Love/Hate

I have an adversarial relationship with my sewing machine. I can’t count the number of times bad things have happened:

• the feed dogs suck fabric into the bobbin mechanism
• the needle hits a pin and bends and starts hitting the bobbin case
• fabric catches underneath and part of the shirt back gets sewed to the sleeve
• the thread winder goes crazy and I end up with a big loop of thread poking through the bobbin
  • then I have to decide if I should unwind and call it a loss or use it and see what happens
    • (I NEVER use it to see what happens because I know that would be a catastrophe)

Mr. White (he’s a White Blue Jeans machine) has a mind of his own most days, and oftener than not we do not align.

What I’m good at:

–Home sewing – pillows, bolsters, curtains, drapes, duvet cover. I excel at at taking a three dimensional shape and figuring out how to cover it in fabric.

What brings me low:

–Anything with a pattern or precision including clothes, purses, and quilts. I once sewed a quilt patch for a charity quilt that was so misshapen they couldn’t use it.

• (I took it apart and put it together maybe four times. The ladies were very kind and insisted I sign the finished quilt. I gave chair massages to everyone during the final push).

What has worked for me:

–As soon as things start going wrong, (I’m on the floor with the bobbin parts in pieces as I jiggle a stuck needle out of the underworld), I stop. I never ‘soldier on’ – in sewing, I quit while I’m behind. I gained this wisdom from a 1970’s era book on fixing your Beetle – the writer instructed that when things stopped going well, stop and have a beer and come back to it. That advice is sound.

Right now I am sewing contoured face masks with a pocket for a nose wire for better fit and a pocket for a reusable filter. I looked at several patterns and thought this was the most protective and would fit the best. I downloaded a template from the interweb and watched the video twice. I went through my stash and found a lot of unused quilting fabric that I bought to make camp shirts (I had a sew-my-own camp shirt kick a decade ago). I also had a fair amount of elastic, pipe cleaners, thread, ribbon…everything you could want to make face masks for the pandemic.

I actually thought ahead this time and decided to make a practice mask from start to finish to see how it went. The designer pegged it as a 30 minute project. It took me over 90 minutes, which included ripping out an edge (unfortunately Mr. White sewed it using a very small stitch and my thread didn’t contrast enough to make deconstruction simple). I stopped twice to take a break and eat some lunch. I found some spare fabric so Mr. White could go full steam ahead on a nice long seam (he likes to go full out). By the end of the afternoon, I had a working face mask. I snapped a picture, sent it to all my phone contacts and posted it on my ‘gram. People loved it.

Today I made four more masks – two for my honey, one more for me, and one spare. Mr. White was grumpy, but I opened a conversation, thanked him for his work, gave him a couple practice runs full steam ahead and he settled down. The fabric was unruly though – one of the masks has a wonky lining. I don’t know why – I used the same template, the other ones are fine, but it went wonky on me. Mr. White messed up the staystitching on one and when I turned it inside out there was a cave that required excavation. More unpicking of stitches. It took me about 3 hours to do four masks. And I am spent.

My husband said the results were impressive and he thanked me repeatedly for doing the work. I wrestled with my perfectionist tendencies and decided to take the win. They are functional and the mistakes are not terrible. The next batch (if there is a next batch) should be better, go faster, be easier.

I not going into business with these. To be honest, they are priceless – I am using my limited skills to make protective gear for people I love. The going rate for a mask on the street is $5.00. At that price, I’m spending at least that in materials not to mention time. I will probably donate my fabric stash to someone who is making items for local healthcare workers.

It might be different if my skills were better. I’d love to be a COVID19 warrior, sewing to save the world. But life is too short to stay in a frustrating relationship. I’ve been knitting scarfs for soldiers in my spare time and that is soothing and easy. But Mr. White and I, well, we go way back and I’m not sure we will ever be besties. I see a breakup on the horizon.