Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Another Sewing Machine Fiasco~

Once again, on the eve of Christmas I had a sewing machine breakdown.

I don't think I ever posted about it last year, but my Husqvarna Viking machine did suffer sever heart failure and passed. I was in the middle of working on my bf's Christmas present (a velveteen coat, which to this day I don't have a single picture of ;A;). It was 2 days before Christmas, I had a handful of orders to finish on top of Christmas presents. Needless to say, I was panicked. First thing I tried to do was get it fixed. I loaded it into the car the next morning and drove all over town in crazy traffic, where I was told it would need to be sent out and it would take several weeks to get back to me. I neither had the time nor patience for that. Luckily, my savior of a boyfriend stepped in and purchased me a Brother SC6600 to tide me over. Well, temporary turned into permanent, and I am still happily using my Brother today.

Fast forward a year later, and the same thing happens! Not with my sewing machine this time, but with my serger. Yes, I have one of those Brother 1034Ds that everyone and their mother seems to have. And this time it wasn't 2 days before Christmas, but more like a week and a half. I'd had a bit of a scare with my machine nearly a month ago, when the top part of the knife suddenly snapped off mid-stitch. Yep, snapped clean off, while sewing just 2 layers of fabric. I know. But I got that taken care of, and ordered a replacement knife right away. It arrived in a few days, and I replaced it, simple as that. Freak out unnecessary. But a month later, it begins acting up again. (For those interested in the technicals: The upper looper became loose on the inside of the machine, throwing off the timing, which in turn made it not sew. At all. Therefore making it impossible to sew with.) I did spent several hours in tears trying to fix it, but to no avail. I got online, found a Brother service facility thing in my area, and took it straight to them the next morning. I was expecting to deal with catty older women - since that's what happened last year when I was trying to get my Husqy fixed - but boy was I wrong! I had the pleasure of talking with the loveliest woman ever. Long story short, we ended up getting an entire new machine. The cost of the repairs added up to be half of what I paid for it in the first place. And being nearly 3 years old, we decided it really wasn't worth it. I ended up walking out that day with a lovely Janome 7034D! I absolutely love him. ♡ It took a little while to get used to threading him of course, but I absolutely love everything about this machine. It is a bit harder to thread the upper and lower loopers, but I find that I'm not re-threading this machine because of broken threads, tangles, etc. nearly as much as I was the Brother. The best part of purchasing this machine from where I did is the upgrade service. So a year from now, I can trade my entire machine in for a new one at no cost to me.

Eventually, I would like to upgrade both of my machines to JUKI industrial lovelies (both the machine and the serger), as well as venture into embroidery machines, but until that day comes I will keep dreaming of them.

♡MissChubi

The Resplendent Nightmare Shoot~

(I found this in my post archives, and just realized that I forgot to publish it! Late? Yes. But better now than not at all.)

Wow. What a busy month! September flew by in a total flash. I had scheduled the Resplendent Nightmare photo shoot for the 29th, so I spent most of the month ordering and waiting on fabric to get to me, stressing out about not having enough time left to get everything finished, and worrying about what I was going to do about the models who cancelled on me last minute. Well I'm glad to say that October is finally here, which means I've had a few days to myself to finally just relax and chill out.

As mentioned above, the shoot did take place this past weekend, on Saturday. Once again, I teamed up with my photographer friend, Rachel Lauren, who brought along her gorgeous wolfdog, Lucian. I had my super talented make-up artist friend, Jessa do her magic on my model's faces (she doesn't have an online portfolio thing yet, so I can't link you to her work atm ;A;), and she did an amazing job transforming all my models into gorgeous living dolls.

Speaking of models, well.. that was an experience all in itself. Never before have I had so many issues with models skipping out or flaking on me in one shoot. I started getting this shoot together all the way back in July, because I wanted to give people plenty of notice and time to sort out schedules, etc. because I knew this would be a big all day event. Well... one of my models went a little MIA throughout the planning, so I had to replace her with another one who cancelled on me the afternoon before the shoot. And the day of the shoot, one of the models completely failed to show up or give any sort of notice. So, one of my outfits (a skirt/blouse coord in sapphire) was not even in the shoot at all, and I ended up having to model the boystyle coord myself. Luckily I was of similar size to the model who was supposed to wear that so with a bit of alteration, I was able to fit into it just fine. I'm just glad I already have a handful of other shoots already in place to show off other color-ways and variations of my pieces.


Needless to say, all my other models were nothing short of spectacular. I was impressed on Saturday, and after seeing the shots, I'm even more impressed with how they make my work look so lovely ♡






Models, from left to right: Shelbi, Cody (my bf), Kristy, Noah, Allison, and myself~

♡MissChubi

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Spontaneous Holiday Giveaway~

Hello all! Long time, no see. I know :( But I'm back with a surprise: it's giveaway time!


First things first: rules.
The giveaway will end on midnight of the 25th (EST), and a winner will be chosen and announced sometime that day.
The winner will be received a bunch of Resplendent Nightmare stuff, including:
✦ Jabot OR Neckbow (winner's choice)
✦ Tights OR 2 pair of knee-highs (winner's choice)
✦ 2 Headbows
✦ Long-sleeved cutsew

The winner will of course get to choose the colors of their prizes, as well as send me their measurements, so all sizes and body types are welcome. I also ship worldwide, so anyone, anywhere can enter!
Speaking of which, you can enter by clicking the "Giveaway" box under my banner on my facebook page (or you can just enter below), as well as sharing the giveaway announcement that's posted on my page.

I was going to wait 'til my next like-goal of 1000, but I couldn't resist not doing something for the holidays :3 (Also, 3 months without a blog entry?! That's inexcusable - I'm so sorry ;A;)

Good luck everyone, and Happy Holidays!
♡MissChubi