Remember when I said my neighbor (the mechanic) was 8.75 months pregnant? Well, I was exactly right. Little Hoseah (7.5 lbs) was born last Friday. He’s a pretty, quiet and happy little boy. Thanks to all of you who sent gifts or dropped off useful items. They appreciated them very much. I provided everyone’s address save Celeste’s. Sorry Celeste.
I hear the east coast is weathering a heavy snowfall. Here, it’s a balmy 55 degrees; it’ll be 60 tomorrow. Can’t say I miss snow but I’m sure many of you enjoy it. I’ve spent the day sewing up last minute gifts, which I doubt will arrive in time but that’s what I get. I had a trial sewing not having the right color thread for the industrial machine so I pulled out my little home sewing machine. It’s a good one, a Pfaff. Long story short, I miss home sewing machines the same way I miss snow. As in not. Someone told me I could use home thread on an industrial and I tried it. Results are mixed. It’ll sometimes work in a pinch.
Without further ado, here’s this weeks entries from the archives. Hope your weekend is grand.
December 11, through December 17, 2005
Delicious is good
Hiring a PR firm pt 2
Bra pattern making
A question of men and women
Knits are evil
Pattern puzzle: Julian & Sophie
You have got to see this
Batch product development
Slavery or Bravery. Pick one.
The eight deadly sins of waste
December 11, through December 17, 2006
10 reasons for skipped stitches
The Evans Group
Apparel Manufacturing Handbook
10 reasons for skipped stitches pt.2
Fix this: mitten contest pt 3
NASA’s sizing problem
December 11, through December 17, 2007
Pattern corrections you should pay for 1
Drawstrings and Child Safety
I bought a dress form
December 11, through December 17, 2008
CPSIA Survey: The costs of a recall
CPSIA & CPSC: Activism and what you can do
Business as usual in spite of what it looks like
CPSIA: How to move forward, coping with crisis
CPSIA and tracking label requirements
Last minute gifts… well.. who hasn’t… (Luckily mine will be fetched by my brother who will deliver them in person, by mail they wouldn’t make it.)
But more interesting to me: I didn’t know there was a real difference between home thread and industrial one (except that one comes on smaller spools).
I am using industrial thread (Alterfil) on my home sewing machine and it works perfectly. But the other brands here (Gütermann and Amann/Mettler) also produce for industry and I had assumed the thread itself was the same one.
So please, can you explain the difference between industrial and home sewing thread? I’d really like to know.
Yay, I’m glad the baby is here and healthy!
Today marks Day 1: State of Panic. Once again, Christmas Week snuck up on me (I’m in denial and, once again, refuse to accept any responsibility for this) and I am nowhere near ready. I have notified my wonderful boyfriend that I will be less than wonderful to be around this week. Poor guy, I don’t know how he puts up with me.
I use Swiss Metrosene on my Consew 105 periodically and it works fine. I suspect that is because it is cross-wound rather than parallel-wound. I took my Bernina to the shop last week when I was working on samples and became very frustrated. I am using my home machines less and less these days. They just don’t feed as well and are much more persnickety when it comes to bulky layers.
Merry Christmas, Kathleen! The gifts will get done and the week will zoom by as it does every year.
I actually have a small box of clothes sitting here for Hoseah….
The holidays have defintely snuck up, even though I knew they were coming – lol
From what I understood the universal difference between home machine thread and industrial threads besides how its wound, cone size, etc.. is the lubrication that’s applied to the thread. High speed machines are a lot harder on thread, the extra (better, more, different?) lubrication keeps the thread from shredding.
So… if you sew slow any thread should work on any machine. The main difference between home and industrial machines is the speed and punching power. The thread path: thread guides, tension disks and needle eyes are all the same.
Does this sound crazy or kind of logical?
Regarding weather, a couple weeks ago we had a super dry below-freezing cold snap; now we have rain and mid-40’s temps. My skin likes the rain but really hated the dryness. I’m still recovering from getting rearended just before Thanksgiving. I have a lot more energy now and was able to get all the Christmas stuff done. I like snow for 1 or 2 days then it has to go away. Congratulations to your neighbor!
(Okay, I take back my question about the different threads for home sewing and industrial machines. I figuered out myself this morning. I understand now, I just cannot describe it in English, because I don’t know the technical vocabulariy. And I found out that I’ve been using mainly industrial thread for the last years because I wasn’t too happy with the other one.)
No problem Nowaks, I speak English fairly well and I can’t rattle off the technical vocabulary of thread and needles either. :)