Home again… and with a new name

My sewing machine has returned to me, slightly the worse for wear. She got a little dinged near the bobbin winder. But so far, she seems to be sewing a straight stitch just fine for now.

My husband was kind enough to pick up the machine, and I thank him for it – who knew that getting a small electronic appliance repaired would be such a nightmare?

In response to my previous blog post, I got a comment from a Sears “Cares” customer service senior case manager. I will be emailing him soon with some more details about my dissatisfaction and how the company could do better. It’s all about keeping your customers informed about every step of the process, communicating with them in a timely, truthful and clear manner, and doing your best to meet their needs. No, I did not purchase a “Cadillac” sewing machine – nor do I expect people to fawn all over me or my appliance. I do, however, expect professionalism and respect for my time!

I’m going to try to rebuild my relationship with this little machine. I think I’ll give her a name. I like the sound of “Colette.” It reminds me of a favorite French writer, back when I read novels in French… and it’s appropriate, given what I know of Colette (1873 – 1954), author of Gigi, Cheri, and a ton of other novels (as well as a truly outrageous celebrity in her day). In keeping with her namesake, Colette the machine’s pretty and a bit of a coquette (with her playful lavender highlights), is on the sophisticated side and very smart (with better, computerized features), but she’s still a little… easy. That is, price-wise:)

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Oh where, oh where has my sewing machine gone?

I have a Kenmore sewing machine. It was made by Janome for the Kenmore Sears brand. I think it’s pretty decent for my purposes right now, though I’d certainly like to upgrade to one of those wide-throated machines one day.

My poor machine broke down on me a few weeks ago while I was finishing the Tropical Garden quilt. It was a sad day. It kept beeping and stopping, beeping and stopping. At first this just happened every few minutes, especially when I increased speed. Soon, it was happening almost continuously, to the point where I could not continue.

Luckily I bought the extra warranty from Sears, so I took it into the Sears repair center with no questions asked. They told me they’d send it up to their Sacramento repair technicians and then ship it back, and I could pick it up in 10 days. Well, that was nearly a month ago and I miss my little purring machine.

At one point a Sears repairman phoned me and we had a cordial, lengthy conversation about the machine and its starting-stopping problem. He did not seem to know what was wrong. I told him about what I’d read online: that the foot pedal can gather dust and start malfunctioning, causing this kind of issue. He said he’d order a new foot pedal and test it out. I still haven’t had another call.

I am beginning to wonder what’s going on. I feel my projects calling out to me: Finish me! That rainbow quilt just needs a binding! I’ll be back from my trip very soon and just hope I can head on over to Sears and pick up my machine the next day. Fingers crossed, my machine had a nice vacation in Sacramento and will return rested and ready to go.

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