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Bernina Aurora 440 QE: Walking Foot
OK, so for you non-sewers out there reading this blog, it may sound absolutely insane that I wanted to initially start out this post with: “Dear walking foot, where have you been all my life?” Yes, probably for those who don’t think sewing is cool (which, really, you should reconsider), this sounds pretty lame. But seriously? Walking foot? I think you’re my new BFF. It’s TLA & TLF over here between me and you. You have a bad reputation, but I want everyone to know the real you. Let’s explore your beauty, shall we? I offer you this love letter of our history together:
You were born in this quaint little box by the river:
You, in the box.
This is what I was greeted with when I first laid eyes on you. So cute snuggled in your Styrofoam home! How could a girl not fall for you?
You, all warmly cozy.
You came with two attachment feet, a screwdriver, two seam guides (left and right) and another u-shaped piece with a screw that I’m not sure what to do with. Gee. I wish you came with a user manual. Oh wait! You do! But it doesn’t tell me what to do with that little piece. You are such a complex person ummm… foot.
Here are your two soles. They are so similar - it’s like we’re playing “one of these things is not like the other.” But the subtle but useful differences in your clever toes are just another facet of your pragmatic personality.
Every girl needs a few pairs of shoes...
And the feet… Those cute little black feet that are responsible for all of the walking that you do.
Remember when we first shook hands? Was it as thrilling for you as it was for me? This little arm of yours is where all the magic comes from.
Nice to meet you!
And how you let me change out your soles…
This won't hurt a bit...
OK, so Igot a little too close for comfort and you put up your defenses. We all need personal space and I respect that.
You, getting a little prickly with your seam guides.
At first, I had no idea how to best make use of your many talents. I was going about it all wrong, not putting your magical arm to good use:
Walking Foot: The wrong way. Booo! Hissss!
But then, little walking foot, you showed me what you’re truly made of:
Walking Foot: The right way!
The arm hangs on to the needle housing so that the feet move up and down with the needle to hold the fabric down and move it along at a steady pace.
Close-up
Those little black feet of yours walk between the openings in the soles, bringing the fabric along with the rest of the batch. I swear, that walk might even be runway ready!
Walking foot, you have changed my life. You are quiet, graceful, and delightful to have. Fabrics don’t slide, long strips of cotton with interfacing in between stay straight and fabric doesn’t stretch out leaving all that extra fabric at the end of long seams. I know… I’m late to the lovefest. But will you still have me?
Posted by robyn on July 23rd, 2008 under bernina 440 qe, crafts, sewing, sewing machines | 1 Comment »Buttons!
Here are the buttons I bought yesterday at Windsor Button for my bag that’s almost finished. They are not the wooden buttons of my dreams, but they are a reasonable substitute, I hope!
I like that they are different on either side. One side is lighter, one side a little darker with different grain lines:
Now to see if these guys look any good on the bag. Cross your fingers!!
Posted by robyn on July 19th, 2008 under crafts | Comment now »
Sneak Peek & Twitter
Here’s a small sneak peek of what I’m making these days with my new Amy Butler fabric. Can’t wait until it’s done. It almost is, but I’m on the lookout for 4 perfect buttons to finish it off. One search tonight yielded nothing; the store I visited had several buttons of the perfect variety, but I need 4 and they would only have 3 or 2 of them in stock. Frustrating! Just to pique your interest even more, Ryan says “I just don’t *get* this bag.” Hmm. Hopefully you will!
Anyone use Twitter? I just started. My username is dognamedbanjo. I’ve had a username for ages, but never actually tweeted until yesterday, thanks to Matt (Hi Matt!). If you feel like following my every move (because what could be more exciting?) feel free to follow me. It’ll be fun! And I’ll follow you! And then we’ll be Twitter pals in a way that people on the Internet can be!
Posted by robyn on July 16th, 2008 under crafts, sewing | 6 Comments »New Frenchy Handbag
Last week I made the first real item made on my new Bernina machine. It’s a Frenchy handbag, the smaller version of the other one I made not long ago. I was skeptical, but I think this turned out pretty cute, even though it’s waaay preppy for my taste. I used Amy Butler Belle fabric on the bottom and Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy on the top. The body’s a great size - just right to fit the essentials - but I wish I had made the handles longer. This bag lives somewhere in between handbag and shoulder bag. (I prefer the shoulder variety, if you hadn’t noticed.)
I had fun experimenting with some thread made for topstitching (I think…) Mettler’s polyester Cordonnet, which is really heavy thick thread. It it tough to get the tension right, but once you do, the outcome is really nice, and I think it makes the handles look adorable from far away, though it’s hard to see by way of photos. Here’s a close-up.
I think in order to actually get use out of this, I may have to buy a new wardrobe at J. Crew, or convince a yacht owner to take me out to the seas for a weekend. Any takers?
Posted by robyn on July 8th, 2008 under crafts, sewing | 7 Comments »Bernina Aurora 440 QE: Playing with stitches
So I’ve been playing around with the different stitches on the machine. Can you tell?
One of the very first things I decided to do was sew a sample of each of the 180 stitches it is capable of. Boy, that got old fast. But I got most of the way through until I ran out of room on my sample fabric and decided to give up. They’re all done using Mettler silk finish 100% cotton thread. Rumor has it polyester thread might make these things look prettier, but I’ll tell you now that this sampler won’t be getting done all over again!
A closeup of the button holes. One of them got quite wonky (the plain rectangular one, if that’s even a button hole…). Oops! I especially like the one that looks like a caterpillar on the right. Turns out buttonholes are quite easy to make on this machine, and you can program it to make them all uniform. Very slick.
Here’s a closeup of some of the decorative stitches. The honeycomb in the top left, and some of the flower ones are my faves, though.
Not sure when and where I’ll be using all of these decorative stitches, but I’m sure you’ll see them pop up in future projects. (Hmm… how to incorporate these into my latest work-in-progress Frenchy handbag?)
I’m glad now to at least have a reference that shows me what the actual stitches look like, besides what’s on the little card that came with the machine.
Posted by robyn on July 4th, 2008 under bernina 440 qe, crafts, sewing, sewing machines | 8 Comments »On their way…
Thank you all for your helpful rationalizations! They worked. I am now excitedly awaiting my new purchases!
Is $70.04 OK?
This is the question the little credit card slider box in front of the glossy LCD screen at the somewhat posh, but nearest grocery store asked me tonight. You’d think that for $70.04 (and if I could capitalize numbers in rage, I would), you’d get more than 3 medium-sized eco-friendly reusable grocery bags full of food. Now mind you, I made two mistakes: I bought toothpaste, which is known to have, oh, 500% markup everywhere and about 800% markup at grocery stores rather than the drugstore or Target. And I bought two tubes (but still, they were on sale, 2/$5). The second mistake was probably going to the somewhat posh store to begin with, where most things are pricier. Oh wait! Three mistakes: I choose the posh store because they have my favorite brand of German pickles ($6 for a small “barrel”), which I bought, knowing that right now I am in a pickle phase. (And no, not pregnant. If you knew these pickles, you’d be in a pickle phase, too!)
(I. Love. These. Pickles. They are worth every of the 600 pennies.)
But seriously. My purchases were only one or two nights’ and one or two lunch’s worth of food, and it’s a little absurd how expensive food is these days (even without the pickles and Crest) . Most trips to this particular store end with me in some sort of grocery-induced rage. I should know better.
On the bright side, one of the grocery bags I mistakenly brought with me is a adorable pint-sized wine bag, complete with 6 petite compartments for wine bottles, into which the bagger decided to put the two tubes of aforementioned overpriced toothpaste (each in a separate compartment, of course), the black olives, the can of corn, the salsa, and a block of cheese. Can you almost taste a dinner of burritos in my future? Yum. It was priceless. See?
So cute! But not worth $70.04.
Anyway, the real reason this annoys me so much? Because I came home, unpacked my groceries and proceeded to putz around on the computer, where upon I found a blog post on True Up about an Amy Butler sale ($7/yard! Wow!) at a store called the Virginia Quilter. I then, without much thinking, budgeting, or rationalizing proceeded to drop an amount all-too-similar to $70.04 on some lovely Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric that I’ve been covetting. I feel simultaneously guilty and thrilled. Mostly guilty. (I’m pretty sure I don’t get to be filled with rage about the price of food when I do stuff like this, yet, it persists.) On the other hand (begin rationalization phase), I know this fabric will fill me with more hours of joy than the food, and that the things I make will be lasting and useful. Right?
Still, I’m having a case of buyer’s remorse. I know there are other Amy addicts out there. Anyone want to help me rationalize away my fabric-buying guilt?
Posted by robyn on July 1st, 2008 under crafts | 11 Comments »Bernina Aurora 440 QE: What’s in the box?
The box. Brown, cardboard, heavy.
The first thing you see when you pop it open: Instruction manuals, brochures, the knee lifter, a DVD (that I still haven’t watched) and various other warranty info and such.
Oh-so-cute little Bernina all tucked away in there! On all sides are various accessories: at the top of the pic is the dark blue carrying bag; just in front of the carrying bag is the accessory cabinet attached to the machine; to the right is the walking foot in its box, plus the foot pedal. In front (bottom) is the clear plastic extension table and a baggie of feet and various other stuff.
Here’s everything unpacked onto my kitchen table. Anyone know what that random plastic thing in the middle is (above the extension tray)? I haven’t bothered to look that up yet. But, roughly clockwise from the top left: Accessory cabinet; knee lifter; Bernina Stitch Regulator (BSR)box; walking foot box; oil; foot pedal; extension table; power cord; screwdriver, cleaning brush, seam ripper; “hump jumper” plastic thingy; four metal bobbins, allen wrench; thread spool caps; other included presser feet.
I love stuff like this - a handy cord wrapper on the bottom of the foot pedal. Down with messy wires!
A closeup of the presser feet. From left to right: #1 -reverse pattern foot (a.k.a. the normal, regular ol’ foot), #3a - buttonhole foot with slide, #4 - zipper foot, #5 - blindstitch foot, #20 - open embroidery foot, #37 - patchwork foot, #9 - darning foot. Next to the darning foot is some metal thing that I don’t know what to do with yet (thoughts, anyone?). I have a class the week after this one with the salesperson at the store I bought it from that will hopefully enlighten me a bit!
A very pretty box, which contains the BSR attachment.
The inside of said box. Very cute! The BSR has three feet. One is already attached to the BSR - the closed toe freemotion foot. The one on the left is the open-toe freemotion foot, and the one on the left is the transparent foot with crosshairs.
The box for the walking foot included with the machine. My first walking foot ever! I just read that this baby goes for $125. I had no idea they were so expensive!
The walking foot plus additional things that I will learn about at some point. More of those mysterious curvy metal things enclosed here, which is a clue!
The blue canvas bag that will eventually store the machine, accessory cabinet, pedal, and extension table.
The machine! In all its glory! This puppy is heavy and sturdy…
Finally, stuff I got the dealer to give me for free during my price negotiation. The plastic things are shelves for the accessory cabinet. The bobbins are insanely expensive - 12 for 20 bucks, so I had them throw in two packs of them for me. I have another presser foot on the way, too - the teflon foot, so I can go sewing some oilcloth. I also asked the dealer for some nicer thread, too. I think most of that is Mettler and the purple one is Isocord.
Now that I have a machine capable of embroidery stitches, I’ll have to go learning about thread. Anyone know any good primers or articles on what kinds of thread are good? What do you use?
And there you have it, folks. The contents of the Bernina box! I’ve been experimenting on the machine slowly but surely, getting to know the awesomeness of this machine, and I will have more to report soon!
Posted by robyn on June 22nd, 2008 under bernina 440 qe, crafts, sewing, sewing machines | 14 Comments »Free Spirit Fabric
Have you all seen this fabric yet? I saw it on True Up. It’s new, by Erin McMorris by Free Spirit. Yum!
Lookit What I Got!!!
After much searching over a series of months, models, and dealers, I have finally made a sewing machine decision. And after a love-at-first-use test drive, I brought it home today:
When unpacked, this glorious box looks even more glorious:
I never thought it would happen. I have a new sewing machine! It’s a Bernina 440QE! It is lovely and beautiful and sturdy and smooth. I am officially in love.
Stay tuned for a few posts on my search experience, as well as more info on the machine itself. I hope to do a lot of mini feature reviews so that others can benefit from some info out on the Interwebs that I was unable to find throughout my search. Yippee!
Posted by robyn on June 20th, 2008 under banjo, bernina 440 qe, crafts, daisy, knitting, sewing, sewing machines | 5 Comments »This is Banjo & I:
I'm Robyn. Thanks for stopping by! This is my craft blog.
Contact me at robyn [at] dognamedbanjo [dot] com.
