Making the Decision to Buy a Sewing Machine

      Never before in my entire life have I ever thought that I would someday own a sewing machine, or that if I had one, that I would ever use it at all.

       However, in the past couple of months, I have gotten a lot more into wardrobe building, decorating clothes, and coming up with unique ideas for making my clothes stand out. This led to watching a few people on YouTube who make and mend their own clothes. Even during this time, I never thought I would actually be buying a sewing machine, even though the concept was starting to become more interesting to me.

       A while after I started becoming interested in these kinds of videos, I became interested in mending my own clothes by hand and embroidering by hand. The idea of a sewing machine still never crossed my mind, even when it was taking an hour to sew a single line across a bag I use every day for work. I only hemmed one pair of pants, stitched one seam in a bag, and embroidered two small things before I stopped finding the time to hand sew.      

Talking to my dad about hand sewing brought him to say the question, “Do you want a sewing machine?” This honestly changed my whole perception on sewing. I had a few ideas to make my clothes that I was painting more interesting, but I wasn’t very motivated because I knew that hand sewing them would take forever, and I wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment yet. I was motivated to paint clothes and sell them only because I enjoyed it and it did not take the immense amount of effort that hand sewing large areas did.

       When my dad asked me this, I really started thinking about what would change if I had a sewing machine. Since I already had ideas that would be much easier with the implementation of a sewing machine, I started to believe that it would be worth it. It would also be much easier to repair and mend clothes and other accessories that I already had, but did not have the time to hand sew all the way. Other ideas started coming to mind about what I could do with a sewing machine, including a mat for my dashboard, a better organizer for the back of my seat, and so many other things that I would have previously not been able to make. There were also several pairs of sweatpants that used to be my grandfather’s that fit me around the waist, but were several inches too long for me. I hand sewed one pair, and it took a really long time and I still had to fix it, which would have taken even longer. Once I got the sewing machine, it took exponentially less time, and I loved it.

       Within a few days, I had convinced myself that I wanted a sewing machine and that it would definitely be worth it in the long run. Very quickly after I made this decision, I started looking at the different kinds of sewing machines that I could buy. There were a lot of options, and choosing was difficult, which I will talk about in another post in the future. I chose my sewing machine, and my dad researched if we could get it for any cheaper. We found out that it occasionally went on sale for about 60 dollars cheaper than it usually was, but we would have to be very attentative to find out when the next time it was on sale is. It went on sale the next day, and my dad bought it. It said that it would arrive at my house around the middle to end of October, which was disappointing, but worth it.

       The next day, it said that it would arrive in a couple days. The wait was still terrible, but it was so worth it. I got it, and got to use it after my friends came over. I tried out some of the stitches that it came with, and I was in love. So many things that I had never considered even doing before were possibilities in the future with this new purchase. I am so excited to try out some new things and improve my life, my art, and do experiments in the very near future.