You just never know who is going to be on the other end of the phone line when you get a call these days! Just the other day my phone rang at 4 pm on a Friday and it was the "Rachael Ray" show calling. Honest! An associate producer of the show was wondering if I had 4 NS40 Project Runway machines in my office and could I loan them to her for a show taping 4 days later. These are the kind of last minute calls I get all the time so nothing surprises me. Of course I wanted to know the "what, when and where" about the show. I can not tell you every thing but suffice it to say...Rachael is going to have a fun show on or about Oct. 1 featuring this machine and what you can achieve with it if you are creative! I will be at the taping being done this week in New York City so I will have the real skinny on what happens so as they say in TV-land "stay tuned."
If you have not had a chance to give either of the NS models a test drive, I would highly recommend visiting a Brother sewing machine dealer at their store or at one of the many consumer sewing shows that are coming up this fall. The NS model is good looking, sews like a dream and easy to tote from your home to anywhere you may be headed to sew or quilt! One of my young friends tells me that when she brings her NS40 to sewing club, everyone begs to try it out. She even told me a funny story about when her sewing club comes to her small apartment. Apparently her apartment is so small that there is only room for the person and their machine when they meet, so if they want to try out her extra Brother machine they have to actually put the extra machine in the hallway of her apartment. I can remember those small apartment days myself!
The kids are just about all back to school and I am already hearing about Halloween costume ideas. Two of my grandchildren are going to be BamBam and Fancy Nancy. That means that not only do they have to let the little boys hair grow longer so he looks like his character but my DIL will be getting busy making the appropriate costumes. The Fancy Nancy costume is going to mean working with lots of slippery fabric but she knows that if she uses the right accessories with her Brother machine she will have no trouble creating a cute and orginial costume. For that sheer fabriic she is going to need a straight stitch foot and plate to keep the fabric from getting caught in the feed dogs and she also wants to use the Brother ruffler foot for those cute little ruffles on the dress and the matching socks. The BamBam costume needs a caveman garment made out of leather-like fabric and to keep that fabric feeding like it should she is going to put the teflon foot on the machine for perfect and reliable feeding.
It may seem redundant to mention things like using the right sewing accessory foot for the job but honestly it makes all the difference. Halloween costumes and wedding ensembles seem to be the real challenges for anyone who sews but many issues can be resolved with a small investment. Take a few moments and re-read the instruction manual that came with your machine to learn how to use the feet that came with the machine and note the settings that give you the best results.
To prove my comments, note that last evening one of the contestants on season six Project Runwa made the dress below. Ramon's surf-garment was a creation that he felt represented a mode; emerging from the sea. Clearly he had the challenge of working with very sheer fabric. He understood the need to sew at the right speed, with the right thread and so forth. Great look and good results. His second garment was constructed from neo-prene fabric and again he had to make the right sewing choices to put the garment together.
Well I have to run home to see "Sam the Tile Man" about a project in my front hallway! BFN!
June