a new addition to my family

All of you that have been advocating a little brother or sister for Anna can just calm down, not yet my friends, not yet! But I do have a new addition to my sewing family, which was a lot less painful to procure but I'm sure will bring me lots of happiness:

Ever since Carolyn mentioned that her new overlocker not only threaded itself but set its own tension too, I haven't been able to get such a magical machine out of my mind.  But when I looked into it, it turns out the Babylocks retail for about $3000 here in Australia, which is a lot of moola or a lot of fabric that I could purchase instead, so I thought about whether I really needed it. 

After struggling with fixing the tension on my crappy Toyota overlocker for at least an hour the last time I switched threads, and choosing my projects based solely on what colour thread was in the overlocker I decided it was definitely time.  I did leave the brochure hanging around the house before mother's day, but when that didn't work I just went and bought it for myself instead!

I went with the Enlighten model because I really like its features.  Not only does it thread itself with a whoosh and not require any fiddling with the tension, it also changes between overlocking and rolled hem with a flick of a lever instead of having to change the footplate and presser foot like my other machine, it also does flatlocking, a funky wave stitch as well as having some really bright LED lights so I don't further ruin my eyesight sewing at nighttime. 



source: www.babylock.com.au

 Sadly though I have been too busy and a little bit sick with a manky cold this week to get it out of its box and use it yet.  Plus I haven't quite finished that annoying denim jacket yet, so I'm forcing myself to finish that first before I get to use my new BFF.  The good news is that I only have buttonholes and topstitching left to do on the jacket, so hopefully I can get it finished sooner rather than later.