Wednesday, January 19, 2011

I Give Up-- For Now

I had a brilliant idea on Sunday--I should monogram t-shirts as party gifts for my daughter's birthday party on Saturday. 6 days would be plenty of time to learn how to use my never-taken-out-of-its-bag embroidery attachment my mother-in-law so generously gave me a few years ago.

It should have been, but the one thing missing from the bag was the instruction manual. It took a friend in Africa to set me on the right track of how to plug it in and set it up. That took 2 days. With it running (finally) it was time to test my technique. The first sample came out perfect. Easy cheesy, right?

Wrong. I ruined the first t-shirt, then did one right. Practiced on the ruined t-shirt to see what I was doing wrong and did 3 monograms in a row that turned out perfect. Went to do the 2nd t-shirt and tore a hole in it.

I give up.

For now. Africa friend was right that I should learn to use the machine when I don't have a project with a deadline adding to the pressure.

When I start again (which will be soon since I think this has the potential to become a super fun hobby if I can overcome the frustrating beginning), I'm starting with a manual in hand and an expert embroiderer on speed dial.

Prize alert! A monogrammed dishtowel to the first person who can locate a reasonably priced copy (electronic or print) of the instruction manual for the Bernina Artista 180 Embroidery attachment. I have the sewing machine manual, but there are separate instructions for the embroidery machine.

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