New Sewing Machine

It seems like whenever I sew something it's always something really thick and heavy duty, like fur, suits, bags, belts, hats, etc.  I was constantly breaking needles and just wrestling with the machine to get it to go.

So, I google around to find out what kind of machine would go through heavy fabric, and I kept reading about the Pfaff 130, which is a 50+ year old machine.  Perfect!  I don't care about fancy stitches or anything. I just want to go straight, zig-zag, but most importantly go through THICK fabric.  The Pfaff 130 uses a large needle and has a 1.3 amp motor.

I got this one off of Ebay, and had it cleaned at AAA Sewing and Vacuum.  After a few glitches, like trying to figure out how to thread it, and adjust the tension it took off like a champ.  Almost too fast.  This machine flies.  And it purrs like a kitten at the same time.  Then it stopped!  It just stopped in the middle of a jacket I was sewing.  (I'm making a double breasted jacket look like an Austrian jacket for Sound of Music.)  I took the machine back to AAA, and apparently the way to fix a machine like this is you put it in the car, drive 10-15 miles, take it out of the car to show the sewing machine guy--and then it magically works again.)

Here's the machine

And the jacket

Also, David and I fixed up these two chairs for the store.  They both are covered with mid-century fabric that I happened to have, and I think they look great.

Finally, here is Barbara and Russell's golf cart that we borrowed and decorated for the Patriot's Day parade.  Kinda cute.

Here's the machine:

February is for building and reflecting

This month we have made some big progress and lots of changes at the store.  It's taken this long (2 months) to build inventory and rearrange the store to the point where it feels like a real store.  We have had a lot of people comment that they really like the feel of it.  We're adding new things every day: vintage belts and buckles, beautiful hand blown glass, hand woven tablecloths and napkins, screen printed cards, fun t-shirts, vintage items such as pictures, dishes, and...coming soon...some mid century chairs that David and I have restored to their former glory.

Here's the front of the store right now.  It changes constantly, thanks to Barbara Pierce, who is amazing at merchandising and arranging.

Here are some of our new things...

We're shooting for Thursday

It looks like Thursday is a realistic day to open.  Johanna and Martha bossed me around all day to get the place organized and ready.  It's looking pretty good.

We also had tons of help from Mike, David, Kathy, Irene (Nicola's mom), Laurie, Tiana and Torii.  Thanks to all for folding t-shirts, tagging things, painting, nailing, moving, assembling, dis-assembling, photoshopping, etc etc.

Also, thanks to Genny and Mandy and Johanna for this awesome ad:

Almost there.

We're getting really close to having the construction done, and I am getting a little nervous.

What was I thinking?

The house is over-flowing with merchandise.  I sure hope people still have a lot more Christmas shopping to do, because we have gifts.  And cards. And Christmas ornaments. And fun books. And jewelry. And a boatload of very cool t-shirts.  All we have to do is tag 'em, carry everything over, set it all up, open the doors, and see who walks in.

What could possibly go wrong.

I just started a Facebook page, and I am working on the website.

Here's what it looks like inside:

And here are some earlier stages of constuction:



Costumes

I have been sewing costumes for the high school plays since my daughter was a freshman 8 years ago.  It's so much fun.  I get to make really big sparkly over-the-top things and people want them and go ooh aah and I get to see them on stage.  That's the good part.  The bad part is looking for the right pair of shoes at the Goodwill for someone, or making ten indentical tunics, and even that's not so bad.

I also got hooked up with No Square Theater - Lagunatics, which is a local theater group that does a summer show and a spoof about Laguna Beach in the fall.  I did Rocky Horror Picture Show for them, and a bunch of other things that involved goat costumes, aliens, nude statues, elephants, a rhinocerous, etc.

Turns out my husband David is REALLY GOOD at making props, too.  He made a magic mirror for Beauty and the Beast, a dead deer for A Lie of the Mind, and now he is working on a magic cane.

Here's a club he made out of a stick and foam. It's going to be used by Jack in the Beanstock to kill the giant.

And here's a dress that Cinderella will wear to the ball.  I added the sleeves and blinged it up.  This dress started out being a quincanera dress that someone donated to the high school, and when our daughter's friend Genny saw it on the floor she said, "Hey, that's my old dress!  I sold it to someone at a garage sale."  I guess this is a really small town.

Also, the witch's dress.  It started out white, I dyed it blue and added a bunch of bling.

Last but not least, I made this "Beatrice hat" (from the royal wedding) for a guy to wear in the drag number in Lagunatics.  When he came out on stage the first time wearing it, I heard someone in the audience whisper, "Beatrice" so at least someone got it.

I love these bags

So, I quit my job as a programmer on Friday in anticipation of becoming a retailer.  As I was cleaning out my desk I came across a post-it with two adages that I had written down for some reason, which I will share.

One is Muphry's law, that says "if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written".   This is a play on Murphy's law, of course.

The other one was Sturgeon's law, that reads "ninety percent of everything is crap". 

So, I was thinking about this ninety percent rule, and I'm not sure about the exact ratio, but there certainly is a lot of crap out there, something I am really going to try to avoid having in our store.  We'll see how that works out, but that's the plan. 

In that light, I want to sing the praises of these bags we are going to carry.  Each is hand made, has incredible detail, and is definitely the opposite of crap.  I love just looking at the amazing work by this woman who makes them.  They come from company called Totem, and it's basically this one woman making these bags.  I keep trying to buy more from her, but you can only get a couple at a time.

Here they are against the cinderblock wall in the store, which has since been sandblasted.

More fabric!

This was such a great find at the Santa Monica flea market.  I came across a booth where a woman was selling bags of rayon from the 40's and they were just beautiful.  Then, as I was pawing through the fabric, I realized that I recognized the fabric, because I owned a dress made from one piece.  It turns out this woman had a shop on Melrose in LA, where she sold these beautiful, handmade dresses.  They were REALLY pricey--even the one that I bought which was on sale.  Well, she closed her shop, and here was all the fabric!  Score!

I have a lot of ideas but right now I am in the process of making some things for a local play called Lagunatics.  I'm making a hat like the one Beatrice wore to the royal wedding for a drag queen number.  Photos coming when I finish.