Equipment

When I decided at last to buy a sewing machine I did not think, not very hard anyway, about what else would be necessary. Was I thinking I could sit down with some thread and fabric and that would be it? I knew better.

Yes, it is possible to sew with a minimum amount of equipment:

- sewing machine with needles & bobbins
- scissors
- a table to cut on
- thread and fabric

But even these things cry out for a place to keep them. And it is hard to do any serious sewing without an iron. Preferably with an ironing board.

After the sewing machine, then, I bought the iron and ironing board. I looked up the ratings online (consumersearch) and went out to buy the one I had chosen. Of course, as usual, that particular model was not available. I found a substitute. It's fine. When I found an ironing board I realized I should have one of those ironing board hook things. Got that.

Scissors were not all that easy to find, oddly enough. People are now using the rotary cutters more often. I found scissors but later came back to one of the sewing stores and bought a rotary cutter and "self-healing" mat, along with a measuring straight-edge, clear plastic with various rulers printed on it.

Back home, I ordered a sewing materials case, in which I could keep thread and all the little bits of equipment and things like bias tape, which I also bought when I realized I'd need it. I ordered several sewing books, realizing how much I do not know.

At the fabric stores and elsewhere I bought different plastic containers for fabric and other stuff, pins, pin cushion, fabric marker, hand-sewing needles. I bought two kinds of fusible interfacing and a couple of yards of velcro.

I'm horrified by how much I have spent on this stuff this month. Of course, this is what keeps those places in business.