Posted 29 June 2016 - 07:16 AM
My sewing machine died. Something's jammed or out of alignment. Oiling it was no help. The manual was no help. Google was no help. It basically told me to take it to a technician and I could expect to pay about $400 for time and spare parts. Taking a screwdriver to it and trying to assess all the moving parts as best I could was no help. Letting my mechanical engineer boyfriend have a go at it did not help. I am loathe to have a technician look at it and charge me any more than $50 for a machine that was purchased for around $150 about 10 years ago.
I never really like that machine anyways. I got it as a gift when I was a student. It is poorly designed, clunky, loud, and the biggest problem was that it was not ergonomic. It's so bulky that If you sit upright, the body of the machine sort of blocks your view, so you have to hunch over to sew. The main reason I kept using it was because I felt bad ditching it when my parents picked it out for me and was "working fine". So now it's not working at all and I am totally justified in getting an upgrade, right? You can get fancy computerized machines now that will thread automatically and automatically adjust your tension and stitch settings. You can get machines that have, like, 100 built-in stitch patterns and make buttonholes with the flick of a switch. My mind is buzzing with all the possibilities.
So I read all the reviews and I get my heart set on a particular model. Guess what? The manufacturer's website does not ship to Canada and advises you to seek an authorized retailer. Canadian stores don't carry this model. Walmart USA has it, but Walmart Canada does not, for example. Target Canada is an authorized retailer in Canada, according to the manufacturer's website, but they folded more than a year ago. The only option is Amazon.ca, and they are selling it for 75CAD more than what it sells it for in the US. I checked Amazon.com and the import and shipping fees came out to 80 USD, so that's even worse. I can't even order it from a US website and ship it to one of those mailboxes in Point Roberts or Blaine because my passport expired.
I have a half-finished, flowy, ankle length, yellow sundress that I want to wear right now because the weather is finally warming up and I can't until I figure out what to do! Grrrrr!