Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Why you should buy your machine at a local store...

so...back 2 years ago now a little after i started sewing and started loving it and started seeing how it could be useful i decided my $99 singer that my husband bought me that last Christmas just wasn't doing the things i needed....like sew straight...or sew much of anything without a bobbin getting blocked...or something....so after talking with my very smart business savvy husband he suggested starting a business as a means of write-off and buying a machine.

so you see, Sweet B was never really intended to make money...it was started so that i would have a means to write off some of the bigger purchases (ie my machine) and also i could write off the fabrics and materials i used for my business. of course i did intend to sell stuff, but i never worried that my business is forever "in the red" because i get all these fabulous write offs that i wouldn't/couldn't otherwise.

a family friend of the Barnes happens to own The Cotton Ball in Morro Bay and knew he would know a little something about machines....and he did...and he really encouraged me to buy locally. he even put me in touch with the owner of AAA Sew N Vac in Torrance, whom he had known - Aman - he and his wife Amina own and run the store and Aman does all the repairs.

I can't say enough about them or the store. I love love love my machine. I bought it used, but had no issue with it, since i knew Aman fixed it up (and Aman could fix anything if it broke). in fact, i came in once because my needle had broken and stuck and he replaced a part and fixed it for free (and gave my machine a tune up in the process) anyone who has ever brought a machine in to be repaired knows how costly this can be...$100 per hour and about a 2 week waiting list i believe is the norm. Aman fixed it all for me while i waited. I paid for the machine on credit and interest free and paid monthly for about a year until it was paid off. now i have a machine for life and a place to take it if i ever need to again! i have been back to the store to learn how to do buttonholes, learn how to use my embroidery machine and last time i was there this super amazing woman gave me a mini-quilting lesson.

so...flash forward to the present, where i find myself still loving sewing...still loving my machine...but dreaming of a serger as well. i have been making a lot of garments - as you well know - and my machine does an overlock stitch but it is less than beautiful (because its only 1 thread you see...not my machine's fault in any way). i have been saving all my money from recent sales and saved *almost* enough to buy myself a serger...the rest was a mother's day present - thank you honey....did you know that you helped buy me a serger? Remember when we went here?  well that was my serger trip. and i learned how to thread it with both boys running around the store...not fun....not much retained. so i went back and tried to learn a few more things, but my brain was NOT working and silly me didnt write any of it down, so that was in vain...but i did learn that one needs a good serger book so i just got this one....anyone else have any recommendations for good serger books?

this dress is why i needed a book...which came after the dress...which is truly awful. i clearly need to work on my ruffles...and i clearly need to figure out what all these dern knobs on my whatchacallit are...i still dont know if this dress can even be saved...or if it should...any suggestions?

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