Isn't she lovely?

My new darling. My 1947 Singer Buttonholer (with the green case as so many people seem to recognize). I was reading a blog a week or two ago (and despite all my searching through my blog roll, I just can't seem to remember who it was) and someone had recently purchased one of these for her machine. I was immediately intrigued because my little Spartan is a straight stitch only kind of girl. No zigzagging willy nilly for her, no sir! That being said, I had never looked for a buttonholer since I was naively under the assumption that to create buttonholes you had to have a zigzag feature, since that is the stitch configuration in a buttonhole. But ho! I was mistaken! This little wonder has a little plate that covers and protects your feed dogs while sandwiching the fabric between the plate and the foot. The needle stays in one place and the foot moves the fabric to form the zig zag! Wonder of wonders, what did I ever do without you? She sounds a bit like a train crashing while she runs, but she does beautiful work. I gave her a nice oiling and lube today since who knows when that happened last. After that, it was away she goes!

On the first go round I was a little worried since the stitches seemed too far apart but by just letting the foot run a second layer on the track it filled in beautifully. This sample is just on a doubled piece of old bedsheet that tends to shred pretty easily and had no interfacing for support. That being said, it still looks pretty good except for the top of the keyhole where the fabric just shredding.

*swoon* She such a talented girl.

I just played around with a few of the templates and settings, but I can't wait to get to really test this out on a garment...you know, when I have time to actually sew something for myself that needs buttonholes. These samples were made on a doubled square of cotton batiste with French Fuse interfacing attached to one layer. They lay very nicely and none of them seem to really want to bend or pull out of shape after a good ironing.

My father didn't have a site to work on yesterday so he decided to drive down to spend the day with his one and only daughter, which worked out perfectly for moi, because not only did I get to spend a whole day with my father, he also came bearing gifts! On his travels he buys me refrigerator magnets to amuse me (one is a plushy buffalo head and another is from West Virginia and made out of coal) and this time not only did he bring me lovely new magnets but he also brought me chocolate from the South Bend Chocolate Factory! You cannot go wrong with this. My father's family lives up in South Bend and when we were little, my father would take my brother and I there whenever time allowed for tours and candy. As an extra birthday present, I got my pick (he called me from the factory on my birthday) so I am now, but not for long :), the owner of both dark and milk chocolate dipped pretzels, chocolate covered almonds AND chocolate covered pecans.

We went out to run errands, since I had a fitting to do and he needed to visit my local cobbler and by the time we got back to my house, the mail had come and my little buttonholer was there waiting for me. I had told my father that I was waiting for a new attachment and was very excited about and the moment I pulled her little green box out the bubble wrap my father took one look before saying, "I know what that is!" Apparently he remembers my grandmother sewing on one just like it that he was absolutely fascinated with as a child. I can't say as I blame him. When I took her apart today for a little TLC I couldn't help turning and poking and investigating EVERYTHING.

But enough gushing about my toy. I did actually make some wedding dress progress last night. Sam and Morgan were kind enough to come over last night to help me with the final fitting for the over-bodice mockup. Here's what we've got.

I honestly couldn't tell you why I'm so insistant on all this low back nonsense, but I am. I love the fact that from the front, I'll have this elegant non-scandelous looking gown and then in the back (where nothing is prone to popping out for a suprise appearance as the girls have been known to try from time to time) I can show a little more skin which also balances the ENORMO train that will be hanging out back there.

Of course, by the time it's time to take pictures, we've gone on an hour long walk in the heat down by the river and I've been standing for what seems like an eternity (that really only lasted about 20 minutes). Nice hair, eh? Humidity loves me. Obviously all those ridiculous little flaps I've got going on are just seam allowance that decided to rear it's scraggly head for the photo op.

The final sleeve will end just barely below the elbow.

We're still working on it, but the rough idea is that there will be this thin elastic enclosed in a casing at the top of the sleeve just to snug everything up and keep it in place without restricting any more of my movement. After a hug test (because really, what else would I need to really be able to raise my arms for at the wedding anyway?

Sam loves the end of the evening when the mockups come off!

And of course, to end the day on a happy note, a picture my girlfriends INSISTED on taking:

I may be in heaven. I got a new toy, a day with my daddy, 4 lbs of South Bend Chocolate, and got to witness my father and fiance bonding over geek speak. It was a good day. There was even a hint of wedding dress progress!