Newest Edition to My Family and New Year's Resolutions

As of December 15th, I am the proud momma of a Singer CG-590.  My dear dad bought me a sewing machine for Christmas after listening to me whine about the high cost of repairs.  Now I have two (the other one hasn't died yet)!  What's even better is my hubby isn't begging me to throw away the older one.  I get emotionally attached to sewing machines.  Weird, I know.

I haven't totally bonded with my new one yet.  It has a flaw and needs to be repaired.  Something is blocking the needle, underneath the feed dogs.  No amount of troubleshooting fixed it so I have to mail my new gift to the kind people at Singer.  I'm pretty annoyed about that but who am I kidding?  I'm not getting any more sewing done this year.  Too much to do, so little time.

Right now all the sewing snobs are saying mean things about my new machine.  It's not computerized.  It's not a Bernina.  Blah, blah.  I can't hear them over the roar of the motor.  That's right.  The motor rocks!  I bet I could sew through sheet metal with this thing.  Most of the reviews are mixed on this machine.  One thing everyone agrees about is the bobbin thread jams.  My mother has this same machine and she told me a little secret.  It's all about the bobbin spool.  You get some cheap, plastic class 66 bobbins with the machine.  Use only these!  The bobbins that came with the machine are also slightly curved, or convex on the outer portions so don't substitute with the flat class 66 bobbins.

Tonight I wrap my baby back up and send it off to Singer.  Can't wait to get it back!

This brings me to New Year's resolutions.  The usual...eat less, exercise more, etc.  I'm not a fan of resolutions but I do have a few for the new year.

Sew for 1 hour a day.  I spend way too much time not accomplishing much.  Maybe if I just work on a little sewing every day instead of weekend sewing marathons, I'll actually finish a project.

Use up my fabric stash.  L-O-V-E buying fabric.  If I don't start using up my stash, my husband will likely divorce me.  I see all these fabric stash running totals on the boards at PatternReview.com.  "2009 stash= 370 yards, Yards sewn to-date= 56"  Seriously, who really knows how much is in their stash?  I gauge mine by how many new shelves and drawers I have filled.  Instead of measuring how much is left, I'm going to measure how much I've used.

Sew wardrobes, not pieces.  I've planned a few wardrobes for sewing contests next spring.  I must admit that having to match and coordinate pieces has helped me use more of my patterns, think before I buy, be more creative and use up more of my stash.  Not too shabby.

Knock out 2 of the Singer Sewing Techniques each week.  See the list here.  These aren't necessarily things I've never done, just never done well.  It's all about improving my technique.

Notice that I left the better eating and more exercise resolutions off the list.  Who am I kidding? I'm 33 and haven't done it yet.  Best not to strain myself now.