New Serger!

I finally was able to play with my new Bernina serger today. It is just fabulous. Such a step up from my horrible Singer serger that ate all my fabric and thread. This one cuts through knit fabric like it is butter. The stitches are so pretty. Sooooo pretty. Again, a world of difference from the Singer.

I am working on a dress from Vogue 1027. This is basically a trial run, for both the pattern and the serger. If the dress turns out nice, I may go buy some fun jersey to make another one.

Lotus

Gioia, Frankie and I took a little stroll to the flower market this morning. We bought two gorgeous pink lotus flowers and a huge green pod, almost eight inches in diameter. One of the flowers has opened up to reveal a small yellow pod in the center. This is one of the perks of living in Asia - finding unique things that you would never see in a grocery store floral department back home.

Can you imagine what the lotus farm looks like right now, flowers all in bloom and waiting to be cut?

My Babies

Punker Dolly

Another doll from the Wee Wonderful "Olive" pattern. This one was for a friend who still is an 80's punk rocker at heart (and with a birthday last week). Chris found the skull fabric for me at a Bernina event we attended recently.

The photo was taken by another friend of mine.

First Semester? Check!

Gioia finished her first semester of Montessori school this week. They sent her home with a CD full of pictures from her time at school so we could see what she had been up to. My, so busy. Stringing beads and climbing,


making the daily bread,


cleaning her shoes,


extracting the edamame,


mastering Ikebana,


reading with a friend, and


scooping up sand. Such a busy girl.


More pictures of Gioia's school activities are here.

Learning to Smile

Yesterday Gioia and her Daddy were making pancakes for breakfast. I tried to shoot a few pictures without anyone noticing, but Gioia started smiling for the camera right away. Unfortunately, she does not really have the smiling thing down quite yet. She is trying so hard though. It makes me and Chris laugh every time we see it. Which probably is confusing for her, but we have a hard time stopping ourselves.

She can usually get to something like a smile if you tell her to "Giggle," but "Smile" is a command that typically results in a hilarious grimace.

On an unrelated note, Miss G's vocabulary continues to grow. On Saturday, we were getting ready to go for a morning run. Usually we run to the park and then Gioia can play on the slide. This day we had other plans. Here is how the conversation went.

Gioia, Do you want to go for a run with Mommy and Daddy?

Yeah. Go to park.

Well, today we are going to run to IKEA to get more glasses. How about that?

No IKEA. Park.

Ok. Well, let's put your shoes on. You do want to go for a run, right?

Yes, but to the park, though.

I don't know why I continue to be surprised by the things she says, but I am. Who taught her to use "though"? And properly too?

Sewing Machine Meme

Sew Mama Sew is hosting a sewing machine meme this month. If you don't sew, then you probably want to stop reading now. Come back tomorrow for more kiddo pictures. Today though, it is all about feet and bobbins.

What brand and model do you have?
I have a BabyLock Esante Ese2, which is an embroidery machine. I also have two Singers: a basic sewing machine with 10 stitches or so and a basic serger. We bought the two Singers in China after I realized I was in withdrawal for my Esante (which I had left back home with a friend). The Singers are 220 volts, which means that I have to use an adapter to run them in Taiwan.

The Singer basic machine works perfectly fine, but the Singer serger is CRAP. Crappity crap. It never worked right. Never. And then it actually broke on me a few months back when I was making diapers. Since it is impossible to find a machine repair place here which will work on 220v machines, I decided to just put it aside and buy a new serger. The new one was a splurge (a Bernina), but I figured it would be more costly to lose my mind to keep failing at the serger I have....

I do also have a lovely antique machine that my brother found for me at an antique sale. It is back home in storage, but I think about it often.

Anyway, this meme is about my embroidery machine - the Esante.

How long have you had it?
About six years.

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?
My parents found it in a store in Atlanta that was going out of business, so I was able to buy it for super cheap (relatively). I think I paid US$1,500 or so. Which was a good deal. It came with a whole set of embroidery threads and three cards of designs.

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?
Clothing (mostly kiddo clothing at the moment) and household items (curtains, bibs). I am not much of a quilter. Never have been.

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?
Once a week, if I am lucky.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?
I like my Esante. I like it much more than the basic 220v Singer, for sure. And it is indeed better than all of the machines I have had in the past. But truth be told, it isn't super duper in all aspects. The buttonholes never come out right on the Esante. Also the straight stitches slant ever so slightly to the right. And the embroidery cards. What a pain. There has got to be a better way to get designs into the machine. There is a system you can buy which will write any design to a BabyLock card, but it costs like 500 bucks, which is just outrageous.

What features does your machine have that work well for you?
I like the embroidery features, even though I don't really use them that often. There are a ton of decorative stitches on the machine, which is nice. Aside from some minor quirks, it is a steady and reliable machine.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?
See above rant about buttonholes, slanty stitches and stupid embroidery cards. I also am not too jazzed about the fact that you have to buy all accessories through a dealer. I have never met a sewing store clerk who actually knew more than I did about the machine and accessories, one that could answer my questions and order the right parts. As a result of my bad past experiences, I prefer internet shopping over talking with actual people in a strip mall sewing store, so the dealer thing is annoying. Even if I wanted to go to a dealer, there are none in Taiwan.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)?
I only have the story where I missed my machine so much that I took it back from the friend I had left it with in Chicago, packed it up with bubble wrap and peanuts at a Mailboxes Etc, and shipped it on a plane to Taiwan.

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?
At the price I paid, absolutely. At full price... meh. I would probably have bought a Viking or a Bernina for that money.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?
The most important thing is making sure you buy a machine that you can have reliably serviced if it ever has issues.

Do you have a dream machine?
Yes, the super duper Bernina serger I am getting on Sunday. YAY!