Hands down, the best Christmas gift I have ever received was my sewing machine. My husband gave it to me about three years ago and the funny thing was, he ordered it from Amazon.com and had it delivered to the house. He assumed it would ship in a standard Amazon box, but instead it shipped in its original Brother box. He was at work, so I was the one to receive the package from the UPS driver who said “I don’t think you were supposed to see this.” He left it in the front hall and I threw one of Brett’s jackets over and pretended I didn’t see it. Brett was so upset when he got home, but I just laughed it off. I told him I would still be surprised on Christmas morning.
Once I finally got the machine set up I started reading the manual and got completely lost. I hadn’t used a sewing machine since home economics class in junior high school. The instructions were so complicated; I got a headache just trying to figure out how to thread the needle. So I did what most people do in the Internet age and went online for help. Here are a couple of the best resources I’ve found to help me learn the ins and outs of my machine so I could get sewing.
YouTube: The first thing I did was search for the model # (the Brother CS600i) of my machine on YouTube and instantly found dozens of videos of people working with my exact machine. The video below from user em2stewartswife was the first one I watched.
Pinterest: My next stop for all things sewing related is Pinterest. For anyone into crafts, cooking, fashion, etc., it is the best place to go for tips, blogs, and ideas. The first items I made started from an idea or pattern I’ve found on Pinterest. I made dozes of these baby burp cloth for friends near and far.
My last resource may seem a bit out there, but it’s my late grandmother, June. Grandma was a wonderful sewer and made me many pretty dresses when I was growing up. Even though she’s no longer with us, I know she is watching out for me when I sew. Whenever I get stuck on something or run into a frustrating problem with my machine, I walk away and do something else for a while. Somehow, once I return to my machine, I almost always know exactly what I was doing wrong and how to fix it. I haven’t looked anything up online or checked my sewing machine manual. Somehow, I just knew. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I just “knew” what was wrong and how to fix it. I’m sure it’s Grandma’s way of guiding me along.
