Friday 10 April 2015

drawers from a duvet - Singer 328

I bought this book - secrets of sewing lingerie -  some time ago after seeing some online reviews, all were especially glowing about the illustrated sewing techniques, and I also thought as it was only a matter of time before I got around to making underwear, I had better buy it! 

 When I first started crochet, I was amazed at the amount of crochet-ers that made dishcloths  (but I 'got it' after a while, as its a handy way to use up end of skeins), and when I started reading sewing blogs I was equally curious about the amount of sew-ers that made their own underwear - and before I knew it, I was planning some sets........



The book is well laid out and clear, and the patterns are not for anyone who likes their vanity sizing - I am the biggest size in the book............ and it certainly felt bigger when cutting the cotton fit.  Initially I made up one pair to see how they worked out, and they are quite good!  I used some duvet fabric (poly cotton) and plain elastic (difficult to get anything swankier in Galway) and I also made them up on my new-used machine, I wanted a small project to try it out.  I have yet to progress onto the other styles in the book.  I will probably try the jersey shorts in a few months and seeing if I can get flatter elastic.  



The new machine is a Singer 328.  My own original machine is a Singer Excelle 6212, and I have it since I was 21 - I bought it myself and it was my biggest ever purchase for a long time - and I justified the purchase as I had just finished an 800 piece patchwork on a hand machine!.  The Excelle is a good machine in general, its mainly metal and fully reliable.  There was an issue over the last few years of power surges, and it would only go at one speed - fast, and it started blowing bulbs last year, so I brought it for repair last year (foot pedal replaced as it was the cause) and it is perfect since - and I can top stitch effectively with it for the first time in years.    Two months ago I saw this singer 328 machine in the Singer shop.  It was just left in for trade-in, and I decided I would buy it, its the same threading and drop in bobbin as my own, does zig zag and all metal (and store warranty).  Singer seems to get bad reviews online - I can only say that I have always found my own Excelle to be incredibly reliable, and am well pleased with the new-used 328.  I am hoping to get some of the original attachments, but the postage online is more expensive than the attachments and in all, so far its working out at the same price as the machine, so I will keep looking and see what turns up!  


one last thing.............
I am changing the name of the blog to 'the up sew'.  I have changed the facebook page, but still not fully au fait with blogging to figure on how to transfer this but it will happen in the next few weeks...................as I said in my post last week, I was thinking of a name change for the past while, and have settled on this one as it seems to describe a bit better on what the blog has evolved to be, and I still don't have a plan, but I do have plenty of refashion projects waiting ....

1 comment:

  1. I love your vintage Singer. In my opinion there is no better sewing experience than with the older style machines. And you can oftetimes go through layers of heavy fabric like denim. I think the most I have tried with my old style machines is 9 layers of denim! And of course a size 16 needle. Sent you a message on Google + too. Love that you attempted lingerie!

    From RUDE Girl @ http://ruderecord.wordpress.com

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