Serger!!!

In fantastic news, I am the new owner of a slightly used, Bernina 1300MDC serger!  A serger was my Mother's Day/Birthday present, so I've been doing some research.  I thought I would buy a new, middle of the road Bernina, however, one night last week G and I were trolling Craigslist looking for antique furniture.  I decided to type in "serger" and up popped a very slightly used Bernina.  After a ferry trip and a little bit of a drive up to Everett, me met up with a very nice woman and her serger.  For her it was somewhat of an impulse buy last year, as she already had 2 other sergers, and she found that she wasn't using it.  I was more than happy to take it off her hands!  Here she is - I am so giddy with excitement I feel like giving her a name, maybe Bertha or Helga (something that evokes a 'workhorse' kind of image, which is what I'm hoping she'll be).

She came with every original part, plus all her manuals, and even a DVD of the sewing class Bernina offers to all new owners, the one thing I'll miss by buying second hand.  For the $1200+ I saved of the retail cost I think it's worth it.  

As you can tell from the picture, she isn't set up as of yet...I may have to hold my horses a little bit before she goes into action.  G is still sanding drywall, as I type this, and hopefully next weekend the sewing room will get a coat of paint.  I can set up on the dining room table in the meantime, but I'm not sure it's worth it.  My 2 helpers under the age of 3 would wreak havoc out of any kind of temporary sewing set up.  Plus I actually work 5 days this coming week (!) and we'll be staying at Grandma's for the whole week.  I'll keep busy at her house working on putting my purple and green skirt back together.

In other news, while G was upstairs sanding, and little G was sleeping this morning, C and I went outside to stain the gate.  C had a can of her stain (water) and I had mine.  In about 90 minutes I had both sides of the new gate, some fence post caps, and the last driveway post stained.  Ahhh...just one fence gate and one driveway gate left to be built and then stained, and then the fencing project will be complete!

And what can I say?  Joann's had a pattern sale again this week.  Vogue were on sale for $3.99.  As cheap as I've seen them, so, as you can guess, more patterns.  Oddly enough, not all of them are Vogue.  I think I grabbed one Simplicity and one McCalls that I had seen and coveted in blogland.  I seem to have taken the attitude that if I like it, I should get it because the next time it's likely to be gone.

Excuse the upside down picture.  I've got 2 kids in the room with me and I want to get this post finished!

In quick succession they are:

V1247 - Rachel C0Mey (?) - shirt and skirt for wovens

V1298 - Rachel C0Mey (?) - lightweight wovens

V1169 - Rebecca Taylor - tailored suit!

V1218 - Donna Karan Collection - rayon spandex

V8499 - Marcy Tilton Wearable Art - skirt and pants

V8815 - Very Easy shirt with a peplum.   I may try out the peplum trend, maybe.

Simplicity 2246 Lisette Traveler Shirt Dress

M5974 - Classic Fit, the Perfect Knit Dress, knit wrap dress with ties

I can't help thinking that I am accumulating a lot of patterns in a short time without actually having sewn anything.  All in good time I hope!  I've got 12 more days of teaching, a few days to clean up my classroom, and then I hope to be able to do some sewing, even with 2 kiddoes underfoot for the summer.