Christmas Gifts: What I Received

  Sorry it's taken me so long to post this! I've had another nasty cold, and haven't done much but sleep for the past few days. Anyway, I wanted to show you the sewing-related gifts that I was given!

First up, this lovely collection:

  I've needed a sewing box for a very long time now... All of my things have been stuffed in a not-so-pretty cardboard box. Isn't this one beautiful? And it's big enough to hold quite a bit, although I've left my collections of buttons, bindings, and fasteners in a separate box, since I have so many of them.

  And look at that adorable teakettle pincushion! It's so cute I'm almost afraid to use it. =) And the buttons look like crochet! The pins were really needed too... all of mine were either very short or very wimpy. All of these pretty gifts are from my sister-in-love. Thank you, H!

 And this is what my husband gave me:

  He had actually already bought me a gift (and gave me that one too =), but when we saw this serger secondhand, it was just too good to pass up. The lady who previously owned it said that she didn't have any accessories for it, but she was really nice and included the white thread cones. Guess what! It did come with the accessories, they are just in a hard-to-find drawer on the side. =) Needles, thread covers, a spare blade, machine oil, a cleaning tool, hex tool, screwdriver, and a rolled hem plate. I am really, really excited to have a serger that is full-size, has 4 threads and a differential feed, doesn't clank, and can serge faster than my sewing machine can sew!

  Remember my peplum shirt? When I first made it I left the peplum edges raw, in spite of my dislike for raw edges, because a regular hem seemed like it would be too heavy, and trying for a regular rolled hem on a curved, knit edge didn't seem like a good idea. Then I washed it, and I really didn't like how the edges curled in some spots and frayed slightly in others. So that was one of the first things I did with my serger... a rolled hem on both of the peplum layers. I like it SO much better now, although you wouldn't be able to see much of a difference in photos.

  Now I'm gearing up to sew an entire shirt with this serger... I just have to find the time and energy to cut out my knit pieces! =)

Thanks for stopping by,