On Sunday evening my mom was in a particularly good mood and offered to walk through the instructions for creating a buttonhole with me. Keep in mind, my mom has never successfully made a buttonhole and kept telling me it can't be done. So regardless of the fact that I had a migraine, I took her up on her offer to walk through the steps. We googled the manual online, and found the FAQ page about creating the buttonhole. For the record the directions SUCK! They might be helpful to people that have been sewing for 20 years but for a person who is 'self taught' in sewing, these instructions are not helpful. My mom I attempted and made half a buttonhole but then the fabric would get stuck and create a huge knot. After about 45 minutes, both of our patience was shot, so we gave up for the day. After staring at the directions angrily, watching youtube videos (not helpful) and reviewing what we have been doing, I had no new ideas.
On Monday I couldn't get the energy to attempt the buttonhole. Instead I watched Weeds all day, and thought about how I should be finishing the "Awesome Bag".
Today I woke up watched the last 2 episodes of Weeds on Netflix streaming and decided it was time I pulled myself off the couch to make the buttonhole, or sew the strap on the bag, and just finish this project. My mom suggested I contact Brother customer service to see if they had any pointers. First I attempted to online chat with the customer service people, it was pointless, they sent me a link to the directions I had already looked at 20 times and said that if that didn't work to call customer service.
I called the customer service line, and they listened to what was going on, and told me to bring my machine in to be looked at. Super customer service-NOT! She told me to go to the Creative Sewing Store location closest to me and have them see if it was a machine problem or a user problem (meaning me)...ha! The lady on the phone told me the closest location was 45 minutes away, but I googled it and there was actually a place 5 minutes from my house.
I called the Creative Sewing Center and told them what was going on and they told me if I brought in my machine they could see if there was a problem. So I loaded up the sewing machine, even though I felt like dropping it off the deck, and drove the store. The lady at the store didn't think that the buttonhole foot looked correct but after fiddling around with the machine for about ten minutes, she successfully made a buttonhole and showed me how to do it. Just so we are clear- it is not at all laid out in the directions, nor is it 'automatic'. She showed me about 5 extra steps that were nowhere online, not mentioned in the manual, but in the end there was a buttonhole. I went home, tried a few times and eventually made a successful buttonhole! WooHoo!
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| 2 Successful Buttonholes! |
Now I should finish the bag tonight, but I am exhausted and sick of attempting this. Tomorrow I am finishing the bag- it has become the project that never ends.
In addition, as many as you my winter break is coming to an end. A week from today I will head back to Chicago and begin my final semester of Nursing school. YAY! Like a 4 year old, I decided to make a paper chain to countdown the days until graduation. So today I sat on the deck to soak up the over 50 degree sunny weather and cut out all of my paper strips for the chain. I am not actually assembling the paper chain until I get back to Chicago.
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| My Supplies |
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| I don't remember ever seeing the grass in January in MN. |
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| It seems far away now... |
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| Only this many days in the semester! |
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Nice job on the chain! Make sure monday is red, tuesay is blue...etc! :)
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