A Head-Slapping “Duh” Moment, or, Perfection is Probably Boring

Oh, Peggy.  *shakes head*

I thought I had broken my cover stitch machine.  I’d only purchased it in May, and it had been working great.  Threading was easy; I’d switched colors numerous times without a problem.  But the other night when I wanted to hem some leggings, the stitch was loose and floppy.  I double-checked the settings.  Didn’t help.  I changed the needles.  Didn’t help.  I tried countless combinations of tension and stitch settings.  Nope.  No help.  I was in despair.  I’d spent a small fortune on this machine, and I was sure that I had done something to it to ruin it after only a few short months in my home.

As it turns out, I did do something wrong.  Well, more accurately, it’s what I didn’t do that caused the problem.

I’d bought the machine in Santa Rosa, which is about an hour from where I live in Marin County.  Because of road work on the freeway, getting up there is a pain-in-the…, so I generally try to avoid it.  However, last weekend, I was visiting friends in Sonoma County, so I decided to swing by the sewing machine shop to look at the floor model and scribble down its settings.  When the saleslady was free, she came over to find out what I was doing.  At first, she was perplexed and couldn’t figure out what my machine’s problem was—and, of course, I didn’t actually have the machine with me!  (That would’ve been too logical.)  Finally, she said, “Well, of course you have the presser foot up when you thread it…”  I said, “Huh?”   I have no idea.  Maybe it was up sometimes, but I really don’t know.  She told me that the presser foot must always be up when threading or the threads won’t go through the tension discs.  That was the head-slapping “duh” moment.

I raced home, lifted the pressure foot, re-threaded the machine, et voilà!  It worked!!!  I had spent a lot of time pouring over the instruction manual regarding settings, but I failed to register the first item on page 14, where it states that the presser foot must be up before threading the loopers.  Durrrr.

Lesson learned and a HUGE sigh of relief!  So, am I the only one who does silly things like that?  Have you ever bypassed the obvious and worked yourself into a frenzy? 

Shoe love:  I love Talbots shoes!  I can only get my size online--they never, ever seem to have 11s in the store.  These are shoes that I purchased about a year ago, I think.  I love them.  They’re a lovely shade of burgundy, in suede (my fave), with low heels and a tailored and tasseled loafer look.   They're a little darker than pictured here.  They look good with slacks or dresses.

Happy sewing! ~ Peggy