I wasn’t exactly frothing at the mouth but I did have temper tantrum, yelling and swearing at Marian yesterday.
Marian is my sewing machine given to me by my mother-in-law, Marian. I often wonder when she’s giving me a hard time if it’s Marian’ spirit fucking with me. Sorry to use that word but I can’t think of a better one.
As all sewers know, the bobbin tension is crucial. I can look perfect on top as you sew merrily along not knowing it’s making big loops on the underside. It will do this for no apparent reason.
Because it happens a lot, I have a piece of test fabric so I can check the tension. I do this when I change the bobbin or when more folds or adding ties make the fabric thicker. Since I was using thread from another project, I’ve been loading the bobbin only so much at a time, worried I might run out of thread and have to use another colour.
This apron order has been going well until yesterday. Marian was in a bad mood. Maybe she feels me thinking about her son which I still do a lot. Sewing the hem of the apron the tension went wonky. When this happens the thread pulls out easily; long strands of thread wasted and thrown away. I can see the end of the spool is nigh.
I adjusted the tension (fiddled is more like it) tested it on the scrap, same number of folds, and it was fine. Went to sew…… big loops underneath. I did this three times! Three times it was good on the scrap then big loops when I sewed the apron. Same fabric, same number of folds.
That’s when I screamed and swore at Marian (the machine) but rather than froth at the mouth I went for a walk in the woods.
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