We Interrupt This Blog Post For An Important OMFG!!!

Guess what this is?

The Squee 'Heard Round the World

If you guessed that this is me opening a gigantic box which I thought contained fabric and which turned out to be A NEW FREAKING SEWING MACHINE!!!!!  you'd be correct.

Turns out that a friend of mine for whom I do a LOT of SCA work for him and his fighting company, of which I'm a member (yeah, that guy) decided that he'd get me a span-damn-tacular birthday present as a thank-you for sewing for him and for his/our fighting company.   He told me that I'd be receiving a package of fabric in the mail, for just these reasons.  He even told me it would be arriving yesterday.  When I got home and saw the box, I couldn't imagine what could be in something that size - I've ordered some things I'm expecting this week, but nothing this big!  His name was on the outside, so I knew it had to be the fabric, but holy cow, how much fabric could be in a box this size?  And why on earth is there inflatable package cushioning in there for fabric??  Then I saw it.

don't you just want to pet it? 

It's a Singer Curvy (8770).
225 built-in stitches, including 7 buttonholes. Fully adjustable stitch length and width on any stitch. Single- and double-needle capacity. Automatic needle threader. Heavy duty metal frame (but the machine is very light).  Drop-in bobbin.  One-step buttonholer, which also lets you free-sew buttonholes yourself.  Comes with a zipper, blind hem, and satin stitch presser feet in addition to the regular one.  Adjustable feed dogs.  3-way adjustable deck/free-arm platform.  Seam ripper, cleaning brushes, dust cover.

watching it do the Greek key was *mesmerizing*

Here's a little sack-cloth linen sampler of just *18* of the 225 stitches, including me playing around with tension, length, and width as I was getting used to the machine.

This thing sews soooo smoothly.  It's comfortable, slips so easily, sews so quietly, and moves so smoothly that it's almost hypnotic to use (keep in mind that my eighteen year old Singer runs well but rough; and my Brother runs like a shopping cart in a gravel pit).

I didn't just play around with it.  I put it to work on the new Samurai outfit I'm doing for Takuan, on the appliqué around the bottom of the pants.  I'm sorry, Old Singer, but, um, your services are no longer required.

So this is the computer.  The computer.  MY SEWING MACHINE HAS A COMPUTER.  Mkay. Sorry.  There's so much information in the booklet on how to use this thing, and the buttons don't really say anything (aside from the ABC one)...but it's actually very simple to operate.  For example, see the numbers on the LED screen (it's got an LED screen, you guys)?  Skip the first button.  The next two adjust the stitch width up and down, then the last two do the same thing for the length.  There's a stitch selector, and each of the patterns is numbered. There's a dual-needle selector, a mirror-image selector (yes, it will sew any one of those 225 stitches backwards for you), an "eraser" button to delete all settings and start over, and some quick-select buttons across the bottom.   Easy as pie.





As if this thing wasn't awesome enough...

• it has a serging stitch that will - you guessed it - sew and overcast in the same pass, just like a serger machine.  
• it has some embroidery stitches I've seen on Norse and Russian garb used to embellish seams and hem edges, that I had been going to do by hand.  
• It won't do an eyelet all by itself, but two of the seven buttonhole stitches make keyhole buttonholes, the top part of which is basically an eyelet that just needs a wee bit of satin-stitching across one side to close it to a full circle.  So it's a two-step eyelet.  Guess what I don't have to do by hand anymore? 
• it has a hand-stitched stitch that looks like...wait for it...a hand-stitched stitch.  Like this: 

I don't have to do that by hand anymore, either.  O_O

Anyway.  I'll quit gushing now.  LOL.  Yeah, right.  I probably won't shut up about this thing for weeks.  

Happy freaking birthday to me. :)  

Next week. Early present. :)