You know, I have been wondering for years, why when you buy a nice article of clothing, or a winter jacket the buttons always come off. The Gap hasn't been able to sew a button—or in recently much of anything else—in years. I bought a great wool coat from H&M in 2008, and in New York in 2009 all the buttons came off, and I was left in the snow—ok, fine, rain—freezing my ass off. Well, I think I have figured out the answer to this great riddle. The automatic button-hole feature doesn't work, and then sewing on the actual buttons takes forever! Who wants to do that? Maybe the real quality of a garment can be determined by looking at how many buttons it has on it, and how hard you have to pull to get them off.
When I bought the machine, it seemed so magical that you could just press one button and create a perfect button-hole. Well, like they always say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. My Bernina came with lots of new bells and whistles that I did have on my (previously my mother's) 30 year old Singer. Only problem with the Singer was that it wouldn't actually sew anymore. So, out it went, after a month riding around in my trunk because I felt to guilty about donating my mother's old sewing machine to actually do the deed. My mother of course said, "Why do you still have that old thing? Get rid of it already!"
Well, any new feature takes a while to get used to. The automatic needle threader, well, that took a while. But now, it happens with the greatest of ease. (So many sewing puns I want to make, seams, seems, ease, oh the list goes on). The one-step-button-hole feature has yet to have all of the kinks worked out. I have made over 100 button holes with the thing, almost all in scrap fabric, and tried many different ways of approaching the button-hole feature, like following the instructions for the first 75, and then experimenting for the last 25. Well, I though I had that little sucker all figured out. Three button holes into the second tailored shirt of the week, I ruined it. Ok, Ramon convinced me to keep going, but I will never feel the same about that shirt. And the thing about a button-hole is that you can't just bust out the seam ripper.
So, then comes sewing on the actual buttons. I had a slight slip and watched as my gleaming sharp needle went underneath my thumb nail, and into the flesh. Ew, but more importantly OUCH. I said to Ramon that it would probably be a good idea to squish some hydrogen-peroxide down in there. To which he replied, "It couldn't hurt, I mean ... um .. probably not a bad idea." So after doing the "I pierced the inside of my fingernail with a sharp needle, then put hydrogen-peroxide in it, and now it really fucking stings" dance for a few minutes, I got back to the task at hand.
I think it is time for a thimble.
Pictured: The three tailored shirts I have finished. The purple one is from before Project Hallway, from a pattern I heavily altered. The black and white shirts were both completed this week, from custom patterns that were derived from the purple shirt.
Pictured: Thumbs down for needle injuries.
Pictured: The button-hole that almost made me loose it.
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