The Broken Needle Project

I had this great vision of making a bathtub spout protector out of  a used towel and fabric. It seemed like a prefect project as our little guy is now using the grown up bathtub to avoid potential bumps. This project turned out to be a nightmare!

• Project Description

Sew 3 pieces of fabric on a small piece of towel (doubled), make some designs using different stitches patterns from my machine over the saw towel and fabric to make it more interesting, and finish the cover by sewing each side to slide it through the bathtub spout.

• Here is What Happened

The first broken needle....

- Sewing 2 pieces of towel on top of each to have more caution was hard for my sewing machine (Singer 1409) and I thought that I will not be able to complete the project. I had to lift the presser foot of the machine to its maximum to allow the 2 pieces of towels to fit underneath the foot and needle plate. This challenge gave me the opportunity to open the guide and read some functions of the machine in detail. I learn new vocabulary in relation to the principal parts of the machine.

- Sewing the pieces of fabric on the top of the towel and adding some stitches patterns on top of the fabric and towel were the most frustarting part of the project because my needle kept braking. I changed the position of the thread tension dial and the stitch length dial to see it would help preveting that problems. In brief,  I broke 4 needles and I am not even sure at this point how many times it occurred because it happened a lot. This small project felt endless.

Along the way, I found out that some extra needles I got with the machine were bent as well. Thanks Singer! I had to go to the store to buy some more to complete this project. I can now change my needle in no time with my eyes closed.

- Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I could not wait to be done fast enough with this project and when I thought that I was almost done... I realized as I was haft way sewing the 2 sides of the towel (to make a tub shape) inside out that I was not going to be able to turn the cover on the correct side. The hole was to small for the thickness of the cover. In a way I was happy that I did not pursue my time struggling sewing this part with the machine. I actually started with the machine and when I broke another needle I was done sewing by hand. 

• Pictures of the Final Product 

A towel is not going to be part of a near sewing project for a VERY LONG TIME!