After four weeks of securing the keys from the real estate agent, moving in to the house, unpacking moving boxes, painting the pink mocha basement, visiting Colonial Williamsburg for a day, painting my son’s bedroom, painting my daughter’s bedroom, painting the powder room, shopping for new furniture…and taking side trips to Mount Vernon, Montpelier, and Drummer’s Call in Colonial Williamsburg, it was time to focus on our next Becoming History presentation.
A SMOOSHED MOVING BOX
Needing my sewing machine to finish sewing our Civil War costumes, I decided it was time to open the majorly squished moving box.
Circumspect when the movers carried that box into the door of our new house a month ago, I grimaced when I saw that the box was labeled: sewing machine.
Having thrown out the original sewing machine box years ago, due to lack of storage space and thinking I’d be living in San Antonio the rest of my life, I feared for the worse.
Therefore, the packers, who did a good job safely packing almost everything else, used one of their own boxes and packing material.
Obviously, that didn’t succeed. (My dress shoes didn’t arrive safely, either.)
Since I had other priorities while the movers were there and beyond with the unpacking to find clothes and linens that had been stored for two months, I ignored the box in the corner of the dining room.
Besides, whatever the damage might be, there was nothing I could do at that point to remedy the situation of a deeply smooshed moving box.
I needed to face that uncertainty on a day when I had a more clarity in our lives.
TIME TO OPEN THE SMOOSHED BOX
Tentatively I opened the box and pulled out the sewing machine.
Setting it on the table, I carefully started sewing one of the costumes, when suddenly the arm wobbled rapidly up and down in steady beat to the up and down of the needle.
As I slowed the pedal, so did the wobble.
Analyzing the arm closely, I noticed it was lopsided. (see seam where edges meet near needle plate in photo below)
The front section opens as a storage area, which also swings left and even comes off.
In the following picture where the storage section meets with the arm, it’s not level.
Meanwhile this angle shows that the arm isn’t flush with the rest of the machine.
I need to file a claim with the moving company, as well as locate a local Pfaff dealer to assess the damage and estimate the cost for repair.
Chasing those details down instead of sewing, I pursued the completion of the costumes later that evening.
In the meantime, I discovered that a paperback of Dr. Dolittle stuffed underneath the arm stabilized it well enough for me to sew the costumes.
How long will that band-aid last?
Epilogue
A couple of months later I was sewing the next round of Becoming History presentation costumes.
Of that I have a photo (in the header at the top) where you can see the paperback book stuffed under the arm of the machine.
Stay tuned for the rest of the replacement of the Pfaff story!
