My Sewing Saga

My mom and I spent Saturday morning at JoAnn's. They were having a fabulous 50% off sale for the holiday. We got an early start and beat the rush. I learned to shop on a budget. This is one thing I'm honestly not good at. I've never really had to be on a budget and I had $35 cash in my wallet and I wanted to see if I could really get everything I needed just using cash rather than pulling out the debit.

It was hard at first. There is such cute prints out there until you start adding the yardage you need even with the discount and it really starts to add up. But the more I went through the isle I rationized telling myself it was possible to find something cute that was on sale and I really didn't need to pay full price.

I did it. I bought black fabric for my dreamt-up skirt, zipper, black thread, and 6 prints all 1/2 yard, 2 different prints 2 1/3 yard each (fleece) for a rag quilt I want to make at RS enrichment.

I got a sewing machine for Christmas. I've been dying to use it, but I needed my mom to come set it up and show me a few things. She got it going, it was working like a champ. Then as soon as she left - took a nose dive. It broke, mid sew. I could hear the motor turning but the needle was not moving up and down. Auhh. So what did I do? I started taking it apart to figure out what the heck was wrong. Jordan about died, thinking I was crazy. But what's a girl gonna do when she wants to sew and the stupid thing won't work. It's not going to magically be fixed. I tried praying. Next, I googled the proper way to take it apart to replace a motor belt and then started unscrewing. It looks tragic but hopefully I'll remember how to put it back together.

This is an awesome beauty. Every household should have one. A handheld screwdriver. It's so light!

I figured out the belt I needed, started searching online to see where I could buy it and NO ONE HAS IT. I guess a motor belt breaking on your sewing machine isn't a very common thing. I could buy it online but I want it now. Joann's gave me the number to a "Mr. Gonzalez" who sells sewing machines and parts out of his house. I was too chicken to call so I made my mom do it. We got directions to his house off Lake Mead & Rancho, not my idea of a great neighborhood but I was antsy. He had belts, lots of them. But come to find out when we got home to put it on it too 2 hours to establish it really was too small and we weren't crazy. Back to Mr. Gonzalez we go. We get a bigger belt but still it doesn't sound or feel right. Sears doesn't sell parts for their manufactured sewing machines anymore. The Mom is going to try a store off Charleston tomorrow. So until then, my skirt is still only half finished.