Unveiling of the Grasshopper

I know! I am a lucky girl! 🙂 My last secret sewing machine purchase was an Elna Grasshopper! I am sure that many of you have heard lots about it. I myself had been crazy for one ever since I saw Peter’sin his multiple sewing-machine-collection-show-off blog entries (ok, maybe only three, but it felt like ten, I swear!). And! It seems to be rumored to have one of the best straight stitch ever. I snatched one from ebay one day, and it arrived at the house with 5 layers of packaging, and worked perfectly! The only issue was that I smelled a little smoky smell while operating it, but it probably just need some oiling. I love how green and small and cute it is. I had always had trouble sewing sleeve hems on my other sewing machine, so its small narrow arm is a great excuse for me to get my hands on this one! Also, I love that this machine is knee level operated instead of foot petal, which ergonomically makes so much more sense.

If you live in the bay area and are drooling for one as well, I saw one for sale on craigslist for the last few days for a really really reasonable price. I wish I had waited just 3 more days to get this one locally! I had been watching craigslist for monthes for this machine, and the week I gave up and got one on ebay, this machine showed up and were unsold for weeks! daaarn!

After this purchase, I had been pretty good at restraining myself from getting more sewing machines. I didnt guy a single machine when I went to the downtown antique district, where I saw at least 10 old cool sewing machines. One of them was a perfectly operating hand crank singer portable, with perfect paint and all, for 120 something. But I did manage to get a hold of myself. See! I am not obsessed. (OK, its been 3 weeks since I went shopping there with my mom, and I had been trying to justify buying it to myself ever since then!)

On the sewing front, I havent sewed for a whole week. That normally doesnt happen. I had been super busy and stressed out the past 2 weeks:

And it didnt help that my attempt to make coat 116 failed. I decided to use the gray striped material — the black square coating material felt too stiff, while the purple square material felt too soft. This one was a good weight for it. However, I forgot to cut one piece, and there wasnt any materials left by the time I realized that! However, that didnt matter, because after I pinned the pieces together to get a look, it looked like my graduation gown!!

A closer comparison between the two patterns made me realize that this is indeed a copy of a graduation gown, just without the gathering. So I am giving up on this. Luckily, the pieces are pretty big, so I can probably salvage a fitted jacket from this coat later.

Anyway, now that the weather is back to being summery, I am going to make a dress! Actually, two!! stay tuned 😀