or The Girl Who Kicked a Lot of Stuff because Her Swedish Sewing Machine Is Apparently Impossible to Fix in this Desolate Wilderness She Moved to with Her Husband Who Found a Job at a Community College That Actually Puts His English Degree to Use
Minor tragedy struck the Snicklefritz household a little while back.
The Partner-in-Crime had just finished his pair of jeans and I was about to begin another tiny tote for another niece who had a birthday shortly after Christmas. I cut out my pieces and prepared to make the strap. I had to sew two long strips of fabric together, then fold and press it like a double-fold bias tape, and then edge stitch along both edges. We-ll, when I matched the two ends of my strap strips and put them under the needle and pressed the pedal, all heck broke loose. Bobbin thread spewed everywhere and the Huskystar sounded awful.
I checked the bobbin and the shuttle area. Nothing too astray there that I could tell. So, the PIC opened the Huskystar up. I'll be honest with you. I have no idea what he did, but it was a lot of tinkering and running test strips of fabric. All for naught. We did determine that something was off with the bobbin tension, but we could not figure out a solution. We needed to call an expert.
Five years ago:
Because my mother loves me so very much, she wanted to buy me a nice starter machine as I had never really sewn before. So, Mom did the obvious and went to her local fabric and sewing machine store, a Jo-Ann's. At the time, this particular Jo-Ann store had a Husqvarna Viking sewing machine dealer. Mom, in her infinite wisdom, opted for a Huskystar from Husqvarna over less exotic brands like Singer or possibly Brother. Then Mom packed up my little Huskystar and sent it on its way with my dad, who would be making the journey to the edge of the world where I live. I received this delightful little Huskystar for my first birthday in this harsh wilderness. Little did I know then that, although this machine would serve me well, one day she would tire out.
Side note: I'm not blaming anyone here, but the last project made using the Huskystar was a pair of jeans. Ahem.
Back to the present:
So, the Huskystar was sick. I called the local sewing machine repair place, but they told me, no, we only work with Singers. Boo to you: no hyperlink plug for you! I began to realize I had a very rare, little known, exotic, foreign machine for these here parts.
I then called the nearest Husqvarna Viking dealer I could find, which is about 60 miles away. The very nice (Seriously. I am not being sarcastic here.) salesperson I spoke with informed me that it would cost us at least $105 and that would cover only the shipping costs to the repair place (which is located in some mysterious off-site location) and a cleaning. Any parts and labor over and above that would, of course, be more $$. Plus, the salesperson told me that there was no way to tell how long it would take the mysterious repairmen to fix my machine, "It could be two weeks; it could be two months. We just don't know."
Umm, awesome. I'm only working on an already overdue birthday present for my niece!
So, in desperation, the PIC and I went searching for a new machine. We made the trip to a Jo-Ann store about an hour away from us and saw a few machines that looked promising and were reasonably priced (under $200, which was my limit for replacement machine I had not planned on buying). We ended up going with a Singer 4423 Heavy Duty, which appealed to us for a few reasons. One, it's a Singer and therefore, easy to find a repairman out here on the edge of the world should something go wrong. Two, the PIC liked its industrial look, as did I. Three, it offers the same features as the Huskystar, plus a few extras. Four, it is "heavy duty" so hopefully the next, ahem, pair of jeans that is made in the Snicklefritz house will hopefully not kill it.
To break in the new machine, I finally finished my little niece's tiny tote. Hooray!
"But what about the beloved Huskystar?" you ask. We discovered Chuck's Vacuum Cleaner Services in town, which also does sewing machine repairs, including those crazy imports like Husqvarna Vikings! FTW!!1! And, also awesome, it cost considerably less than the dealer I spoke to earlier in the saga. Spitze!!
Minor tragedy struck the Snicklefritz household a little while back.
The Partner-in-Crime had just finished his pair of jeans and I was about to begin another tiny tote for another niece who had a birthday shortly after Christmas. I cut out my pieces and prepared to make the strap. I had to sew two long strips of fabric together, then fold and press it like a double-fold bias tape, and then edge stitch along both edges. We-ll, when I matched the two ends of my strap strips and put them under the needle and pressed the pedal, all heck broke loose. Bobbin thread spewed everywhere and the Huskystar sounded awful.
I checked the bobbin and the shuttle area. Nothing too astray there that I could tell. So, the PIC opened the Huskystar up. I'll be honest with you. I have no idea what he did, but it was a lot of tinkering and running test strips of fabric. All for naught. We did determine that something was off with the bobbin tension, but we could not figure out a solution. We needed to call an expert.
Five years ago:
Because my mother loves me so very much, she wanted to buy me a nice starter machine as I had never really sewn before. So, Mom did the obvious and went to her local fabric and sewing machine store, a Jo-Ann's. At the time, this particular Jo-Ann store had a Husqvarna Viking sewing machine dealer. Mom, in her infinite wisdom, opted for a Huskystar from Husqvarna over less exotic brands like Singer or possibly Brother. Then Mom packed up my little Huskystar and sent it on its way with my dad, who would be making the journey to the edge of the world where I live. I received this delightful little Huskystar for my first birthday in this harsh wilderness. Little did I know then that, although this machine would serve me well, one day she would tire out.
Side note: I'm not blaming anyone here, but the last project made using the Huskystar was a pair of jeans. Ahem.
Back to the present:
So, the Huskystar was sick. I called the local sewing machine repair place, but they told me, no, we only work with Singers. Boo to you: no hyperlink plug for you! I began to realize I had a very rare, little known, exotic, foreign machine for these here parts.
I then called the nearest Husqvarna Viking dealer I could find, which is about 60 miles away. The very nice (Seriously. I am not being sarcastic here.) salesperson I spoke with informed me that it would cost us at least $105 and that would cover only the shipping costs to the repair place (which is located in some mysterious off-site location) and a cleaning. Any parts and labor over and above that would, of course, be more $$. Plus, the salesperson told me that there was no way to tell how long it would take the mysterious repairmen to fix my machine, "It could be two weeks; it could be two months. We just don't know."
Umm, awesome. I'm only working on an already overdue birthday present for my niece!
So, in desperation, the PIC and I went searching for a new machine. We made the trip to a Jo-Ann store about an hour away from us and saw a few machines that looked promising and were reasonably priced (under $200, which was my limit for replacement machine I had not planned on buying). We ended up going with a Singer 4423 Heavy Duty, which appealed to us for a few reasons. One, it's a Singer and therefore, easy to find a repairman out here on the edge of the world should something go wrong. Two, the PIC liked its industrial look, as did I. Three, it offers the same features as the Huskystar, plus a few extras. Four, it is "heavy duty" so hopefully the next, ahem, pair of jeans that is made in the Snicklefritz house will hopefully not kill it.
To break in the new machine, I finally finished my little niece's tiny tote. Hooray!
"But what about the beloved Huskystar?" you ask. We discovered Chuck's Vacuum Cleaner Services in town, which also does sewing machine repairs, including those crazy imports like Husqvarna Vikings! FTW!!1! And, also awesome, it cost considerably less than the dealer I spoke to earlier in the saga. Spitze!!
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