Sewing adventure

J

Jean W

Junior Ranger
Donating Member
Last evening decided to sew the top sheet to the bottom sheet for ease of making bed. Figured would take 30 minutes from start to end.

Keep in mind I haven't sewed anyting in many years. In September my mother brought her 40 + Singer sewing machine from Florida to my home. Has been in storage form over 5 years. While she was visiting, she used sewing machine from simple repairs, so I knew the machine worked.

Pinned sheets together after determing proper orientation of lenght and width. Began sewing: the reverse lever didn't work, so used common sense to create back stiches. Kept needle in material, raised the foot, and changed sheet directions. Well, ended up with a large mess of thread between the foot and bobbin. Grumble. Resolve that mess.

Continue sewing forward, again a mess with the bobbin thread creating large knot mess and not allowing forward motion. Resolve that mess. Same thing happens a few more times. Grumble.

Finally sewing in a forward motion smoothly, then run out of thread. Change thread spool. Resume forward sewing. Again have another issue with no progress after a few inches.

Hmmm, the bobbin plate is lifting up, why? Remove sheets so I can examine the bobbin area. Great, a mess of bobbin thread.

Determine appropriate method to fix is remove bobbin. Darn, thread wrapped every where. Finally get thread loose, to learn the bobbin broke. (40+ year old plastic bobbin). Grumble, more time ticking away, not past 30 minutes.

Find another bobbin. Rethread, and begin forward motion, for a few inches. Nothing but issues with the "new" bobbin. Remove that bobbin and replace with another bobbin.

So finally after 50 minutes the quick sewing project is completed. Remove pins so bed can be made.

Straigten out sheets, spread bottom sheet on mattress. Hmmm, the dimensions are fitting correctly. Mutter a few more words. Top sheet sewed to bottom sheet on the length orientation, not the width orientatin.

Back into the house, rip out the stiches. Thank goodness they came out extremely easy. Back to teardrop, make bed, each single layer at a time.

Lesson: don't begin a sewing project when in a hurry because all I did was waste an hours time.

Sewing machine will go in for a cleaning, and resew sheets together this winter.

Jean
 
Straight lines are where I begin and end the seamstress roll.

Nice to have a sewing machine for patching, reparis, easy projects.

Jean
 
a sleeping bag is fine for one person, but when I am sleeping next to my wife, I don't want to be in my own sleeping bag. And zipping the two bags together isn't that great, either.

We sewed the "foot"-end of the sheet to the foot-end of the fitted sheet. We'll see how that works when we have our first night out. The trailer arrived at our house a week or so ago, but I only got home Tuesday night. Maybe we'll make the bed tonight and sleep in it in our driveway!! :-) (you think I am kidding)
 
Ah Jean, that was hysterical.

There's nothing like a jammed bobbin to turn a short, one seam will do it task into a monster project. Sounds like your mom and mine bought their machines from the same place. Evil twin sewing machines? Better not feed it after midnight.....

We took the easy (Jim didn't want to listen to all the cussing wafting from the sewing room) way out and bought a ready made queen size Dreamsack. All you need to do is insert body and sleep...or so they say. Let you know how it works out.

Sue and Jim
 
Jean,
I feel your pain girl! Been there done that! Old machines don't always work - they get gummed up with dust, dirt and lint and have to be cleaned first. Bobbin needs to be adjusted as well.

But I did sew mine together and it was very easy. HOWEVER, making the bed is NOT! I'm sorry folks but when the sheets that are on MiniMc get dirty they are going to be taken off, washed, seam ripped out and I will make 2 sleep sacks out of them that we will pitch up on the mattress. I will have a mattress cover on top of the mattress with the memory foam to hold it all in place, but the Dream Sack is the only way to go as far as I'm concerned - or a variation thereof. When you have the couch in the slanted position and try to make the bed it ain't easy for a fat woman and a short man. Cussin' commences!
 
Linda,

Sorry to hear your pains of sheet sewing & bed making.

When our first teardrop was built, I decided that waterbed sheets would work great, as they were attached at the bottom & wouldn't need tucking in. But I also knew I would not be able to buy a set in the size I needed & said sheets were also way more expensive than I wanted to pay.

So, I bought my own & sewed them. Still use that original set (10 years & still going strong) & have another set that goes with us. On long trips, the extra set is used so the previous one can be laundered at our convenience. Also, on all trips, the morning of the day we will arrive home, I change out the sheets & pillow cases when making the bed. Then it's ready for the next trip.

Oh, on sheet sizes...be sure to use a queen size fitted & a full flat sheet. Otherwise, you will have way too much sheet to tuck in. Quilt size is personal choice. We've always used a twin size lightweight hand quilted one so we don't have a bunch to tuck in.

On our 550, it is easy to curl a corner of the bottom of the mattress forward to pop on a corner of the fitted sheet on both sides & then finish off the top corners. On a Raindrop, because the doors sit forward farther than on a 550, it is a bit more work. Try pulling the mattress up & slide it forward a bit, then just curl the bottom of the mattress forward, pop on a corner of the fitted sheet on each corner of the mattress, then do the same for the head of the mattress & slide it back in place.

Making the bed in the morning takes less than a minute. Changing sheets adds maybe 2 or so minutes more.

:cool:
 
Betsey,
With the 560 and the couch pulling the mattress up is very hard for us. That's where the cussin' commences! We don't seem to have lots of upper body strength. I used Queen sheets and the top was flat of course. The sewing was very easy - it's the bed making that we hate. Sleep sacks for us!
 
Oh my this all makes me so happy that we are using sleep sacks and sleeping bags when needed. I learned to sew on a tredle machine and it is the only one I did not have bobbin trouble with. UGH.
 
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