In case you are not the paragon of trivia that I am, you might not know that the sewing machine was first patented by Elias Howe. Well, there is some controversy over it but he was the first to patent the mechanism to perform a lockstitch- Isaac Singer (recognize *that* name?) invented the foot treadle machine but since it used the lockstitch mechanism like Howe's, he had to pay patent royalties to Howe after it was challenged in court. Why am I talking about all this broohaha? Because I like to sew and I just spent 3 days and took 5 years off my life trying to figure out why my blasted, not that old sewing machine couldn't get its act together long enough to stitch through freakin' 4 layers of canvas. I mean,seriously- it was working this past weekend, then nothing. I couldn't sew a straight line of stitches if my life depended on it. I cursed and cleaned the machine. I thread, rethreaded, threaded a new bobbin, and changed needles. I adjusted enough tension that the UN should send me to the Middle East to solve that crisis. Nothing worked, nothing. All that I wanted (needed) to do was finished the 2 blasted bags that I had started. I'm not sure why it was so important but seeing as how I am due to have a baby in 4 weeks, I am pretty sure that hormones had something to do with it. I started to doubt my ability to sew. I mean, in Home Ec in 7th grade, my hot air balloon pillow *did* come out looking more pumpkin shaped, maybe I was just not a good seamstress. How does this simple machine first patented in the 1800s manage to make me question my very intelligence? So I packed it up- last night, I said screw it (well, my actual language was much more colorful). My hips hurt, my back hurt, and I was pretty sure if I didn't stop that I was going to have a baby sitting in my kitchen. So, this morning, I decided to start fresh with my nemesis. I rethreaded the machine and took a deep breath.....and it worked. Perfectly. I pinned and stitched, pressed and topstitched. And one of the bags turned out pretty darn cute- the other one is forever ruined by the struggle I had to make it so it will be going to a new home. So now it is time to retire the machine for a few weeks, time to focus on anew adventure about the start, but in a few months, it'll be back out from storage- back to taunt me with it's promise of ease of use and creativity.
