Ever had one of those days where you just want to swear off crafting forever because of a project meltdown?

Whilst sewing a topstitch on a bag last night, the sewing machine commits hara kiri.  I must have been about 1" into my topstitch when the machine catches on an edge of fabric, freaks out, and then stops completely (with the needle all the way down and buried in the fabric).  I'll admit, the fabric was a bit thick, but I've used this machine to sew through pleather and it hasn't blinked.

So here's where it gets complicated... it's not my machine.  It's my aunt's.

She's away on holidays, but she hasn't had a problem with letting me use her sewing machine for the occasional quick stitch, so I figured it's probably okay since I'm using my own thread and everything... it's not like I'm going to call her on the beach to ask (I rent the upstairs floor of her duplex).

The motor seems okay, because it whirrs away if I press on the pedal, but the needle isn't going up and down along with it.   I just hope I can get it fixed before auntie comes home. Sob.

Anyone have any idea what I might have done to the poor machine and whether it will be expensive to fix?

A friend from work is expecting her first baby, so I've been immersed in all think pink, cute and baby-ish for the past few months.

We had been browsing at Pottery Barn Kids when she saw a mobile she absolutely loved (http://www.potterybarnkids.com/pkimgs/rk/images/products/200647/0006/img41l.jpg ).  The price tag?  A whopping $50 CDN.  Friends don't let friends spend their hard-earned money on overpriced mobiles... so I told her I'd make her a one-of-a-kind version for her baby.

I used scraps of pink and green fabric (to match the nursery decor), beading wire and crimp beads, 18-gauge craft wire in various colours, and low-temp hot glue.

Here's the final result:










I'm awfully proud of how it turned out, and she was absolutely in love (but we all know pregnant women can be a tad... err... emotional).  Hope you guys like too!

Hi everyone... I've been a long-time lurker on Craftster, but as soon as I finished my dresser I realised I finally had something worthy of posting.  The original is an Ikea Robin dresser in dark blue (this is the three-drawer version on the Ikea site: http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10103&storeId=12&langId=-1&productId=10932)

Here's what my six-drawer dresser looks like after a quick sanding and a Podged application of handmade tissue paper I found in Chinatown:


I'm still trying to find knobs I like, though I'll probably just make some out of Fimo when I find the time seeing as I'm so particular about what I want.

I have one quick question for Podge veterans... as the store had only one tub of matte Podge and I ended up needing two tubs to cover the whole dresser, I had to use glossy for the sides and top and matte on the drawers.  My problem is that the glossy Podge still feels tacky even though it's fully dried, which means I'll have a hell of a time with dusting the darn thing.   Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this?