SEWING SET ASIDE

It's been a little while since I have shown any of my sewing projects. There is a reason.

We have a little friend of the family, Grace. For her birthday last April, her family went together and bought her the Kit doll from AG. I had made Grace a dress for her birthday which you can see here. When I discovered that she had gotten the doll, I designed a matching dress for Kit. (Which I sent to her SEVERAL weeks after her birthday.)

So when Christmas came around this year, I decided to make her another GIRl/DOLL matching outfit. I finished Grace's dress in time to be given for Christmas. True to form -- Kit's dress was designed and partially sewn (but not completed in time for gift giving.) Again, my plan was to complete it in the next couple of weeks and mail it to her. She lives out of state.

Here's the pic of Grace's dress. . .

Here are a few more pics of the detail work. I had made a few design changes to the pattern to make it a "little more special", and I was so pleased with how it had turned out and was anxious to finish the doll's dress to match.


I had completed this much of the doll dress bodice, and had the sleeves ready to set in, and the skirt portion ready to sew on.

It was then that I decided to pause from the doll dress project to participate in a "show and tell" at another blog I enjoy. It would be featuring home-made ribbon socks. After all, I was almost finished with the dress, and it would only take a evening to make the socks. I wanted to do something a little different, so I thought I would serge a strip of fabric and use it in place of the ribbon.

As I was serging the fabric, I heard a "kinda SNAP" that sounded like the needle had broken. However, when I checked, there was NO broken needle. "Oh, good," I thought and proceeded to finish serging the fabric. However, although the machine was going through all the motions, it wasn't finishing the edge of the material. "Hmm... must have broken a thread," I mused and began the task of re-threading the loopers and needles. (A task that I do not enjoy, by-the-way). Serge again - STILL NOTHING! 3 more times I went through these steps with NO positive results. Then it dawned on me (I'm a little slow on the up-take) that the SNAP I had heard must have come from the internal mechanism of my serger. Heart sinks. Not MY SERGER*.

I have had the use of my serger for the last 17 years; I love how it make such a nice finish of the seams - no more raveling in the wash. Right now my serger sits unused awaiting the funds to see if it can be repaired. And so, I have not been sewing much of anything important lately. Instead, I've been finishing some WIP cross-stitch.

It's a good thing doll's don't grow, because it may be a while until I can finish Kit's dress!

* In a post in the not too distant future, I'll explain why losing my serger is a double-blow due to sentimental reasons.