Getting to Grips with my New Machine

I got seriously spoiled for Christmas this year. My lovely partner Andrew bought me an overlocker!! Crikey! It was completely unexpected, and way too generous of him, but OH WOW how I love it.

He wanted me to help choose the actual model so we trotted off to our lovely local sewing machine shop (Sew Northampton - they are so lovely in there. They take such time with customers - letting you try out a bunch of machines and giving you as much info as possible. No hard sell or pushing, just lovely helpful people) as soon as they reopened after Christmas and spent aaaages trying to decide which one to buy. In the end, we went with the Elna 664 Pro. It had a lovely sound when using it, and it's got this super handy wee stitch display dial thingy.

Look how lovely it is! Since we brought it back from the shop, I've basically done nothing but play with it. I will admit that I haven't yet needed to rethread it, so I should probably do that soon (SCARY) but otherwise, I've been zooming through seams and allowances like nobody's business! Why was I so afraid of these? I used to be filled with fear even thinking about overlockers (I actually prefer the word serger. I know I'm a Kiwi who lives in the UK, so I should only use 'overlocker', but serger sounds onomatopoeic somehow...) and I think it was all the threads and dials - they just seemed intimidating. Plus knowing that you're cutting as you sew made it seem like there was no going back if mistakes were made (and let's face it, mistakes are always made). But it's been totally fine so far! *touches wood*

I've used this as an opportunity to work through a bunch of ugly fabrics that have been lurking in my stash, so the things I've made have not been wildly pretty (or wearable outside the house!!) but they're great practice. I've made 4 (!!!) sweatshirts - 1 Astoria and 3 of the Grainline Linden. I have been humming and haaing about buying Linden for MONTHS but finally just sucked it up and did it. So glad I did. It's lovely - super quick to make, great fit, great instructions, and the perfect getting-to-know-your-overlocker projects! I've also made 2 pairs of Seamwork Moji pants which I made on my normal machine and finished on the overlocker. One of those pairs has been a sort-of success, the other...not so much. I might blog about those another time - I've been trying to create the perfect 'lounge pants', and had hoped Moji would be the winner. Not sure it is.... 

Anyway. To the sweatshirt projects! 

First up is the Astoria, in the most obnoxious fabric the world has ever ever seen (trimmed in the last shreds of my blue merino wool sweatshirt from the earlier Astoria). Truly, the photo does not do justice to the insanity of this fabric. I bought it after having seen it draped in a shop and I could only really see the flowery panels. So I knew it was bright and a bit crazy, but I did not know it had asymmetric stripes and random shapes as well. I realised as soon as I got it home that it was probably too garish to do much with. But it kind of works here. Kind of. Sorry if it hurts your eyes. 

The first Linden was also made using shitty shitty fabric. Fabric that prompted Andrew to suggest that when wearing it, I'd have no trouble attending a high school in our old home town. Mean. Totally right, but still....mean. I thought that by trimming it with some other contrast fabric, it might make it less 'school jumpery'. And then I sewed the neck binding on back to front so it all went a bit pear-shaped. And the jumper is miles too big. But good practice, good to make mistakes with shitty fabric, and it's fine for wearing at home when I'm doing DIY or something. It's warm if nothing else (you can see I've already worn it around home - it has a freaking grease spot on it, hello Friday burgers. I'm so classy). 

But once I realised that I could use the overlocker without destroying things, I set about buying ALL THE FABRIC from the internets. I'm not even joking. My bank account looks sad. The first lot to arrive was some lovely sweatshirting from Guthrie and Ghani - in navy blue and bright fuschia. I had in mind that I could mix and match, and that's what I've done! 

The first pink/blue one is ok. I went down a size from the original green monster, which has helped, but I still need to lose some length in the sleeves and possibly go down just one more size to get the fit I was hoping for. Again, it's fine for 'round home (which, given I'm about to start my sabbatical, is pretty much all the time), and it was a lovely thing to wear to hand-made clothes to yoga yesterday. 

My final Linden is the best so far (I have at least 2 more planned). I used a slightly bigger seam allowance, shortened the length and sleeve-length, and I'm much happier with the colour blocking. And no mistakes! Hurrah! 

Victory leap. Nailed the focus *sighs*

And one where you can actually see the jumper. And less of the messy house.

It's starting to look like I have a terrifying number of sweatshirts, but the green one will not last long before it gets covered in paint splatters, and the scarily bright Astoria is really not wearable except as high viz running kit. These are great garments to practice overlocking with, and frankly, when you work from home a lot, what's wrong with having lots of jumpers?! My next two planned involve some amazing Liberty sweatshirting I got in Glasgow (squeeeee!!) and some lovely ponte roma from Girl Charlee.