Yay! My button hole machine arrived!

Yay! After two years of talking about it, I finally took delivery of my new Siruba BH790 button hole machine!

I had to go pick it up at the freight terminal because I don’t have a dock. What can I say? The rent is cheap. The lady at the shipping place was kind of funny. She asked, “oh, do you sew?” not knowing that was not the sort of question she should be asking me. I was good though and didn’t mention anything about designing bras for Heidi. I’m not sure she understood why somebody would want a 250LB sewing machine that only sewed one thing -buttonholes. She looked at me sideways and wanted my ID so she could photocopy it, mumbling something about National Security all the while. For reals.

The thing is so heavy with the crate and all, they load you with a forklift. Before leaving to get it, I was so careful to make sure I had all the stuff to stabilize it, gloves, crowbar if needed and all that but when I got there, I discovered my come-alongs weren’t working so I had to settle for a natty sisal rope we keep stowed in the bed. Of the pick up! The bed of the pick up! I just realized that could sound a bit awkward. 

Anyway, at right you will see the machine is well protected by the Fashion-Incubator security detail. The blonde on the left is Sandy. This is actually her truck but she lets us borrow it sometimes. It’s not hard to sneak it out under her nose because unlike most blondes I know, she’s not very bright.

The sentry on the right is Boo Boo.  His main occupation is protecting everything from skunks,  shoes left in the vestibule, cat brushes and peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

I will post more about the machine once I have it unpacked.

Note:  The other day, Mr.Fashion-Incubator confessed  that he doesn’t read the blog very much anymore because it is too technical, that he liked to read the personal entries. Well, I hope this is some of that for any of you I’ve bored silly as of late. I have to tell you though, I’ve been working 80 hour weeks for months now so I apologize that I haven’t been my usual companionable self. Speaking of! I got Lasik! That’s personal! I got the monovision which I’m still not used to. It’s kind of neat but also bad. Like anyone who has gotten it, you see dust you’ve never seen before (my vision is now 20/15) and one’s pores become… well, larger. Me being me, I did a cost benefit analysis and calculated that if I live to be 71, the surgery will have cost me 50 cents a day. In that context, I’m not sure it was a good tradeoff but it is dandy not needing glasses anymore…

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19 comments

  1. Colleen says:

    I’m jealous of the Lasik! My eyeglasses were mangled in a dramatic faint on 5th Ave (I’m fine) and the doc suggested I try one contact lens (really, that’s how bifocal wearer’s can wear contacts, one eye is to see things that are close and the other is to see things far). I have a follow-up appt tomorrow to tell the doc it isn’t quite working for me. *Just a personal tidbit for Mr. F-I.*

    I’m looking forward to learning about your new toy.

  2. Quincunx says:

    Curious. I was wondering just this morning where your husbandoid had wandered off to, not having seen him around here for awhile. Mine has just glanced at the picture and noted, “that’s a large sewing machine,” and I explained that this kind comes with a table. Crate looks kind of light, but the last wooden crates I saw were in Schihpol of all places, and they were fine art crates, and age-darkened and reinforced and padlocked six ways from Sunday. Trust that we would have been going through on the one day the little art-museum-in-the-airport was between exhibitions. Do you get to reuse those crates as crates? send ’em back to the depot? pallet recyclers? firewood? (Burn crates, not art.)

  3. Hello from ABQ! Probably don’t remember me, it’s been so long. Congrats on your new machine! I want to just go roll around in your work space, it just seems so cool to li’l ol’ me.
    Robyn

  4. M-C says:

    National security! That’s right, what if you dropped this on the pilot’s foot? What if you threatened to make a buttonhole in his guts? I’m glad that we’re being properly protected, the blonde could probably be dangerous too..

  5. Lisa Blank says:

    Many, many congratulations on the arrival of the newest member of your family! I can’t wait to hear more.

    Sandy would look more intimidating if she didn’t smile for the camera.

  6. Kathleen says:

    Colleen: Sorry to hear about your spill! I haven’t worn contacts in years. It takes awhile for your brain to re-wire, several weeks as I understand it. It really is better to try monovision if you get Lasik because if it doesn’t work out for you, they can adjust the reading eye for distance later on, usually at no cost. However, you can’t get an eye adjusted for reading if both were adjusted for distance. My brain hasn’t switched over yet, a bit annoying at times, I still have a few weeks to go.

    Lin/M-C: I was being silly but I understand the policy. A terrorist could be having tools or machinery shipped to them and heaven forbid, forensic research needed for after the fact…

    Quin: this crate wasn’t so well made as to be reusable. I don’t know what will end up happening to the constituent parts. Probably keep the large section of fencing that fell down in high winds last spring, company in the lean-to (I refuse to dignify that structure with a description so lofty as “car port”). I’m sure it will be recycled into something around here. At worst, we could put it out along the street and it’d be gone within the hour.

    Robyn: I do remember you are here, I was wondering if you remembered I was :). Just give me a call if you want to come by for a visit. It’s baby safe, dogs are friendly altho more so if the child has been eating something tasty (anything).

    Lisa: yeah, she does that. Like a lot of dogs, they bark like crazy the farther you are from the gate. Once you stick your hand through to pet one, you realize they’d been barking because you hadn’t been petting them. The dogs aren’t a credible threat to non-uniform wearing 2-leggers which is why the gate is locked. The dogs are to prevent 4 legged interlopers.

  7. Sarah_H. says:

    It is very nice to get the personal stuff and hear how you are doing. I do love the dogs. They are just the right kind; large enough to give pause to anyone with a guilty conscious, but I’ll bet Sandy’s tail whirls like a helicopter. However, I must tell you that I have really been enjoying the technical posts. The more you can put out there about the technical side of sewing especially, but all of it, sewing, cutting. And you are so good about providing links to further information.

  8. Kate R says:

    OOhhh, snazzy machine! Our buttonhole machine at work is, quite literally, 100 years old (actually I think maybe a bit older) and is not reliable enough for us to have the blade in it to cut the buttonholes. Also, we have to finish the buttonholes by hand. I am jealous.

    Plus, I think your security detail – specifically the guard on the right – would like to come home with me. I can see it in his eyes.

  9. Taja says:

    How exciting! A new family member!

    And the security detail is terrific!

    Envying you–just a tad!–the LASIK surgery. I have monovision contact lenses (can’t handle bifocal or trifocal glasses for some reason), but am not a LASIK surgery candidate. :(

    I love the technical information you provide, but also enjoy some personal information about everyone. It’s fun to learn a bit about others!

    Can’t wait to see your new baby in it’s new home!

  10. Pamela Beeth says:

    As an over 71 year old sewer, I can tell you that you did the right thing with your eye surgery. IF you can adjust (it’s all in the brain), you will love it soon. I had Lasix with my cataract surgery. It is really nice not to have to wear glasses to see the clock when I wake up. Movies and TV are great. Also, reading glasses are available-cheap- for when/if your eyes develop presbyiopia. Good luck and have patience.

  11. Quincunx says:

    Oh, of course! That crate is destined to be explored and claimed by doggies despite whatever other, perfectly functional, purpose-built doggie houses they have. How silly of me.

  12. Kathleen says:

    Unfortunately Quin, I had to take the crate apart to get to the machine. There is no other way around it, too heavy. I think sections will be useful to cover some of our composting pits (we dig small but deep ones); the doggies like the compost more than we would prefer.

    Kate: the black one is a purebred McNab Shepard, supposedly some kind of sheep dog bred by a Scotsman in the US. We can’t imagine how this dog was intended to be used except to maybe split the herd. He doesn’t follow, he leads but stops dead in front of you once you’re following. He’s learned what “move move move” means or i run him over. Very annoying especially if your arms are full. He is a very sweet dog and the smartest one I’ve ever had. You can’t yell at him, he is very sensitive and only needs to be corrected once, pretty amazing. His most charming quality is that he detests skunks; the property had been infested with them.

  13. sahara says:

    Congrats on your buttonhole machine! I went to the Siruba site and I’m jealous, even though I machine knit – the buttonholes need reinforcement.

    Maybe I’m still traumatized from years of making them by hand, from childhood with a tailor mother – I received 30¢ per hole; big money in the 60’s – throughout high school (Fashion Industries) and college (F.I.T.).

    Star Buttonhole on 38th St. and 8th Ave. in the Sportswear District, NYC, was the go to shop for the lazy, and fine motor-skill challenged, even for knitwear. Feh. Much of the district shops have been replaced by condo lofts housing tight, pullover top lovers, lol. It’s hard to button blouses with long fake fingernails.

  14. Violeta says:

    Goodnight
    Please let me know if there ojaladoras machines on the market “family”, not industrial.
    I have a small clothing shop and I can not make a strong investment in an industrial machine.
    Thank you very much in advance for your answer.
    Best regards
    Violeta

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