Sally Go Round the Sun

When you live in Seattle you have a strong reaction to the arrival of the sunny season. Residents don sunglasses (Seattle reportedly sells more sunglasses per capita than any other city in the US!), put on short sleeves, and if you are my kids, you start complaining about that bright ball of light in the sky and start requesting a new sunhat.

Any excuse to give the new Necchi a whirl. I oiled it up good (I read somewhere that Necchis are so well built with such tight tolerances that they really need frequent oiling) and tightened the belt. And then I broke a bunch of thread. Oh yeah, I forgot a new needle, that makes all the difference. Then I was ready for action.

My thoughts on the Necchi? It's not quiet, but it's definitely not clackety, and it feels really solid and powerful. The Low speed setting helps you maintain control by keeping things moving along at a consistent pace no matter how hard you stomp the foot controller. It wanted a little nudge on the flywheel to get started, but that might be because the belt still seems like it could be a bit tighter, though it's not noticeably slipping. I really like having a dedicated sewing table that's easy to set up, I think it might motivate me to do more sewing. So far I'm really happy with my new machine. (FYI, I'm also thrilled with the Featherweight. I'll have to give an update on it soon.)

I used a hat pattern that I have made before and some IKEA fabric I had laying around. This time I did 1/4" seam allowances to make the hats a little bigger. Two hours later we have new sunhats! I didn't have interfacing so I skipped it, besides the fabrics are heavy enough to hold the shape. The girls didn't actually want to stand still for a picture, but these shots give you the idea.







Butterick pattern 4531, view F, in size XL