Last weekend I finally pulled the sewing machine out of the box for the first time. It is a "Brother XR9500PRW Limited Edition Project Runway Sewing Machine with 100 Built-in Stitches and Quilting Table". Wow. I have never seen the show Project Runway. I did not buy this sewing machine for its very long name. I purchased it because A) it had a lot of positive reviews online and B) it was inexpensive.
I had perused the owner's manual, and I popped in the instructional DVD for initial setup. I am not usually a fan of instructional videos, but in this case I found it very helpful. There were a couple of points during the threading process when I had to refer to the instruction book and view the section of the DVD multiple times before I managed to figure out exactly where to put the thread. That being said, once I managed to understand, things did make sense, and I gather that this machine has some non-standard features for ease of use (rapid winding and loading of the bobbin, needle threader, etc.). I have never used any other sewing machine, so I cannot compare, but I suspect that this one, despite my initial struggles, probably is relatively easy to use.
So, once I had the thing threaded I did a little test sewing on an old shirt/rag with fabric similar to one of the shirts that I needed to mend. Aside from just getting a feel for how the thing worked, I experimented with different settings for the stitch length to match the existing stitching on the shirt. I thought that I needed a pretty low setting, as the stitches looked very close to me, but I was amazed by how close the stitches were when I set the machine on 1. There was virtually no space between stitches! I ended up at 2.5 (which was, perhaps not coincidentally, the default setting).
Once I felt that I had a feel for the process, I picked up the first shirt I intended to mend. Right, I needed to pin it first. Okay, fine. I laid the shirt out, grabbed some pins, did my best to align the yoke and the main part of the shirt, and stuck some pins in it. Next I needed to decide the best way to get the part that I needed to sew into the machine. I did not have too much trouble with that. Then it was time to sew. I lowered the presser foot, then the needle. Perfect! Exactly where I wanted it. I slowly depressed the foot pedal and fed the shirt through, gradually increasing the speed (though never getting up to top speed) until I got to the end of the part I needed to mend. Finally, I raised the needle and the presser foot, drew the shirt out of the machine, cut the threads, and turned the shirt over to draw the top thread ends through and tie off.
It was at this point that I realized two things:
First, I had done a poor job of pinning. The two pieces that I had been trying to align were not quite properly aligned at one point (though close enough that I was not bothered much). Worse, though, was the fact that there was a third piece of fabric on the inside of the shirt which I should have been lining up during the pinning process, as well, which I had not even noticed! By sheer luck, I had caught enough of it for it to be secure. Unlike the slight misalignment on the outside, this would have been clearly visible, but since it is on the inside I decided that it was good enough.
The second thing that I realized was that I had not done a great job of guiding the shirt through the machine in a straight line. Or, rather, I had guided it in a straight line, just not one which matched the original seam. The starting point was correct, but the end point was about a millimeter or a millimeter and a half off. Again, not obvious on casual inspection, so I let it go on this one.
All in all, I was not too impressed with my sewing ability, but was also not too dissatisfied with the results of my first attempt. Still, I had other things to do, and really didn't fancy re-threading the machine immediately (the second shirt in need of mending needed different colored thread), so I put the machine away at that point.
Yesterday I pulled it out again. Skipped the DVD this time, but did have to refer to the instruction manual twice to remind myself of one aspect of winding the bobbin, and of how to use the needle threader. Not bad, next time I will probably remember.
The actual mending job initially looked easier. This time it was a seam in the right sleeve. It was actually a double seam, and both had come out for about a three to four inch length, but there was...looking up term...hmm...only finding brand names...an adhesive fabric ironed into the seam that was mostly holding it together still, so no need for pins.
However, I discovered this was not going to be as easy as I thought when I tried to get what I needed to sew into the machine. That was quite a challenge, but I finally got it (I thought). I sewed the first seam and removed it from the machine to see how I had done and to tie it off. The good news was that I had done a much better job than last week of sewing along the line I was aiming for. The bad news was that I had sewed the opposite side of the sleeve to this seam (closing the sleeve, basically). I had to pull out four or five stitches from where I had started to free it up, but luckily I had started below where I needed to, so I was still okay. I took even more care getting the sleeve into the machine for the second seam, and this time it went pretty close to perfectly.
So, not too bad. I have rescued two fairly new shirts. I am learning a new skill, and know that I will be able to mend my clothes going forward without too much difficulty. I still think that it will be a long time before I am ready to try sewing a garment from scratch, but someday....
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