Is It Contagious?

Happy New Year!

Thank you all for the get well wishes! I think I'm on the mend. I got up this morning and could breathe through both nostrils and I'm not freezing anymore.

My sons were actually helpful, despite my whines in my last post — making store runs for more drugs and a load of tissues, and jumping in for odd jobs around the house to keep things going (dogs out, making a couple of dinners, etc.). DH was working very full days so he was off the hook. It's not that they aren't generally helpful in all situations, but like most men, they aren't good at "mothering," which is what I was whining for in my last post. When you're the mama, it's hard to get good mothering when the resident mama is down for the count and the biological one is a thousand miles north. ;-)

So, while I seem to be getting better, I must've breathed too hard on my D1 and it's now sick. I was all set to sew the binding onto my mom's table runner last night. I loaded an empty bobbin into the winder and … clack-clack-clack-crash! Ayiiiiiiiiii!

I shouldn't admit this in public, but here goes. I've been sewing without a reverse or lights on my D1 for a few years. The fix stitch button also doesn't work, but I can get around that with other methods. The part that's most inconvenient is not being able to turn it OFF when I *don't* want a knot at the beginning of a seam. Reverse can had by turning the fabric 180, which has been easy enough. It does suck that I can't use some of my utility stitches without the Reverse button, but it's been so long I can't even remember which ones anymore. The lights I really don't miss. I just have a table lamp shining directly onto the bed which is more than bright enough.

But not being able to wind bobbins? That's a show-stopper. And no, the Sidewinder bobbin winding thing doesn't work for Viking D1 bobbins so that's not an option even if I wanted one, which I don't.

I've avoided taking the machine in for repairs all this time because at first I just couldn't bear being without a sewing machine. It used to be my only one. I didn't count my Kenmore back then but I've since dusted it off and it's now part of the herd as my buttonhole station.

I've avoided the repair shop lately because, frankly, I'm pretty sure they're going to tell me I need a new motherboard and I just plain can't afford to drop hundreds and hundreds of dollars on that, after the year of $$ house repairs we've had. And after all this time, I'm just used to being without and something else always seems to take precedence in the budget. But no bobbin winding means it's time for the D1 to be hospitalized. She's going in with a list of all that's wrong and the instruction to not fix anything without giving me an estimate for each item first. I know the bobbin winder problem is not related to the motherboard and hopefully that won't be an arm and two legs. If I'm right and I need a new motherboard for the other things, unless it's a LOT cheaper than I think, I'll still have to pass on those other repairs for a while longer and continue with my workarounds for no reverse and the fix stitch. But at least I'll know how much to save towards it.

On the bright side, having some of these convenience features gone from my D1 taught me that I really didn't need them to sew and made me look at vintage and mechanical machines in a new light. Which is why I have the Featherweight and the treadle and dusted off the Kenmore. Hmmm. Blessing or curse? LOL! I even dug out the manual for the Kenmore last night and realized it does a lot more than I thought it did. When I bought it, I didn't really sew. It was for mending and Boy Scout patches, and I was more interested in price than features. I'm going to try finishing mom's table runner and napkins with it this afternoon. If all goes well, I'll start on my sister's scrubs next.