McCalls 5612

Here is the current project. It's a top pattern for my 4 year old DD. The finished garment is kind of making me go 'hmmmm'. The top, for the most part looks really cute, except for one major drawback: The gathering in the front makes my kid look like she has boobs. Uh, she's 4. As far as I can tell, I didn't actaully do anyting wrong to cause this. I also don't know how to fix it. The best I could do is perhaps try and take it in a bit at the center front seam, but since the neck opening has been finished with a binding, it's unlikely that will happen anytime soon. I'll probably just have to toss it and start over paying closer attention to the CF seam.

Oh, and I would also like to point out that this pattern uses the wonderful elastic gadge pattern piece. (See bitchy post a few posts down). What a bunch of crap!

Some good news is that I got my embroidery machine back a few days ago! YAY! I did a quick stitchout of a design that I had problems with before I took the machine in. It did stitch out a lot better, but I wouldn't say it was perfect. I have the weekend off, I think I may give it a few good tests, and see how things stich out. What I really want to do is trade it in for a new model. How cool would that be?

Update on my embroidery machine.

In the previous post, I mentioned that I have a Janome MemoryCraft 300. Ever since I bought it (used, about 15 months ago) I have had nothing but problems with it. Designs stitch out ok, but lettering has always been terrible. I even went so far as to have a wonderful PR member (you know who you are!) stitch out something of mine on her machine. The design and lettering stitched out fine on her machine, so I took the machine to the dealer to have it serviced. The dealer said they 'fixed' the tension and it works fine. So at this point, I convinced myself that it was my hooping technique that has prevented me from getting a good stitchout.

On Wednesday, I had a appointment with a lady at the dealer for her to help me learn to hoop. Needless to say, she called in sick, but I was pretty adament with the dealer that I needed help. So, they told me to come in at my scheduled appointment time anyway, and that someone should be able to help me then.

I get to the dealer, and the person who was going to help me is the guy who does the repairs. I explain to him what's been going on and show him a few samples of my crappy lettering. He starts poking around and realizes something might be wrong. In the meantime, I head down the street to take my car in for a fuel filter and tire rotation. Only to get a call from them 30 minutes later telling me I need brakes and rotors and that they can get them on my truck for under $500. I told him he can just put my tires back on the truck -- whole other rant. Sorry to go off on a tanget!

Anyway, I get back to the dealer and I sit around there for about an hour. The dealer decided that he's going to have to keep it and talk to Janome about it. I came home and thought about that for a while. You know, the whole point of this story is that I am so disappointed in this machine that it's not even funny. When I bought it, I was so excited, and I had so many plans, only for them to not work out. A few hours after I got home, I called the dealer back and asked what kind of price I could get for a MC350 with the trade in. He was like "Oh, we'll get this machine working, blah, blah, blah..." He just doesn't want to take this one back, because it's a piece of shit.

Oh well, we'll see how this plays out. Sorry for being such a whineass, but this just bugs me. I'll stop ranting now.

Simplicity 2587

ARGH! So, I have been searching high and low for a simple pattern like this. I have even went so far as to buy a copy of Burda Easy Fashion because they had somehting simular. No sooner than I finally get the BURDA EF traced, Simplicity goes ahead and comes out with this!

Simplicity goes on sale tomorrow at JoAnns, so i'll be buying two. One to slice and dice to fit my preggo body, and the other to wear after baby gets here.

Also, today, after about 15 months of owning a Janome MemoryCraft 300, I am finally going to the dealer to get some help on how to use it! YAY ME! LOL Well, i'm not really haveing a problem using it. I have a problem hooping. I can't figure out for the life of me what i'm doing wrong. But it seems when I try and embroider something, the left half turns out fine, but the right half looks bad. While this could be a machine issue, i'm really hoping that it's me that's making a mistake. So, needless to say, i'll be at the Janome dealer today at 1 pm. :)