Do you ever feel afraid of your iron? I recently realized that I've been feeling that way for the past year or so.
My fear has been all about its death. Especially death while I'm trying to meet a deadline or in the midst of a sewing marathon. Will this be the moment that it steams its last?
When I started sewing, I had a Black & Decker iron that I purchased the year I graduated from college (1996, to be exact). It didn't really steam worth a damn and the temperature was hard to control. But since at that time I was sewing mainly with quilting cottons, I got by.
But on a trip to the in-laws (yes, I packed a sewing project, just in case), I tried my mother-in-law's Rowenta Focus. It was big! It had steam! It was hot even at the tip! And it had multiple temperature settings (not just hot-getting-hotter). I was in such raptures over it that she let me take it home.
After about 18 months of heavy sewing and pressing, it died. One day it just wouldn't get hot. So I took out my Black & Decker again and searched on Ebay to see if I could find a used iron. Note to everyone: THIS WAS A BIG MISTAKE! DO NOT DO THIS. Okay, I got a new Rowenta (Powerglide 2) for $35, but from the moment I started using it, I knew its time was short. It had great steam but poor temperature control. And I could just tell it was ailing - some sort of psychic black aura that surrounded it like a shroud. Whenever I went to press something I heard this song in the back of my head. And I'm sure I hunched my shoulders just like the kid in the video, too.
It did hang on, surprisingly, for 6 months, but last week it, too, died. So while I DID NOT want to spend $150 on an iron at this particular time (didn't the Sewing Godesses understand that I really wanted some pretty new labels????), I did my due diligence on Pattern Review's website and narrowed my choices down to a Reliable V100 Digital Vapor Generated iron and a gravity feed iron, Pacific PSI-5E, both available at Wawak.com. When I remembered that I sometimes like to iron things in front of the TV, the choice was clear and I clicked "buy" on the Reliable.
Then I waited, glad I had the Black & Decker as back-up, but I didn't really trust it with the silk for the wedding dress. Friday, delivery day, arrived and I must have checked the front step about 30 times. No box. No box. NO BOX! Even when the tracking status on the Fedex website said "delivered", I still had no box.
And then on Saturday morning, after 17 years, the Black and Decker died. Now I had no iron.
I tried dealing with Fedex over the weekend and they were useless. Luckily I live in a great town and when I posted on our Facebook page that I was in need of an iron, I had two offers within 5 minutes. On Monday I called Wawak and they were fantastic! The woman I spoke to knew who I was from my phone number, so I never had to give her my order number (not once and certainly not SEVEN times like with Fedex) and she had a message to Fedex and a new iron on it's way to me within about 3 minutes.
And this is the big, beautiful iron that arrived on Wednesday:
Can't you just hear the stars sing?
It's heavy, so I don't have to push when I'm pressing. It has glorious steam and heats up quickly. And, fellow sewists, you can disable the auto shut-off feature.
It even purrs. Listen:
We'll have to see how it lasts, but I am now armed with a jug of distilled water and I plan to treat it with love and care and hug and kiss it every day. When it's off, of course.
My fear has been all about its death. Especially death while I'm trying to meet a deadline or in the midst of a sewing marathon. Will this be the moment that it steams its last?
 |
| My iron graveyard |
When I started sewing, I had a Black & Decker iron that I purchased the year I graduated from college (1996, to be exact). It didn't really steam worth a damn and the temperature was hard to control. But since at that time I was sewing mainly with quilting cottons, I got by.
But on a trip to the in-laws (yes, I packed a sewing project, just in case), I tried my mother-in-law's Rowenta Focus. It was big! It had steam! It was hot even at the tip! And it had multiple temperature settings (not just hot-getting-hotter). I was in such raptures over it that she let me take it home.
After about 18 months of heavy sewing and pressing, it died. One day it just wouldn't get hot. So I took out my Black & Decker again and searched on Ebay to see if I could find a used iron. Note to everyone: THIS WAS A BIG MISTAKE! DO NOT DO THIS. Okay, I got a new Rowenta (Powerglide 2) for $35, but from the moment I started using it, I knew its time was short. It had great steam but poor temperature control. And I could just tell it was ailing - some sort of psychic black aura that surrounded it like a shroud. Whenever I went to press something I heard this song in the back of my head. And I'm sure I hunched my shoulders just like the kid in the video, too.
It did hang on, surprisingly, for 6 months, but last week it, too, died. So while I DID NOT want to spend $150 on an iron at this particular time (didn't the Sewing Godesses understand that I really wanted some pretty new labels????), I did my due diligence on Pattern Review's website and narrowed my choices down to a Reliable V100 Digital Vapor Generated iron and a gravity feed iron, Pacific PSI-5E, both available at Wawak.com. When I remembered that I sometimes like to iron things in front of the TV, the choice was clear and I clicked "buy" on the Reliable.
Then I waited, glad I had the Black & Decker as back-up, but I didn't really trust it with the silk for the wedding dress. Friday, delivery day, arrived and I must have checked the front step about 30 times. No box. No box. NO BOX! Even when the tracking status on the Fedex website said "delivered", I still had no box.
And then on Saturday morning, after 17 years, the Black and Decker died. Now I had no iron.
I tried dealing with Fedex over the weekend and they were useless. Luckily I live in a great town and when I posted on our Facebook page that I was in need of an iron, I had two offers within 5 minutes. On Monday I called Wawak and they were fantastic! The woman I spoke to knew who I was from my phone number, so I never had to give her my order number (not once and certainly not SEVEN times like with Fedex) and she had a message to Fedex and a new iron on it's way to me within about 3 minutes.
And this is the big, beautiful iron that arrived on Wednesday:
Can't you just hear the stars sing?
It's heavy, so I don't have to push when I'm pressing. It has glorious steam and heats up quickly. And, fellow sewists, you can disable the auto shut-off feature.
It even purrs. Listen:
We'll have to see how it lasts, but I am now armed with a jug of distilled water and I plan to treat it with love and care and hug and kiss it every day. When it's off, of course.
Nothing like a new iron to make a sewist's heart sing! It looks wonderful.
ReplyDeleteOoooh, I love how it purrs!
ReplyDeleteSO frustrating with the Fedex. That same kind of thing has been happening to me a lot lately with both UPS and USPS too! For instance, I was supposed to receive a piece of fabric yesterday and it didn't come and didn't come - you know the drill! Finally this morning they updated the tracking to say it would be delivered today. (And I did get it.) But: why tell me it's coming on Thursday if it's not coming til Friday? This never used to happen but it happens all the time now. And like you, sometimes the tracking will say "delivered" even when it hasn't been. HATE IT!!
And regarding irons: it's been my experience that they ALL die in about 2 years, whether I spend $20 or $50. I've never bought a super fancy one like yours though, so I'll be very interested to know how it holds up for you. I hope all we hear in the future is how much you love it!
never before have I found irons so interesting :)
ReplyDelete