A certain night-attire ‘party’ sewalong!

I’m sure most of you will know what I’m talking about but I’m having to be slightly cryptic as my ‘thingies’ are a surprise gift… and I won’t be able to reveal them in all their glory until the end of May.

I wasn’t going to post any progress reports, mainly because I didn’t know how, without giving the game away, but to be honest, if a certain person endeavours to follow these clues I should be impressed that he shares an incredible interest in what I love to do! Either that or he is bloomin’ nosey!

But the main reason for this post, not only to let the lovely Karen know that I found a window to jump on board, but I made another amazing discovery about my sewing machine. It serges! Well, of a fashion, I’m sure! There I was, head cupped in hands, eyebrows raised in awe and jealousness at Karen’s beautiful serged seams when… ping! I remembered a strange mechanical foot among my machines accessories and reference in the manual to a ‘side-cutter’! Oh the joy, the joy!! I WILL have beautiful 5mm seams too!

side cutter foot

Took a bit of getting used to though, as you can imagine! And I’m sure I can get a better-looking, tighter stitch with a bit more fiddling. But the needle kept falling out! I checked and double checked that I had attached the foot properly, mainly because it does’t sit firmly in position. It is such a clumsy attachment and it kind of wobbles around.

needle falling out

But according to the manual, I had, and there was no reference to this problem in the troubleshooting section either. So I just used the little screwdriver to really tighten the needle clamp screw. Perhaps I ought to be doing this anyway, whenever I replace a needle. I just usually tighten it with my fingers but clearly it needs to be tighter when the fork attachment of the side-cutter is hooked over it.

tightening needle clamp

Anyhows… I am as happy as some Larry’s and quietly confident I will make the party on the 28th once I figure out my disguise!