Sewing machine blues

My Bernina 1530 sewing machine, the mainstay of my non-writing creativity, died this week. I'd heard the death rattles as early as last year when it stubbornly refused to reverse. This, for the non-sewers among you, is not a good thing. One must lock the stitches and not going in reverse is a major set-back to doing that. (Yes, it can be done. Either turn the entire article around and sew forward, which is now backward, drop the feed-dogs and let the machine make a knot, or pull the sewing thread to the back with the bobbin and hand tie.)

I took my 1530 in to be repaired and $300+ later, I had the bad news: it had refused to uniformly misbehave but they'd worked on it. Next time, it did misbehave though, the trouble would be computer-oriented and fixing it would be as expensive as a new one.

So my old friend and I (bought in 1994) squeaked along this year while I pieced two quilts for the granddaughter. I had fought off the urge to sew for her because she had quite a wardrobe, but when I found a sweet old pillowcase with a wide pink border, I decided to make her a pillowcase dress.

This was complicated because the machine would only go forward, not change stitch length, not reverse, and not zigzag. Yes, it was time to say good-bye to something, and rather than give up sewing, the machine was going to go.

This would be my fourth sewing machine. I don't know what the average is. How many sewing machines does a seamstress have in a lifetime? I got my first one my freshman year in high school. It was a Sears Kenmore, in a cabinet. For stitch changes, it used a drop-in cam system. This machine followed us all over the country and made countless clothes. But 20 years later, it was showing its age and inability to do some of the things I knew other machines could do. I donated it to the high school home ec department and bought my first Bernina. Ten years later, I traded up to the 1530. And now, I have an Activa 240.

I really fought getting a machine that would do many things. One was the money because sewing machines can get expensive in a hurry. I looked at the local big box and tried to convince myself that I'd be happy with the $150 offering. After all, didn't I just want to go forward and back? A little zigzag, a little buttonholing, a little...

I finally decided it was like cruise control. (Stay with me here.) The first car we bought as a couple was a 1976 Chevrolet Nova. It was loaded, had everything but the kitchen sink, including cruise control. My father-in-law commented that now that we had cruise control, we'd never have a car without it. And he was correct.

So, once I had had some niceties in a sewing computer, as it's now called, such as the pressure foot knee-lift, there was no going back. I figure I bought the top end of the middle range, because I could have spent twice as much.

So far, I've only called the dealer with one stupid question. I have 12 hours of classes coming and, although I've sat through them twice before, I've no doubt there are new things to learn and want. Uh, need. I'm sure I'm going to need a lot more accessories because the new machine can't use the old machine's many, many accessories. Fortunately, I have a friend with a Bernina which can. Lucky recipient.

But I'll worry about that later. At the moment I have a dress to make for the granddaughter. I'm in business once again.