending time with my husband and kids while I’m off. I am so excited about the next eight weeks or so, I can hardly contain myself – the holidays in a new house, new decorating opportunities, and just the excitement of the holidays themselves practically give me a contact high! LOL I don’t know why I’m so excited for the holidays this year – maybe it the relief of four years of stress, or maybe just the idea of being with my family, but this holiday season will be fantastic, I know it.

 

Hard to believe

But it’s nearly Thanksgiving! In just two and a half weeks, we’ll be celebrating one of my favorite holidays. I really love this time of year (I think I’ve mentioned that before), and this year I’m really excited to decorate a new home for the holidays, spend time with my family, and get moved.

The Big Move will take place on November 15th. We’ve been moving some things over in the last week – bookcases, boxes, dining table, just to list a few things. I’ve started to unpack boxes, too. Everything that goes in the kitchen has been put away. Linens are put away, so everyone will have clean towels & washcloths when we move in. My studio is being unpacked, so when we move in, I can just bring in my tables & machines and voila! I’m ready to finish Christmas projects.

Before you know it, we’ll have zoomed past Thanksgiving, right into Christmas. What I don’t understand is, why do so many people zoom past Thanksgiving right into Christmas before Halloween is even over?! I love Christmas, I really do, and maybe it’s that I’m getting older, and want time to slow down, but I was a bit irritated to see the Christmas decorations up all over town on the first of November! Even the Home Owner’s Associations in our area have decided to put up decorations. What is up with that?!

I saw something the other day – and I really wish I could remember where it ws, but I can’t – about “Respect the Bird.” It was all about not skipping over Thanksgiving and getting caught up in Christmas. I think this is an excellent idea. We spend half our lives wishing it away, or ignoring it (anyone else remember being a kid, praying to grow up?), and the other half wondering where the time has gone. This year, I am going to make an extreme effort not to over think Christmas before Thanksgiving. I’m going to enjoy every minute leading up to Black Friday (which is an ominous name in it’s own right, isn’t it?) and not try to leap too far ahead. Like any quilter/artist/crafter, I will be working on gifts before Thanksgiving, but I won’t turn on a single Christmas song (never mind that I was singing them last week without even realizing it), pull out a single string of lights, or even consider a Christmas tree until the evening of Thanksgiving at the very earliest.

Instead, I will spend my time moving, unpacking boxes, working on making gifts for the holiday season, determining what I’ll make for Thanksgiving dinner, and enjoying the time with my family. The day after Thanksgiving, I will turn my thoughts to Christmas, but until then … the reason for THIS season is the Bird!

 

Randomness

There are days when I am focused, I am driven, and I know exactly what I’m doing. Whether it’s cleaning the house, working on a quilt, or dealing with one of my many work duties, there is nothing that can tear me away from my single-mindedness which keeps me on the path.

Then there are other days when my mind flits around like a small bird looking for a good place to hang out – three seconds at a time. It’s days like this that push me to question my sanity and long for just 10 minutes of being able to focus on a single task. Today is one of these days. *sigh*

I’ve been thinking about the conversation I had with Chris about our budget and saving money. One of the things he said to me was, “I just hate telling you ‘no’ even when I know I should.” That’s incredibly sweet, and no one has ever felt that way about me, but as I told him, I depend on him telling me no when we really don’t have the money for something I want. I may pout, I may be unhappy about it, but in the long run I know he’s doing it for all the right reasons. I told him that he must become better at saying “no” to me. I am going to hate it but there it is … more no, less yes.

Valentine’s day is less than a month away, and while I’m not a big fan of V-day, I do like the crafty things that appear for the holiday. I would like to find a way to purchase maybe just a yard or two of Valentine’s fabric to use for pillow slip covers. I have no real idea where I’d put them (the game room maybe) but I have this idea to make pillow slip covers in a variety of fabrics over time so I can switch them out on a whim. I got the idea from a woman I met in the quilt store over the weekend, who was buying fabric for pillowcases for a bench she has in her hallway. I don’t have a bench in a hallway, but I have two couches, a chair and a loveseat. Surely some of them could use a pillow or two? I already have the pillow forms …

I finished a book yesterday called The Other Daughter. I will admit I was intrigued by it, but was irritated when the author employed poetic license and changed Houston to suit her own needs. For example. Huntsville has moved south about a hundred miles to be at the corner of I-45 and I-10. Anyone who’s from the area knows that the intersection of I-45 and I-10 is right at downtown Houston … which is about 75 miles from Huntsville. Furthermore, I had no idea – having lived here my whole life, I was a bit surprised by this actually – to find that houses are “cut into the hillside”. I am trying to find the hill. I didn’t know they called overpasses “hills” nor did I realize that houses were “cut into” them, because I assure you, the only hills in Houston are those that are man made, i.e., overpasses. In one passage, there was a car chase – “up one hill and down the next.” I really have to find these hills! It really bugs me that an author would be so obtuse as to even suggest such things in their books – do they really think the locals don’t know the landscape of their homeland??

Work is very slow right now. I’m bored. And I may not have a job much longer anyway because this position could be moving to another country. So I’m looking for something else, but I’m not really finding anything that thrills me, nor anything that pays nearly what I’m making now. If I can’t find a job making near what I make now, we’ll have to file for bankruptcy. There are worse things, I suppose …

Someone told me yesterday that because of failed crops, cotton is set to go up 85% in the coming months, which means that fabric and thread will also go up … great.

At what point does the government decide that the cost of living has increased? Because they’re saying it’s remained basically steady over the last couple of years, and yet … it seems like prices on everything are steadily increasing. I’m not sure how anyone trying to support a family on the city’s median income of $40k-ish can survive. We’re struggling at twice that!

 

A sewing lesson to remember

I think I may have mentioned, though I can’t be sure, that I have been taking apart a pair of Chris’s pajama bottoms so I could make him more. See, Chris is a big guy, and clothing that he likes and finds comfortable – at a reasonable price – is difficult to find sometimes. I thought that since I have all these mad sewing skillz (said with tongue firmly planted in cheek) I would do something to get around that for certain things – like pajama bottoms.

If you’ve ever attempted to make clothing for a man, you know that patterns are few and far between, but they are non-existent for a man who isn’t 180 lbs and 6′ tall. Hence the reason why I decided to pull apart the pants to make my own pattern. Now, the pants were already damaged, falling apart, and after less than six months after we bought them, I was a little a put out by it. It took me FOREVER to pull apart these pants – they were put together poorly but in a weird way, so most of the time it took was because I was trying to not put new holes in them or because I was trying to somewhat preserve the basic design. This was, by far, the most time-consuming part of the exercise. It took me weeks of working on and off to get two of the four panels separated (two for the front, two for the back; I pulled one front and one back from the pants).

Once I accomplished that, I ironed the pieces and laid them out on some pattern “paper” I purchased at Joann’s … only it’s not really paper, it’s more of a cross between a paper and an interfacing – or at least, that’s what it feels like. I drew around the pieces and labeled each one, along with basic instructions, like where the fold lines were for the hem and the elastic casing for the waist, that each piece needed two pieces cut, etc. The only thing I haven’t quite figured out yet is how to get a straight grain line, but I’m working on that one. Then it was time to make the prototype.

I use muslin most often to make prototypes, and this was a soft, drape-y muslin that closely mimics the feel and drape of the madras fabric I bought for the completed pants. It only took an afternoon to lay out the pieces, cut them, and sew and serge them together. My mom taught me ages ago how to make pants in a super-simple way, and it’s the ONLY way I’ll make them now. Here’s the basic instructions …

Pin the front pieces together along the front/crotch seam and sew together. If you have a zipper that needs to be put in, stop at the marking for the bottom of the zipper, and insert as you normally would. Press seam open or serge. Then pin the back pieces together along the back/crotch seam and sew together. Again, press the seam open or serge it. Pin front to back along outseam (that’s the outside of the leg for those who don’t know) on each side and then sew together. Press seam open or serge. Next, pin together the inseam (inside of legs) and sew. I usually start pinning this at the groin area and work down each leg. As before, you’ll press the seam open or serge it. Then you continue on with your waistband and hem as usual. It’s very easy and I can turn out pants by the boatload.

But I digress … back to Chris’s pj’s, or rather, the prototype of Chris’s pj’s. Once they were sewn together, but before I hemmed or did any work in the waist, I asked him to try them on. He did, and I discovered that they were a touch too small, which was perplexing to me. I couldn’t figure out WHY they didn’t fit, when the ones I took apart had fit so well. While talking to my mom last night and explaining the problem, though, she pointed out the problem.

When I drew the pattern out using the pieces I’d pulled apart, I forgot to add back in the seam allowance. Usually a seam allowance is 5/8″, which will add back more than 2″ in the areas where he needed it most (the hips, mainly). Because the hem and waist were folded over and sewn instead of serged, I don’t have to worry about adding the seam allowance in those areas.

This was an important lesson to me, and I’m glad it occurred with the prototype and not the actual pants. This is my first time to attempt to draw my own pattern, but it wasn’t particularly difficult, and I fully intend to do it again. Next time, I’ll definitely remember to add the seam allowance!

Since I have to re-draw the pattern and make the new pants, I’ll try to do some photos to post here. Happy sewing!

 

Random thoughts …

I haven’t posted in a week or so because I’ve been so busy, and I feel really bad about that. The not posting thing, not the being busy thing … anyway, I don’t have anything in particular I want to talk about right now, so I’m just going to tell you the random stuff that’s been floating around in my head lately. A lot of people I know tend to live life linearly, but not me. I live life in many directions; this post may frighten you, but I promise you that I’m mostly sane.

Last weekend, we went to Fry’s so that Travis could look for some anime – Dragonball Z, to be exact. While we were wondering around in there (NEVER a good idea for me or Chris) waiting on him to find what he wanted, I found a new copy of Family Tree Maker. At one time I was really hot into genealogy and I still have all my files. I’d heard rumors that now you can save digital images with your family tree in this software and it wasn’t terribly expensive, so I bought it. Chris, who has never known his own father, asked if I could find the man using the online capabilities of ancestry.com, and I told him I’d try. After a couple of phone calls to his mother, some creative searching and two days, I think I located not only his father, but his grandparents and a portion of his grandmother’s line on that side of his tree. I am amazed that what used to take weeks and months of research and trips to the genealogy library now can be done in minutes and hours online. I am blown away.

I have been planning a patriotic quilt for the last two weeks, and now I think I might be ready to start working on it. I’ll get started this weekend … my older sewing machine was in the shop for a cleaning and at first they thought it needed some repairs, but it turns out that they just had it together wrong. I picked it up on Tuesday but it’s still sitting down at the front door, waiting for a strong male to bring it up (it must weigh 40 lbs). I used to have my machines cleaned annually, but at a cost of $162, I think in the future I will have them cleaned every three years or so. I think the last time that one was cleaned was about five years ago and I never had a problem with it till just before I dropped it off this time.

I’ve been playing EverQuest II quite bit more than usual lately because I haven’t really wanted to start a new quilt. I rolled a new toon and started to level her in the new zone that recently opened up, which has housing and everything. I love the new housing; it’s much more cheerful than anything they’ve ever had before. I could stand in the house and just look around and be happy there.

Travis asked me at 10 pm last night if I could take him to meet his dad this afternoon. I wasn’t expecting it and I was a little annoyed that he waited till practically the last minute to ask, but it means that Chris and I will have a weekend entirely to ourselves. I cannot wait.

I need to spend a little more time organizing my studio because I now have my genealogy stuff in here. And my photography stuff. And of course, my quilting & sewing stuff. It’s amazing how much you can get into a room that’s not much bigger than 12×12 if you work really hard to make it all fit.

I’m working at home today, in my pj’s, so I guess I’d best get back to it. I have a ton of contracts to read – I started last night so I’m not terribly concerned that I just took 15 minutes to jot this down. And I’ve already put in about three hours more than required this week. But I can’t lie – I’m glad it’s Friday and I have two days to recover!

See, I told you this would be random!

OMG, I almost forgot! Today is my parents’ 43rd wedding anniversary. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THEM!!

Happy anniversary!
Happy anniversary!
Happy anniversary!
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappy anniversary!

 

This is for you, Soph

By request … a few shots of past quilts. Enjoy!

 

Was it worth the effort?

OK, so I have mentioned that I made a quilt for my husband Chris – which neither of us liked once it was together. Well, the quilt pattern itself isn’t bad, but the fabrics are totally NOT him, so I decided to start over with the same pattern, different fabric. Here is the top of the one we didn’t care for much …

I made it on the suggestion of the owner of QuiltWorks, a local quilt shop close to home. She told me it was easy to put together and that it turns out beautifully – she even had two in the shop to prove what she said. What she failed to tell me was just how ridiculous the instructions are in the book, and how much I’d have to figure out on my own. It is indeed a simple quilt, but it’s NOT for the faint hearted nor the uninitiated quilter.

Written by Suzanne McNeill, the book is called Batiks Inspired by Bali. The quilts in the book are beautiful and I’d been wanting to make something using batiks, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I bought a “Bali Pop” – 40 fabric strips that measure 2.5″ by 44″, made by Hoffman Fabrics, one of my favorite companies. So I figured, good fabric, high recommendation from the LQS owner … what could possibly go wrong??

How about nearly everything? The instructions are horrible. It took me AGES to figure out McNeill’s “system” to sort the fabrics. Her quilt was made using the Bali Pop called Mint Chip. I used one called Cappuccino. I anticipated small issues based on this, but I’m not a new quilter; I thought I had this firmly in hand, NO PROBLEM! There were problems. Lots of problems. But once I got the sorting done, and started piecing the quilt, it went by quickly. And then I started to lay out the quilt. The instructions told me to cut six of the 14.5″ blocks into two pieces – one that was 7.25″ long and one that was 5.25″ long. But the layout diagram didn’t state which block was to go in what position. These “half” blocks were to go at the end of rows, and I couldn’t figure out why they should be different lengths when every other block was 14.5″ long and the rows were made of three full blocks and one abbreviated block. So I decided (wisely, I think) to cut the blocks in half. I could trim them if needed once I started sewing rows together but you certainly can’t add back fabric you’ve already chopped off.

I still don’t know why the cut blocks were to be two different lengths, because I saw no need for it. My blocks and rows went together very well and required no trimming. Eh … who knows?

So then I decided to make a second quilt using the pattern, thinking that I already had tackled the toughest part and I understood what I needed to do. This time, I thought (not so wisely), I’ll use yardage and cut my own strips! But I stood at my cutting tables for what seemed like days trying to figure out what to cut. As the minutes dragged by and nothing was being cut, the idea flitted through my head that I was losing my mind. I went to sit down and try to figure out what I needed to do. It took me some time but finally I figured it out and I started cutting. But again, I wasn’t using the exact fabric she did – this time I decided to use Moda marbles – one of my favorite fabric lines of all time. I did pretty well till I hit the “brown/green” print that she never called for in the yardage instructions. I have NO idea what fabric that should be … so now I’m stuck putting together all of the other color blocks until I figure out which one of these should be “brown/green” because “brown/green” is NEVER mentioned in the yardage requirements.

My head swims just thinking about it. And this is all from just ONE of the fifteen quilting patterns. I am terrified to look at any of the others for fear of what might happen next!

My suggestion to Ms. McNeill is to fire her proofreader/pattern testers and start over with someone who actually understands quilting. My suggestion to my readers is this – if you intend to make this quilt, I suggest you either be a strong quilter or else you find someone who can help you that is a strong quilter. This one could reduce even the stoutest quilter to tears …

 

I have a confession

I am not much of a sewer. I am a quilter, but not really a sewer. I don’t make my own clothing, I don’t have items throughout the house that I myself have made. I can sew, I have just chosen not to up till this point. Well, that’s not really true. I do not really understand fashion sewing, even though I’ve done some of it myself. The truth is, it never really appealed to me …

See, my mother made all of our clothing. And it drove me NUTS, because the other girls were wearing “designer” clothes when I was in middle & high school, and … who wants to stand out when they’re in middle & high school? I wanted to be like everyone else … buy my clothes at the store. So, one year my mother finally capitulated and told me that she would allow me to spend my “back to school” money she would normally use to make my clothes on ready-to-wear clothing from the store. I was thrilled. With the money, I think I got two or three tops and a pair of jeans. Yep, that’s about all I got. Whereas, in the past, I would start the school year with practically an entire new wardrobe, that year, I had almost nothing. My mom loves this story, but it always ends with me coming to her, shamefaced, asking her to make me some clothes. As badly as I wanted to fit in, I didn’t want to have to wear the same three tops to school all year. I never really had to learn how to sew because … well, because Mom did it for me!

Now, a couple years after high school is over and Mom has stopped making my clothes, I have begun to realize that ready-to-wear doesn’t really satisfy me anymore. Once accustomed to the perfect fit and the one-of-a-kind aspect of the clothes Mom used to make, it’s been a rough transition to ready-to-wear clothes. And wow, are off-the-rack clothes expensive to buy or what?! I was appalled to find that suits cost upwards of $400 … and even on sale they are still well over $100-200 in many cases. Back when I first got out of high school, I could buy suits all day long for less than $75 (ok, so maybe it’s been longer than a couple years since I got out of high school). And those were NOT on sale! When we recently looked at shorts for my husband (who is admittedly a large man, and whose clothes cost more as a result) and found that the average price of shorts for him was $45-50, I lost it. I mean, how hard is it to make shorts?? What to do, what to do?

Well, the answer seems obvious, doesn’t it? At least, it does to me. I have one of the better equipped studios of anyone I know. Maybe it’s time to put the studio to use for something other than quilt construction. I even have many of the tools of fashion sewing. But … there are a couple of problems with this. First of all, I haven’t done any real fashion sewing since my daughter “graduated” from the fifth grade. Seriously, she was in the fifth grade! I made her dress for the ceremony, and it turned out pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. I’ll have to see if I can dig up some pictures of it; I know I took some because I was seriously proud of the outfit. So, it’s been a while since I have done any fashion sewing. And frankly, I was never really “into” fashion sewing, so I never really learned a lot … like how to set buttonholes and buttons to match up, how to put in a zipper, and I never really understood how to set sleeves. I NEVER learned to alter patterns, and I certainly have no idea how to make my own pattern.

That’s a lot to overcome just to make some shorts and stuff, huh? But I am determined. I bought a Threads magazine last night, and in this issue, they have a sidebar about a new online video series they have called Teach Yourself to Sew. This morning, I logged into the site and watched the first few videos. These covered basics such as the purpose for the course, what equipment you will need to sew (a sewing machine is necessary, a serger, not so much), and the notions you will need. It then moves on to patterns and buying fabrics. Then there is a project on how to make a jewelry bag. I haven’t made it that far, yet, but I intend to follow along and make every project they give … I think it will be a great way to learn, and they are still adding episodes. Later episodes include things like how to make darts and how to hem (I cannot do a proper hem, I’m sad to say; I never learned).

If you’re new to sewing, or if you’re self-taught, or if you’ve forgotten more than you know, check it out. So far I’ve really enjoyed it!

 

Summer Begins!

Memorial Day has always signaled the beginning of summer to me, and this year really isn’t any different, even though my son still has two days of school left this week. It’s one of my favorite holidays because it means that from now till the end of the year, there is at least one three day weekend every other month, and who doesn’t like a little extra time away from the job?

I’ve spent this weekend hanging out with Chris, grocery shopping, watching movies and playing EverQuest 2. But what I’ve enjoyed the most is playing with my new Brother Innov-is 2500D sewing machine. I set out with the idea to buy the Innov-is 1250D, which is a very nice machine. It’s not as fancy as the 2500D but it’s nice and it would suit my needs just fine. What changed my mind? The 2500D was a refurbished machine, with the complete factory warranty, and it was only a few hundred more than the Innovis. It made buying the machine a no-brainer. I got the refurbished machine for about $1200 under sticker and about $800 under street price. Not too bad, I say.

And it’s very, very pretty.

I’ve also been working on the studio a bit over the last few weeks. I moved the closet organizers into the closet (isn’t that where they go, after all?) and put the baskets on the studio floor.

In fact, I put a LOT of the stuff I don’t use often in the closet.

It’s still far from perfect, but I finally feel like I’m moving in the right direction. I think another set of baskets would help a LOT … but those won’t happen for a while now …

I finished the quilt I was making for Chris but neither of us really love the colors. I’ve started a new quilt for him and the one that I made is destined to be a Christmas present for … someone. Once I have the new quilt finished I’m going to do a red, white & blue for July 4th … I’ve decided that I’m going to do a “holiday” quilt for each holiday. It may take me two years but that’s my goal. In fact, I would love to do a different quilt for each month for our game room. The one thing we never seem to have enough of is blankets, and the ones we do have are in serious need of the trash! I’ve never kept a quilt I made, so this might be a nice switch …

Today’s question … would you rather receive a handmade gift or something bought from a store? Most people will jump to say “handmade” but I wonder – how many of them are being truthful?

 

The latest addition

Today, my really nice sewing/embroidery machine decided it needs a break. So … it took one. It was obviously in need of a vacation because about an hour into my studio time this morning, the thread broke on the machine. I rethreaded the machine and started back to quilting, but it was obvious that there was something wrong – the bobbin thread looks like a two year old tried to draw it in. I’m pretty sure that the machine just needs a good cleaning, but I can’t even get it to the shop till next weekend. And being arm deep in quilts that I need to get finished … what choice did I have but to go buy a cheap machine as a back up?

I looked at different machines on line, but the truth is, these days you’re sort of at the mercy of whatever the department/big box stores have on hand if you need a machine quickly. I headed to Wal-Mart – my least favorite place on earth, but the one I figured most likely to have something that may work. I didn’t want anything fancy – when you’re quilting all you really need is a straight stitch. You don’t even really need reverse, because there is no reverse in quilting – IF you know what you’re doing, that is. A lot of women use the old Singer Featherweight – a machine I would LOVE to have, but cannot currently afford. And I wanted something today – I didn’t want to wait for shipping. But I digress (I will right after you see this beautiful machine, anyway).

So there I was, at my local Wal-Mart, which does not have a fabric department, thinking I would be lucky to find a kiddie machine in the toy department. But as luck would have it, they had the Brother SQ-9000 sewing & quilting machine. My main machine is a Brother, I intend for my next expensive machine to be a Brother, so I couldn’t really see a down-side to buying this machine as a back up. My cousin has had more than one Brother she bought from Wal-Mart over the years, and has always liked them. This machine was $200, and what influenced me to purchase it was the accessories that came with it.

The feet alone are worth quite a bit – it came with a walking foot (I paid $45 for the one I bought for my more expensive Brother) and a 1/4″ seam foot ($30). It also came with a foot you use for free-motion quilting (I got that with my other Brother as well) and several other feet. The best thing is, the machine uses the same feet and bobbins as my PC-8500. The one thing the SQ-9000 doesn’t have that I wish it did is a thread cutter. With a press of the button, the PC-8500 cuts the thread at the end of a seam, and I love that thing. It did come with a quilting table – I’m not sure how useful the “large” quilting table would be just sitting on a table, but it comes in handy when used in conjunction with my Horn of America cabinet. The cabinet uses custom inserts to give an even sewing table, fitting around the machine being housed within, and of course the PC-8500′s insert doesn’t fit the SQ-9000. But the quilting table helps even out the surface somewhat, as you can see here.

In my opinion, this is an excellent machine for $200. It is very lightweight, but my dad used the same model machine to make boat seat covers using heavy vinyl, so I know it’s got enough horsepower to sew together lightweight cottons. What surprises me most about this machine is the feel of it as it runs – I’ve used a lot of cheap machines before, and I won’t lie to you. Most of them FEEL cheap. But this one feels like a much more expensive machine. It’s a little louder and sounds a little more mechanical than the PC-8500, but then, I paid $2000 for the 8500 …

I can’t say for sure how well this machine will perform over time – yet. But I suspect that if it’s like every other Brother sewing machine I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with, it’s going to be quite the little workhorse. I’ll keep you updated on how it works out.