(At least it wasn't a whole year or more, yeah?)
Anyway, what really brought me back on was my excitement over a recent purchase - specifically, this:
It's an embroidery machine - a small one, as I can't get a hoop (similar to hand embroidery) that's larger than 5.5"x5.5". The way it works is by hooping together a stabilizer under the fabric you want to work with, in the area you want to work in. The stabilizer is a thin fabric-like material that adds a stiffness to the fabric. Generally they're added under the fabric, but if you need to make sure that none of the stitches fade into your fabric (like if you're working with terry cloth), it's apparently a good idea to use a thin see-through stabilizer as a topper.
This machine is a Janome 200E, the most inexpensive of the Janome's (also the smallest and least fanciest). It works like a sewing machine, in some ways - it threads just like one and the bobbin works just like one. What's really cool is how it works after you've picked a design (using the touch-screen) and arranged it how you like it. The machine came with 55 designs, and I've come across several free ones online. The designs have some minimal sizing (increase and decrease), can be rotated, flipped, combined, and positioned.
Once you've done all that, all you do is push the start button - the grey one right above the needle... and let it go! It does have to be supervised, in case the thread breaks and the machine doesn't notice (and yes, it's smart enough to most of the time), or if the stitches are coming out funny and the tension needs to be adjusted.
It took me a little while to figure how to put the thread on the machine to minimize thread breaking or tangling, but the position it's currently in seems to be the happiest. Below is a picture of my first embroidery attempt.
Except for one incident where I didn't notice that the pink thread had broken and the bobbin thread was the only thing coming through, that came out well. The purple thread was the one that I had the most trouble with, as the thread kept coming out twisted from the spool and getting tangled in the machine. Still, I'm really happy with the end result.
Close-ups!
For this project, I used a tear-away stabilizer on the back, and a water-soluble film-like stabilizer for the front.
I really wanted to do some free-standing lace, though, so, as I couldn't find any free ones (and the ones that came on the machine won't work for it, so I went ahead and bought a set. Here's a couple of the results:
I made all three of these on a single hoop, double-folded fabric-like water stabilizer. The fabric material took a lot more to wash out then the film material, but the film material has more of a tendency to tear when it's used without fabric, and there's no way the film would've held up to the stress of making multiple projects on a single hoop.
I also tried to do a lily (equally small), but the thread caught on something when it was almost half-way done, tore in half, and resulted in a bunching of thin threads. In a on-fabric job, this could probably be fixed by re-threading the machine, going back a few stitches, the machine going over the affected area, and then trimming the thin extra threads. With free-standing lace, if all the threads don't interlock together correctly, the design falls apart when you wash out the stabilizer.
I saw a lot of complaints about these machines (well, not so much the really expensive ones), and, despite the issues I did have today, 99% of them are user-error issues. Also, why on earth would you try to learn a new tool with your good clothes? Until I can get consistent results, I'm working with old towels and faded pillow-cases.
All in all, it's really, really fun, and I can't wait to do more.
