Thursday, March 6, 2008

Frustration and PlayDoh

My nemesis: The buttonhole maker!

Harrumph! I'm *nearly* done with the matchy-matchy shirt for Anderson, and I'm having a heck of a time with the buttonhole attachment on my sewing machine! I followed the directions... it's just not working! I luckily thought to use scrap fabrics, and it's a good thing - I've gone through several pieces already! Like 5! What happens is the thread is getting all bunched up under the fabric... and the top thread keeps breaking... is it the tension??? I have a Brother XL-5340 and so far it's been working fine for me... I just don't understand... why me?


I had to take a playdoh break - it's fun to make shapes and smush the bright colors with the colored cups... did you know they have little stamps on the back of them? Anderson likes the mouse on the tiny blue cup. He also likes to 'cut' the little rolls I make for him. Those are some of his words "roll" and "cut", and he somehow makes the word "playdoh", although I haven't seen it come out of his mouth, just heard him.


3 comments:

wayfarer said...

Love your blog! You're braver than me. I am such an impatient person...combine that with a shortage of time and that equals= being unable to try new things with the machine. I desperately want to try buttonholes, zippers etc but refuse to try the attachments. Sigh. Need to.

Julie said...

Does your instructions tell you anything about threading the bobbin thread thru the hole on the the little arm that sticks up from the bobbin case?
I think that's what my sewing machine says to do. It helps with the tention.
Also you might check the regular tention on your machine and make sure it hasn't got moved by little "fairies" LOL I have 2 that tend to like to get nosey and touch things so I check it often.
I hope these tips help!
(thanks for the nice complement on my valentine monsters ;o)

atet said...

You also might want to check the arm that comes down for that foot -- if it isn't placed right it can be a problem (ask me how I know this -- I also have a Brother machine, but not the same model). It might also be the needle -- try a new one (sounds weird, but a dull needle can cause stitches to skip and that leads to other problems).