Teeny Totes

You know what's worse than hot and sweaty? Hot and clammy. No, it didn't rain today. It looked like it would for the longest time. You know how the weather gets blamed for stuff? Well, have you ever blamed the weather for your sewing machine problems?

True story. In July 2007, I bought my current Brother sewing machine - my third during the 2007 Great Singapore Sale. My first 2 sewing machines were very basic. The Brother I bought was something else. It had the works but the best feature was the auto needle threader. Can you imagine? No more going blind whenever I need to thread the needle. The strangest thing was I was afraid to use the machine. After I bought it, I left it boxed up for a while. My hubs was getting nervous that it would remain boxed up forever and kept nagging me to try it. One day it occurred to me that I had only 1 year's on-site warranty and if I was smart, I would use the sewing machine to death within the warranty period. And so I did.

Long story short... okay, not possible. It's a long story. One day, it happened. My auto needle threader stopped working. It would not thread. I called the service centre and they sent someone to fix the machine. They sent Dr Brother. He wore sunglasses, dressed in office attire and carried a metallic briefcase. He spent half and hour cleaning my sewing machine, replaced the auto needle threader parts and declared the machine good again. I tested it. It worked again.

Of course the needle threader broke down again. And again. Each time I would summon Dr Brother and he would clean my machine, replace the auto needle threader parts and it would magically work again.

This went on for a while until the last week of my warranty in July 2008. I complained a little that there had been so many repairs yet.... Dr Brother gave a long sigh. Then he looked out of the window.
"You live on a low floor," he said.
Yes, I do.
"You know why your auto threader keeps on breaking down?"
"It's the humidity. Low floor and humidity. Sure die."

Sure enough. The auto threader broke down again. I decided I would thread the manual way. Then one day, I used a different batch of needles and the auto threader worked again! I tested all my needles and realised that different batches of needles gave different results.

This reminds me. I need to yell something in Dr Brother's ear: It wasn't the humidity you moron! It was the needles.

I made 7 teeny totes. The phone in the image gives you an idea how small they are.

I'm a little surprised by how much time it takes to make a teeny tote. I imagined I could make tens or twentys. The little handles took the most time. I've completed 11 bags for June MAAD. I think I can make 5 more.

Good night. Hope it rains.