product placement

ever so many things are going wrong here.

my machines have been on full tilt revolt in kalkatroona, as you already might know if you follow me on instagram or twitter. it has driven me to throwing fabric at my form in dangerous fashion. it has made sewing very... stressful. and we all know sewing is what we do to get happy.

sewists, as sewists will, as they are the best people on earth, flew to my aid: peter offered me my pick of loaners from his menagerie. carolyn is hell bent on letting me manhandle her high end janome (i am terrified). sonja drove me ALL THE WAY OUT to queens to bring my ailing friends in for diagnosis, and test drive some berninas.

we had an amazing day at sew right, if you're in the market, get thee there. harvey & co were just as delightful as they were on that thread cult podcast of yore-- the one in which harvey basically narrated my life as i tried my best to electrocute myself fixing my ricky. we spent four hours test driving all manner of machine, and yes, i did possess a bernina 1008 for about thirty minutes, but it wasn't love. actually, the further i get from the initial bliss of those test drives, the more i think i might not be a bernina girl after all. no offense, everyone has their favorite brand, right? harvey had a juki straight stitch that was heaven. the babylock jet air sergers were pure magic-- what about the babylock sewing jobs? and i haven't even tried a pfaff, husky or elna yet. um, and have you seen necchi's machines? i do have a soft spot for italians.

my southern man, however, has no love in his heart for this work in progress.
then there's the vintage debate. i've had six machines in seven years, and mostly it's been love: gimbles branded kenmore, singer featherweight, rocketeer, genie, elna lock pro dc 5, and finally my riccar superstretch 2600. combined, a total of $300. the argument of course being, if i had a brand new machine with quadruple the price tag, i might say i've had one machine in seven years that i've totally loved. one that might actually do professional buttonholes and solve tension on its own and such...

to my surprise, my riccar 2600 was pronounced by harvey to be the best model out there. good thriftin eye! yet, when i can buy another metal beast for less than the cost of service...it becomes somehow painful to keep him going. especially when, in the years ahead, parts for my riccar will become obsolete. as harvey said, although i scored the very best, there isn't a demand for vintage riccars. no demand, no supply.

oh ricky. you handled this silk lame with no demands whatsoever.
my dad, also known as big daddy here on the blog, surprised me with a loan of his featherweight (read: jeans hemmer) that i bought him several years ago, so stitching is happening. ploddingly. for those thousands of you experiencing sleepless nights, clenching your teeth, pulling at your hair, wondering WHAT IS OONABALLOONA STITCHING ON GODSAKES I MUST KNOW, you can rest semi-easy. myself, i am dreaming about machines nightly. that's not an exaggeration. i have... not nightmares, no, stressmares, in which i test drive machine after machine but always come out empty handed.
product research stresses me clean out. always has. your advice is welcome, i'm mixing margaritas.

(speaking of stress, it has come to my attention that the oona drunken fat quarter challenge has produced unsafe levels of worry! not on MY watch. like i said, sewing is for happy times. the deadline is hereby extended to may 20, aaaaaaaaaand the contestants are hereby allowed to stitch whatever their hearts' desire. accessories! bikinis! placemats! TODDLERWEAR! and what man doesn't want a unicorn pocket square! have at, ladies!)