Goodbye Singer, Hello Viking

I made this camera strap cover a couple months ago and I loved it when I made it. I used Amy Butler's Lotus fabric for the front and a pretty sunshine yellow print for the back. But it didn't work.

Sigh.

The strap wouldn't stay still. It was like a fidgety two year old in church on a Sunday morning, twisting and turning, not staying put, and generally misbehaving. It got all wrinkled and bunched up. I didn't like it anymore.

What's a fashionable photographer to do? Make a new strap.
I picked out my fabric. See the Amy Butler Lotus fabric in there? It's the red print in the center. I heart that fabric. And that pretty yellow next to it. Doesn't it make you smile and think of sunny things and lemonade while sitting on a porch with the breeze from the fan blowing on you and the birds chirping and the smell of grass being mown while the Man cruises around on the lawnmower? That's what I think of. But, ooops. I digress.

So simple really. Make a camera strap. How hard can that be?
I sewed the 4.5" strips together, cut them 3.5" wide and 22" long. I ironed on the heavyweight interfacing, leaving 1/4" all around. Turned the edges in and ironed them flat. I folded it in half and ironed it again. Now all I have to do is stitch along the open edge.

So far, so good.
Uh. Oh.

This is bad.

This, for all you non-sewing people, is what I call thread vomit. That's when the bobbin thread gets all jammed up underneath and you can't see it until your needle stops working. When you try to remove it, it won't let go. You get mad, tug on it, tug harder until you finally get it to release it's death grip on your material. You flip it over, see this, and go vomit.

Because when you tugged on the material, you messed up the timing.

And that's bad.

That makes your needle jam and not move.

Aaaaaaaargh. Can you hear me yell from out there?
When I opened the bobbin case, this is what I found. A broken bobbin. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I hate this machine. It's a cheapo Singer from WalMart that I bought for about $80 a couple years ago when I needed a machine in a hurry and didn't want to spend gobs of money on one. I asked my local sewing shop how much it would be to repair it and they said, "$79.99 to start, and it will go up from there."

You get what you pay for. Yup, that' s my motto from now on.
I bought a Viking to replace the Singer. This thing is sweet.

It actually purrs when it runs.
I finished my camera strap. And now I'm a happy girl.