CORONAVIRUS START OF WEEK 10 - OVERLOCKER/SERGER ALERT

Another week gone by... not much change.  Weather has been lovely so lots of time outside in the garden. We are both well. Iain is busy trying to establish a blog site with the help of Our Man in Los Angeles; I have been sewing a lot.

Iain played for the neighbours as we all clapped for the NHS on Thursday night.

Mairi took this photo of Harriet, coming up for 7 years old, this week.  Another 'keeper' for Grandma's Brag Book.

Harriet and Ellie in the garden.  Schools are still not open nor show any sign of doing so.  The R factor is still too high.

John or Mairi's photo of one owlet still in the nest with parent, Kilmardinny Loch.


Very wet all day Sunday so Iain and I put the fire on in the afternoon and sat and watched 'Paint Your Wagon' on the TV.

We enjoyed every minute of it!  If there is a song that we both share a fondness for it has to be 'I Was Born Under a Wand'ring Star' and sung by Lee Marvin in his gravelly voice.

Yes ... the best view is looking back!

Heading out on holiday from Bowling Basin all those years ago...

* * * * * * NHS SCRUBS * * * * * * * 

My scrub sewing project is moving along albeit rather slowly.  Two reasons: I keep tweaking the pattern and ... see below...

I bought myself an overlocker (serger in N America). It is a Janome 9300DX and I absolutely love it. It came all threaded so I was able to have a go on the above set of scrubs (a downie cover which I cut down). 

I am aware that they are known to be a bit 'challenging' and it is in relation to having to replace a cone of thread. I used up one of the manufacturer's original spools of thread so I had to take myself in hand and learn to thread it from scratch... not easy!

I could write a book on how I eventually succeeded. I will do this in a separate blog with the title along the lines of 'What They Don't Tell You About Threading an Overlocker/Serger'.  Or how about 'Overlocking in Lockdown'? (It's hellish having no one to talk to, i.e. store open where I can go and get help!)

I am putting this image in here so that I can have it as a back-up for when I forget the run scheme. I am leaving it here with 2 very, very, very important points:

[1] An excellent video on YouTube:  Simple Sewing 101 Threading Fundamentals   

https://youtu.be/wfiHuDLCcKY

[2] The above image is the key to the one big hurdle that seems to cause the most grief! [More in a future video but the long and short of it is: look at the bottom looper (green arrow) and top looper (red arrow). When positioned in a cross like above (well, it is a squinty 'cross', not a Saltire!) the bottom looper thread goes OVER the upper looper behind it... with the 2 tails simply gently pulled and laid out towards the back like you would do on an ordinary sewing machine having threaded the needle(s).]