My Personal Sewing Machine Mechanic

When Garrett and I moved to Sydney we left everything we owned behind....everything that wouldn't fit into our 2 checked bags and our carry-ons, that is.  Everything is in storage.  We were starting from scratch.

While we were packing our bags the night before our long voyage across the Pacific, I had a meltdown.  What do I take?  Clothes...done.  Family photos...done.  But what about my all of my crafty things?  If you know me, you know that all things craft or "home-ec" are what make me, me.  Stand mixer...too big, too heavy.  Fabric and notions...we don't own enough luggage.  Recipe books...alone they would go over the weight limit.  ALL of my cake decorating and baking tools...need  a lot more luggage (although Garrett generously donated some of his luggage space for some of my cake decorating tools in attempt to calm his fragile wife.  And because he dearly loves her.).  Sewing machine...too big, too heavy, and is dying on me anyway.

I was crushed.  Soon after we finally found an apartment and I found a job, we bought me a stand mixer.  I was, and still am, one happy girl.  Just look here.  But I was still in search of one more important item.  The sewing machine.

So, I searched everyday on Gumtree (Australian equivalent to American Craigslist).  There wasn't much out there.  I then came across an ad for an old Bernina sewing machine for $60.  The owner admitted to not being a sewer, but she was pretty sure it was broken.  The fabric wouldn't feed through on its own, but I was more than welcome to come take a look and see if I could find the problem.  So, Garrett and I went to look at the machine.  I thought I knew what was wrong.  I was certain I knew.  But it turned out that I was wrong.  Still broken, I turned it down, being very disappointed.

Later that day the Bernina owner emailed me to say, "I'm never going to be able to sell a broken sewing machine, so if you'd like to take it for free and pay for the repairs yourself, you're more than welcome to it."  Free sewing machine?  I accept.  I picked it up, called the repair man and scheduled for him to pick it up the following day for a tune up and repair.  And then steps in my husband.

Lucky for me, my husband is a mechanical engineer.  Garrett has always been the type to take something apart, see how it works and fix it if needed or remove unneeded parts, and put it back together again, return it to perfect working order.  The night before the repair man was scheduled to come, Garrett sat down to "look" at my machine.  But before he even had a chance to take it apart, he found the problem.  And boy did I feel stupid.  Do you know why the fabric wasn't feeding through the machine?  The stitch length was set to zero.  Zero!  *sigh*  Well, I got a free sewing machine, right?

When I sat down for a real sewing project I started having problems.  The thread was winding and getting jammed around the bobbin every time I back-stitched.  I soon gave up on sewing.  But Garrett decided to take things apart.  And what can I say?  The man is a genius.  My sewing machine is working again.  I pulled it out last night to complete a little project that's been sitting on the table, all cut and ready to be sewn.  The pillow project turned out better than imagined, and my machine is now perfect!

How lucky am I to have my own hunky personal live-in sewing machine mechanic?