My New Frienemy: The Ruffler.

I was home a while ago and my mom gave me an attachment (they are called "feet") for my sewing machine. She said it was a ruffler and wouldn't fit her machine but she thought it would fit mine. So I took it home and it has become my newest frienemy (friend + enemy for those of you who are not familiar with the term).

The ruffler, on one hand, makes perfectly even ruffles. With other ruffling techniques, the ruffles slide around, threads break and ruffles sometimes come unraveled.  However, the ruffler produces perfect even beautiful ruffles, every single time. In this picture I would even say the ruffler looks angelic as it gathers and pleats.

So what is the problem, you may ask? While the ruffler is busy making perfect ruffles, it also stelthly and mysteriously unscrewing my needle. Sometimes I can catch this early enough and there is no harm done. Sometimes this is not the case and the momentum of the sewing machine sends my newly liberated needle crashing into the side of the ruffler.  Consequently, this breaks the needle and causes the sewing machine to make a noise similar to your molars chomping on gravel.  My heart suffers a similar fate as this noise never fails to convinces me that my sewing machine is broken forever.  Once I can breathe again and a new needle is in place, the ruffler starts once again making perfectly flawless ruffles, as if it didn't just cause momentary crafting chaos.  One end of the ruffler is also very sharp. It is hard to explain but the ruffler uses this sharp part to scrunch the fabric as the needle sews over the pleats. My deepest fear is that the ruffler will one day make waffle fries out of my fingers.

So you can see how the love/hate relationship with the ruffler has emerged.  Right now we have come to a momentary compromise. While the ruffler continues to make beautiful ruffles, I pause periodically and retighten my needle (I really can't understand how it unscrews it...) and most importantly I keep my fingers out of the way.  Today I had a perfectly delightful experience with the Ruffler. I used it for a full ten minutes with out breaking a single needle. I am a little worried that if I get to comfortable the Ruffler (doesn't that sound like a villain on Batman?) will sense my complacency and strike again. I am also afraid that it can smell fear. But for now I am just content and grateful for its exquisite ruffling abilities. And I am thankful for my fully intact fingers.