Brother 5000

A couple of years ago my dear husband decided he was tired of waiting on me to hem his pants. so when we went to Walmart he asked me to help him pick out a new sewing machine. LOL He was going to hem his own pants!!

so I helped him pick out a decent one not too expensive or too hard to figure out. We decided on a  Brother 5000 or the Project Runway version. When we got it home it sat in it's box for a few months. I love my antique Singer and hadn't any desire to learn a new machine. He didn't hem his own pants I did on my Singer.

well it sat for 2 yrs! I let my grandson use it and a couple of hte other grands have used it some but not alot.
I sat down and played with it to see what stitches it could do when my grandson was using it. but otherwise I really haven't touched it.

I got disgusted with my Singer the other day. It is a 1950's Singer and has lots of idiosyncrasies. One is that it has a knee petal and it is hard to control the speed of sewing.

So I got out the Brother and it is now sitting in front of my Singer on the Singer's cabinet. it fits perfectly and I have been working on a quilt block for a swap! And having a great time with it!!!!

I was used to the Singer with one stitch a plain straight stitch. this Brother has lots of stitches!!
I have a foot on it that the needle sits to the left of center. so I pushed the buttons to use the no 2 stitch. it puts the needle in the middle. But the seam allowance came out more than 1/4"!! I had sewed about half of the quilt block before I realized the seam allowance wasn't going to make a 12 1/2" quilt block!!!

So I got smart and got the book out! Pays to do that sometimes! LOL
I discovered the two buttons I have ignored are the ones that regulate the size of stitch AND the width of the stitch or in other words the size of seam allowance!!! I had been ignoring those two buttons because I didn't know what they did and I didn't want to mess up  anything!!

so this goes to show you do need to read the book first!! LOL
My quilt block is almost done and I love having so much more control over the seam allowance. On my Singer I was doing it by eye and even tho my eye is pretty good it is better when you have a machine that does it automatically for you. I just have to keep the foot so it sits on the edge of the fabric!

Now I LOVE my Brother machine!!! I will be using it alot more now!

So hopefully soon I will be able to show you all some of the stuff I am making with my Brother!

Wishing you all Sunshine and Laughter!!  May God Bless You!