a pfaff for a tropf

In the middle of a recent project (no spoilers, but coming soon!), my sewing machine started jamming. At first I thought it was the bobbin, but I took out all the thread, and it had the same problem. I went to JoAnn and got some sewing machine oil. Using my manual, I opened up and oiled every spot indicated for oiling. It definitely seemed to move better, and I was very optimistic that this had solved my problem. Then I started sewing again. It did better, but it still jammed up some, though I was able to get it going again each time. I sadly admitted that my Kenmore Ultra-Stitch 6 had sewed its last stitch. 

My mom has a friend who is an amazing quilter. She recommended that I get Pfaff sewing machine. It has a feature called Integrated Dual Feed, or IDT (maybe the acronym makes sense in German), which helps the top and bottom fabrics feed evenly and sew smoothly. I looked online and found a dealer in Annapolis (Capital Vac and Sew). A girlfriend and I went over to check it out. 

The lady at the store showed me the Passport 2.0, which is the lowest cost Pfaff with the IDT feature. It has 70 stitch styles, which is about 10 times the number of stitches on my old Kenmore! The fabric fed really smoothly and all the stitches she showed us looked really nice. I fell in love immediately. Sorry for the bad picture; the lighting for photos isn't great there.

If you purchase a sewing machine at Capital Vac and Sew, it includes a lesson on how to use your new machine, so I went back the next weekend. I had an hour of learning how to wind the bobbin, insert the bobbin, thread the needle, use all the buttons to select a stitch and control the stitch length and width, and use all the different feet that come with the machine. I should be all ready to go. Now I just need some projects!

And finally, some advice sent to me by my Mom's friend: