Geekin’ Out About Sewing On Buttons

You know you are a nerd when you get excited about how well you can sew on a button using a sewing machine.  I can’t help it!   It’s like cutting a piece of wood with a power saw,  Or working on an engine….It’s still a machine after all.   And I refuse to accept the gender stereotype that says only females have to know how to use sewing machines and Men have to stick to power tools that can cut off appendages.   I’m not one to think men ONLY have to stick to dangerous tools to prove their bravado.  Call me civilized is you must…

And so it is that I stumbled upon a button foot for the sewing machine that closely resembles my own modified one.  You see.   The original looked like this with a blue rubber grippy to hold the button in place.   The problem is that the grippy gets in the way and eventually falls off.   Time to invent something new!   First I removed the blue part and ultimately the two tips that are meant to put even pressure on the sides.  Many of the smaller buttons do not even fit under these.   In the end,  my button foot looks fairly simple.   I see that they have a more specialized foot that hooks up directly to the shank of the foot holder.  I may want to get one of these for later. 

So.    In the event I have not blogged about this before,  Here is how it works!  I set the dial ( also modified to keep it within the button hole distance) to a zero distance.   I then make several stitches up and down to knot the thread. 

 

Then I click the stitch dial over to the end and make several stitches across the button.   If it has 4 holes, I rotate 90 degrees and continue doing the same.  

 

When it is done, I set it back to the number zero spot and knot off the thread.  Simple, easy, fun!  and much faster ( and safer) than sewing them all on by hand.

  After the buttons are on,  I trim the jump threads and do the same on the back.   Now here is the exciting part!   When the machine is in tune….the threads look like this on the back side!   Close.  Tight.  Neat!   

Then it goes to Cheryl to finish going around the edge and tops. 

So it was a fairly easy day today with only 25 stockings to sew up.  We somehow managed to take a mid-day break and head to Iowa City for some lunch and walk time.   Still.  It is nearing 8 pm and Cheryl is just finishing up the packing part.  She thinks that no matter how many we have,  or whether we head to Iowa City or not,  it still takes us till 8 pm to finish.  That might be true, but I feel much less stress than I did a few days ago.   Perhaps it is the weekend,  Or the Weather ( Which was rather pleasant for this time of year)

 

Or maybe it is because of the beer.   Beer seems to make everything a little less stressful.  I’m now seeing the wisdom of humanity in creating such a thing.  Today I’m drinking the “Hopped Up” version.   Which has a more sour citrus  taste than the “special bitters” version of yesterday.   It goes really well with chocolate covered almonds.   Then again,   Chocolate, Almonds and beer go with just about EVERYTHING at this point in the day. 

So there it is!  Cheryl says I should not “romanticize” the stocking business as it makes it look like it is so much fun.   However, every year we swear we are never going to do it again…..( and yet…here we are) It is like a career that keeps pulling you back in against your will.   So to all those folks that read this and think buttons are “fun” to sew on…and that you would like a crafting business of your own…..Think again and be warned!  

Besides,  the only person who reads this is usually future me just to see how things were back in 2014.   Oh,  And Barb from ACT.   I could always simply write Barb an Email I guess.  Then again,  There are a couple of reasons not to.   First…and perhaps the most important reason is….I’m lazy.   But only slightly more important than that is that people can track you and use everything you say in Emails against you.   ( I saw this actually happen on an episode of Law & Order!) And that is the truly terrifying part!   I read 1984 and know what happens when Big Brother invades your privacy.  They put you in a chair tickle you until you die!….or maybe that was something else.   Bottom line:   No written record of anything I write for the public!   

With that out of the way.  Time to post this to the internet.