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Even though my birthday is in early February, my mom gave me birthday presents a bit early...a shopping trip to the fabric store to get some miscellaneous stuff for my sewing room (tracing wheel, chalk pencils, cutting wheels, etc.) just a bunch of little stuff that comes in handy, but really adds up when you go to buy it all at once.
Tommy's parents had also sent me some gifts a little bit earlier than my actual birthday, one thing being a check that I had earmarked to spend at Mood. Of course, with only Tommy left to give me a present I started bugging him for it a few days ahead of time. My excuse was that on the actual date, I was scheduled to go out to dinner with Lisa and some of the people working on her project. He didn't fall for it, but my birthday actually turned out pretty well.
I started off the afternoon with a trip to Macy's to get some new bras and to check out the petite sportswear floor to see what they had that I liked that they were gonna charge me 80 bucks for. That done, I headed to Mood to get a few yards of jersey prints and a little hunk of China silk that would work to replicate a very cute, but extremely simple halter top I saw at Macy's on the 75% off rack, but managed to refrain from buying.
After that, I met up with Lisa and friends at the restaurant. I have to admit, I was my usual apprehensive self about meeting new people, but I was pleasantly surprised. They were all very nice, down to earth, and seemed intelligent, knowlegeable, and competent about the things we were meeting to discuss. I don't think I embarrassed myself too badly, and even if I did, I got some really good lobster ravioli out of it for free, so it wasn't a total loss....thanks Lisa!
Luckily, the trains and buses were running quickly, and I got home in time for Tommy to give me my birthday present.....TADA - a shiny new serger! Just enough time to get it out of the box and make a place for it in the sewing room before bed.
Since I hadn't used one before, and there's all kinds of spinning knives and shit-loads of mechanical bits and all these different spools of thread, I was kind of paranoid about using it the first time without a spotter. So the next day went by with me watching the included DVD and admiring it, and basically waiting for Tommy to get home. Once he did, though, there was some hellu sewing going on.
I had been browsing the internet for stuff that I wanted to make and found these shirts: http://www.bluefly.com/Romeo-Juliet-Couture-black-graphic-jersey-hi-low-hem-t-shirt/SEARCH/303882501/detail.fly and http://www.bluefly.com/Wilt-white-jersey-scoopneck-hi-low-tunic-t-shirt/SEARCH/306332501/detail.fly . With Tommy's moral support and my new serger at the ready, I grabbed a roll of paper, sketched out a pattern, and serged up this that night:
I don't figure it's too far off from the ones I found at Bluefly....which are priced at $55 and $81 (retail $92 and $115 - yes for t-shirts). So I think I did pretty good at learning my new machine, practicing pattern making, and saving Tommy some bucks on clothing!
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Human Vegetation 
