It works, too

The rolled hem foot, that is. Unfortunately, not on fine fabrics like my handkerchief (so I'll have to do it the old-fashioned way on my second one); but with a shirting, it works. I have to be more careful with feeding the fabric than I often tend to be (see the loose part at the left, where I started), but it works!

I also have a new camera. A Canon - I'm still trying to get used to it, because so far, I think I've only had Panasonics... It always takes me several tries before I manage to set it on Macro... and because I take photos of my sewing, I need Macro often. But the great thing about this camera is that it needs much less light to take good photos than my previous one did. No more need to wait for sunny days outdoors to take photos! Good thing, too, because it's been rainy for days and weeks...
(The old camera went to my sister, who mostly takes photos outdoors anyway.)

Floods are coming. It's rather scary. Fortunately, we're far enough from water, and so is grandma in Prague where some metro stations and tram lines had to be closed down already. But still...
I hear there are floods elsewhere in the world as well. How do you fare?

It fits!

Remember how I talked about Ema and her fancy snap-on feet that are incompatible with the Lucznik's old sturdy ones?

Well, in aunt's box of tools, there were also two sewing machine feet. Including a rolled hem foot.

And it fits!

It's obviously not a fancy snap-on one, but it fits.

(Also, since I wrote that post about Ema, I found a stash of empty bobbins - I'm even more grateful now that they're interchangeable!)

Meet Ema

Janul's new overlocker (and Janul herself) reminded me I have not shown you my new sewing machine yet.
So here she is, in all her baby chubbiness and baby colours.

She IS a baby, compared to the old treadle Singer sitting outside under a plastic cover and a pile of wooden palettes. I don't know much about the old Singer; it's allegedly not working. One day, I will pull it out and find out, but for now, I have Ema.
She's even a baby compared to the Lucznik. The Lucznik did not have a name; it was the one and only sewing machine I knew, and it was so mechanical and so well-worn that it did not need a name; it had a personality on its own: a bit too stubborn but a hard worker (and while we're at it, it's a he). But then this shiny smooth new thing came along and needed a name to fit in. So it became Ema.
Ema, because Ema is a favourite name with alphabet book writers, and she's such a baby.

Ema is a Singer Tradition 2259. The "tradition" part is rather ridiculous, but I'm not complaining. It probably means it's not computerised; that, for me, means it's very similar to the Lucznik (which, mother tells me, was pretty much an Eastern block Singer knockoff). So using it is quite intuitive for me. AND the bobbins are interchangeable.
Sadly, the feet are not. Ema has flashy modern snap-on feet. Like, you know, ballet flats. Lucznik's feet are screw-on, strurdier; like combat boots. Thus, unfortunately, Ema cannot do the gathering that was a blast with one of the Lucznik's feet. And Lucznik's zipper foot is much better than Ema's.

But Ema's got a scallop stitch.

Lucznik's backstitching was much easier. The "lever" held in place on its own. You need to hold Ema's "lever" in place yourself, and you kind of wish you had three or four hands when you do that.

But Ema is portable.

And sewing sleeves on Ema is MUCH easier. And since I insist on having sleeves on my clothes...

The Wedding

The wedding I mentioned in one of my posts has come and gone and now one of my sisters is a married woman.

They had a beautiful, beautiful wedding. The minister - the former minister of our congregation who is now on maternity leave with two children, expecting another - had a wonderful sermon, based on Colossians 3, 13-15... the awesomeness of which I cannot duplicate now, but it spoke of forgiveness and the possibility of being a beacon of love to the world. I hope they will be!

And my sister looked amazing. I won't show you photos of her or her husband (unless I get a permission - EDIT: So you can see them HERE), but I think I can safely show you a photo of her hairdo...

Other than this creation from a hairdresser (which, we've agreed, looked a little bit Regency-ish), she had henna-ed her hair to match the orange theme of her wedding - orange is her (actually, I think their) favourite colour. She had an orange ribbon sewn to her dress, again in a bit of a Regency fashion (empire waist), and copper jewellery and, well, looked amazing. :-) Oh yes, those were real flowers in her hair, I think gladiolas?

There were many guests on the wedding - the church was full; they have many friends and, of course, the families are not small either (even though some people were ill and could not come). There were also many children - even on the smallish almost-family-only dinner before the wedding (after the wedding there was a big party for all the guests). And because they had so many guests, they also got many wedding gifts... mostly useful ones, because they had made a clever online list beforehand.


I wore the Miss Barbora outfit minus the yellow belt - in the end. Both my parents told me the style of the belt did not go well with the rest of the outfit. It was good advice, I think. I also think I got more compliments on my outfit than I have got in all my previous life... there were only two other people wearing a hat, the minister (not during the ceremony, naturally) and a girl about 10 years old. People kept photographing me because of the hat. (Obviously, this photo is not from the wedding. No cherries in blossom anymore - now the elderbushes are blossoming!)

I did not take many photos myself, because there were several professional photographers (one of them was the groom's brother) and, well, it was nicer just to enjoy it and talk with people I hadn't seen for a while. We did not get much chance to speak to my sister and her husband on the day, because there were so many other people talking to them, but we met with the family the day after and got more chance then.

And it was such a huuuuge event that I'm still trying to make sense of it. I simply cannot tell you everything.


(Oh, and as a more than little side effect of the wedding, I now have a new sewing machine. It was intended to be a wedding gift, but in spite of the clever online list, a complication arose and uncle & aunt bought a sewing machine, too... Because my old machine has been acting up, the surplus machine went to me.)