Enduring afternoon traffic, I just got home from the Pfaff dealer in Alexandria with my poor, hopeless sewing machine.  The repairman's final verdict is that this helpless machine is beyond repair. This is worse than we had suspected. He wrote up an estimate for us to report to the moving company. To replace my Pfaff Tiptronic 2020 (era of 10+ years ago) would be $449.  To replace my Pfaff Tiptronic 2020 with a brand new state of the art equivalent Pfaff Expression 2.0 would be at a sales price of just under $1200. 

     I have a  headache thinking through all this.  I paid $1000 for the Tiptronic machine, off the table, which was the last the Pfaff dealer in San Antonio had in 2000, as this model was phased out.  The general consensus of everyone who looked at my machine is that the movers dropped it. That is the only way this damage could have occurred. I do not want to replace my Tiptronic with someone else's used Tiptronic. I just don't know what wear and tear would be on that used machine. Besides, it was a nice little machine that I paid $1000 for and I want another as close to it as possible, at that value.

     I told the gentlemen at the store, the owner and the repairman, that I do a lot of sewing! I sew clothes, either because I don't like a lot of things I find in the store, or when I do they don't fit or I can't afford them. I sew window treatments because I think the nice ones are too expensive and still rather boring compared to what I can do with fabric and pattern selections. I sew costumes because my kids like to relive history for their unit celebrations!  I quilt because it's therapeutic and I love the look. That is my favorite use of the sewing machine and the one I get to do the least, even though that's what I have the most fabric for.  At one time, I sewed many a costume for the children's choir in which my kids sang.  That was a lot of fun! This Christmas I owe a soft, snuggly quilt to nephew #2. I made one for nephew #1 a few years ago and he won't go to bed without it.   

     I live on my machine. I always have a project going. Even in this bigger house, I did not gain a separate sewing room. My husband decided the extra rooms in the basement should be for school and his office.  He has designated the dining room to be my sewing room, which really used to bug him, since he prefers a pristine space like the cover of a magazine. But now he's content with the idea, given the choices, as he likes what I produce from my machine and he is envisioning window treatments for our new house someday.  Having my sewing set up in the dining room is okay with me, because it is right next door to the kitchen, where I can bake and watch pots boil, multi-tasking to my heart's content. It is the hub of the home and speaks volumes as to who I am and what I do for my family.

     If this were a machine that got used once or twice a year, I think I'd be content to phase sewing out of my life.  I'm not the best seamstress in the world.  My husband says I will eventually get my new machine and then the lady who worked with me last week will give me private lessons, etc to help me refine what I feebly accomplish now.  In the meantime, there is hope. The men at the store were saying that the money I paid today for the repair could be applied towards my new machine, if I purchase it within the next 30 days.  My husband liked that!  Hmmmm, my husband wants the money from the movers first, before I make the purchase. I wonder how long this will take.  I will be on a new learning curve with a new machine, and school is about to start.  For those of you who have asked, primarily other Pfaff users, that is the status of my poor, poor machine.