Avoidance...

Well, today I had intended to get down to the business of completing several sewing projects that I have on the go (including the giveaway item - coming soon - I promise!!). However, it would seem that the god/dess of sewing had other ideas. First the bobbin ran out of thread, then I ran out of white thread altogether after filling the bobbin. So I had to use a spool of pale pink thread instead. Sigh.

Then the machine started playing up and trying to eat the fabric I was sewing, before acting like the thread tension was all wrong and making everything pucker. And to top it off, the upper thread kept jumping around all over the place and not behaving itself. By this time I wasn't just sighing any more. So, after completely ruining a perfectly good piece of Laura Ashley fabric, I threw a sulk (rather than the machine), and went into the other room to read through the manual, to see if I could figure out why it was being so evil to me today.

Turns out that when I replaced the top thread, I put it on the spool thing the wrong way round, and so the thread wasn't feeding through to the needle correctly, and so was dislodging from the upper thread holder and just basically making a nuisance of itself. So I turned it around and to be fair it did look a lot happier.

But that wasn't all. While all this naughtiness with the top thread was going on, the bobbin had decided it wanted to join in, too, as I discovered when I took it out to inspect it. It had somehow managed to gather together a rather unsavory group of extra threads - all with many ends sticking out all over the place, and it also looked like it had at one point tried to hang itself, it was so tangled up in the mass of knotted threads. So I just started pulling ends out whenever I found them, until eventually there was just the recommended number of ends poking out of the bobbin feed hole, and everything looked nice and tidy again.

I tested that the machine was now working properly on the now ruined Laura Ashley fabric, and, once satisfied that I had done an excellent job of being sewing machine doctor, no longer felt the urge to sew. So instead, I did what we all do when faced with tasks we don't find appealling - I avoided it. I suddenly, and with great conviction, decided that it was desperately important that I press, fold and put away my fabric stash - in full - immediately. So that's what I did. I even found a nice little place for them on the bottom shelf of a kitchen cupboard (my sewing area is in a corner of our kitchen). It took me two hours to do completely (some of the pieces were pretty creased!), but I am very pleased with the result. And despite it being an avoidance activity, I do feel like I have achieved something today. And also, now Mr Deravelled is much less likely to notice if more fabric adds itself to the pile, seeing as it is now nicely tucked away under the tea towel shelf. And, as you can see in the photo, there's plenty of room for more! ;)

So tomorrow the Moomin and I are going to take a trip to our local indoor market to pick up some more white thread from the little fabric shop we like to frequent. Just the thread. Promise. Although, I do need some ribbon. And some broderie anglais to edge a skirt for the Moomin. And possibly just a smidge of fabric to make a little skirt for me.....