craftgrrl | so i have a few questions.. (Reply)

sorry this will be text only. i promise i'll post all of the nonsense i've been working on a little later. okay. well. i have 2 sewing machines; one is from 1950something, and is in its own cabinet. i got it for $12 at the thrift store i volunteer at, and it seemed to run fine. however, as soon as i tried to sew something, the thread would snap, and not sew anything. i've checked the tension, and everything else i could possibly check, but nothing seems to help it. any ideas? it's an old singer.

my other sewing machine was a cheap-o singer my dad got my mom for some holiday. it worked alright, then started getting stuck and messing up, so we took it in, and got it fixed. used it for a while, and now it's doing the same thing. turns out it'll be cheaper to just get a new machine than to get it fixed. which brings me to my next question: what machine should i get? i've checked the memories, and read reviews and stuff, but i'd really like to get personal opinions. i'm not really a newbie sewer, and i'd like to have the next machine i buy for quite some time. i'd also like to get a serger, so any recommendations on that would be appreciated as well. my mom said she heard something about a "sewer serger." i have no idea what she was talking about, but maybe one of you does?

AND LASTLY. well, two things. I have an old hardcover book that is basically destroyed, but i'd really like to do something with. both covers are in good condition, but aren't attached to the pages. hell, the pages aren't even attached to eachother. so i essentially have a lot of loose book pages, and two hard covers. any ideas? also, I decided the other night it'd be a good idea to make a purse out of a record sleeve by cuting it apart, and sewing fabric in between. it's really cute, but I don't know what to seal the sleeve with so that it doesn't get destroyed.

i'm so sorry to be so chatty, but any help you guys can help me will be so greatly appreciated. =D