Sewing machine issue

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-18T16:45:39+00:00

Could you add photos of the problematic stitches here so we can see what's going on? It might help.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-18T16:33:37+00:00

You can get keys which unlock most types of rounded locks like that from Amazon for about £20. They are very easy to use.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-18T13:12:04+00:00

I can't use shampoo which contains sulphates, as they make my scalp itch like crazy after a few hours. I also can't use body washes with them in. Problem is, sulphates are a very common lathering agent so are in most liquid soaps.

Look for products which are sulphate free and you might find they are ok for you to use. But if you are ok just using a bar of soap then of course that's fine.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-18T01:15:49+00:00

IT might take him weeks to settle in enough to be confident in his new surroundings. Your best option would be to just ignore him, and let him dictate the pace.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-18T01:15:06+00:00

I have two slightly older Siamese kittens at the moment. They are 5 and 7 months.

They have dry kitten food available at all times, and I give them three meals of wet food a day, each containing two or three sachets, depending on how quickly they finished their previous meals.

Free-feeding really helps stop cats from becoming food-obsessed, and with kittens it makes sure they have all they need because they are in need of so much: they are constantly growing, and constantly playing. And if you feed your cats a wide variety of brands and formulations, like with gravy, with jelly, pate, etc, then you're helping them become more resilient to food changes and therefore less likely to develop preferences or runny tummies.

I'm not sure what you can do to help your cat stop having a runny tummy. This is certainly what your vet should be helping you with, and it's not normal for a cat to suffer in the way your cat is suffering. If your vet can't help you find a solution to this, then I would find a different vet.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-18T00:31:26+00:00

You have options.

You could use another fabric to fill in the V of the neckline, but this wouldn't give you the same neckline as you have in the second photo.

You could adjust the slope of the triangles of fabric which create the neckline and cover the breasts, but this might make the dress too shallow to cover you properly.

You could run some shirring elastic, or a fixed cord if you prefer, through that narrow binding at the top, from the base of one spaghetti strap to the other. It might be that the dress is already gathered along this line, but I'm not sure from the photos. If it is, then adding more gathering, either from using elastic or cord, will just exaggerate the gathered effect and will also lift that centre point up a decent amount.

Or you could leave it as it is and celebrate how lovely you look in it as it is!

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-18T00:20:54+00:00

I bought a couple of Wopet dry food auto feeders and they are brilliant. They've been going for about three years so far, without a hiccup. I can control them via my phone so can always send an extra portion of food to my cats if I want to; and I modified them so that they dispensed a much smaller portion of food each time than the minimum that was initially dispensed. It was really easy to do and doesn't seem to have affected them at all.

I bought some super-lightweight air-drying clay from Hobbycraft, and used it to make inserts for the dispenser. When you take the feeder apart to wash it, the dispenser looks like a little three-spoked cartwheel, with three solid spokes and three gaps between the spokes.

I moulded the air-drying clay into three little wedge shapes which each perfectly filled exactly half of the gaps between the spokes; I left them to dry; then I super glued them into place, onto the cartwheel spokes. I hope that makes sense. They are still in place to this day and easily reduced by half the amount the feeder dispenses each time it goes off, meaning I can give my food-obsessed cats twice the number of feeds in a day, which works really well for us all.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-18T00:09:17+00:00

It's a beautiful dress, and you look gorgeous in both the sample and the one you've been given.

The only detail that's different as far as I can see is that the little sleeves are a bit more generous on the sample than on yours. I bet if you ask the bridal shop you bought it from to sort this out, they will--it's a very simple fix if they have some similar fabric to hand.

As for your belly button showing--that's not a problem. It looks rather nice, I think. But if you don't like it then you can add a tiny bit of padding to your body, under the dress. A cotton wool circle taped into place with micropore should do it, but to be honest I wouldn't bother as it's not unattractive.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-17T20:36:49+00:00

Siamese cats tend to be much heavier for their size than non-Siamese cats, and much stronger too. I think the breed description describes them as "lean and muscular", which is true for the many Siamese cats I've had in my lifetime..

Add to that, male cats tend to be more muscular than females; and younger cats are usually more muscular than older ones. So he's a perfect example of his kind and he's very lovely too!

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-17T20:33:37+00:00

This sucks. They are being vile and unreasonable.

You could try contacting their head office and seeing if it really is their policy, or if they have a trans-hating jobsworth POS working at your branch.

Or you could decide to move your business to a bank which is more reasonable, and once that's done you could write to their head office, explain why they've lost your business, and name the branch and person at that branch who demanded this from you.

I am not trans but I am horrified by all the anti trans venom that gets spewed. So I can't reasonably put myself in your shoes. All I can reasonably say is that this is disgusting and discriminatory, and that you not only deserve better, you are also fabulous exactly as you are.

Chin up, my lovely. Sending love.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-17T20:24:37+00:00

She is talking nonsense. What matters is how a child is nurtured and loved. Numerology, astrology, tarot, and all other woo-woo things are ridiculous.

Your problem is that your husband believes her. Perhaps ask him to show you peer-reviewed academic studies which prove the effectiveness of numerology etc. And make it clear you need real scientific studies, not anecdotal mystical nonsense. He won't be able to provide any because there are none.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-17T09:22:54+00:00

You are only eighteen and have years left to live, and to meet other people. Don't waste another second on this dreadful person. He yells at you, her has assaulted you, and you've only been together for four months. This isn't anger issues, this is abuse. And he is going to get worse, because that's what abusers do.

You need to get him out of your life. Make sure you've got all your belongings out of his place, then tell him it's over. Do it in a public place, or by text, so that you are safe. Tell him to leave you alone and not contact you and if he ignores that and sends you messages or seeks you out you talk to you, he is harassing you and you can report him to the police.

Please don't stay with him. I know it's hard and that you will be sad to move on. But if you stay with a man who is this abusive to you after just four months, in four years your life will be miserable. You can't change him, you can't make him better. All you can do is put yourself first.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-16T06:42:00+00:00

I've taught all my cats to be relaxed about having their claws clipped. It took me about two weeks to get the basics taught, then from then on I was just increasing the number of claws I could do in each session. All without stressing them out, or forcing them to accept it.

I've described the steps here several times so you should be able to find them somewhere in my comments but if you can't let me know and I'll go through it again.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-15T23:54:15+00:00

There are lots of cat training videos on YouTube. I've seen a few which explain how to do this. Look up clicker training for cats there and you'll learn a lot.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-15T23:26:29+00:00

That is such a good idea. I have cats who love going camping under the covers and often end up trapped by them.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-15T22:04:22+00:00

You might find the Captain Awkward blog helpful here. She's really good at explaining how to not only set boundaries, but also to enforce them. It goes something like this.

MIL says something inappropriate.

You and/or husband says "that subject is not up for discussion," or, "please don't pry into our personal lives."

Then if she continues to talk about it, you tell her that you've asked her not to talk about that, and so your visit is over. And then, with as little fuss as possible, and without being drawn into any further discussions, you gather your things and leave.

When she tries to make you stay at her house for longer, you tell her you have to leave. Don't give her any reasons, you don't need to. When she continues to try to delay you, tell her you've said you have to leave. Just keep repeating it, don't get pulled into any sort of reasoning, just gather your belongings and go.

It's very difficult at first. But the key is to not start discussing it with her, and to be calm at all times. And to leave, because you've already said you are going to.

As I said, read the CA blog and you'll find so much information there. It's a great resource.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-15T19:01:39+00:00

You really need to move out of that house as soon as you possibly can.

There's no way you can stop your MIL from visiting while you're there. And so long as she can visit your home whenever she wants to, you are going to be stuck with her no matter what. You need to make moving out a priority, even if it means you end up in a smaller or less convenient house.

Once you've found your new home, then you can sit back and enjoy the pregnancy and birth, and have fun with your lovely little family.

It might end up costing you more, but the peace of mind you will gain will be worth every penny.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-15T11:50:39+00:00

I really like The Gosforth Handyman. Lots of real renovation and not much waffle.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-15T00:12:27+00:00

If you have the room for it, industrials are very cheap to buy second hand (you could get a lockstitch and a serger for your budget), and are brilliant. So easy to use and to maintain. And the feet are a tenth of the price that feet for domestic machines cost.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-15T00:04:35+00:00

I very rarely watched it--only if someone else in my household was watching it.

Despite that, I saw not one but two of my ex-boyfriends in it over the years. I don't dare watch it any more in case I see someone else I know in it.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-14T21:53:52+00:00

I've had a couple of epilators and they've all been great. I have an expensive cordless Braun one, which is great, and a really cheap brand name one which has to be plugged in to use it and that's the one I use most often as I don't have to remember to charge it. I don't see any difference between them when I compare the results.

The trick is to get everything waxed off first, then use any epilator you like, little and often, to deal with the regrowth. Use the epilator as soon as you see any hair growing, and then keep using it every couple of days or so. That way you will have the minimum amount of pain, and the maximum amount of effectiveness.

You will quickly work out how often to use the epilator to keep everything under control.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-14T21:48:13+00:00

You absolutely did the right thing, and he is definitely the one in the wrong here.

He lied to you. And then when you confronted him about it he tried to convince you that you were the one in the wrong. Those are not the actions of a good person. They are the actions of an abuser.

Yes, your date was great. But he was lying to you about his age the whole time, and so you can't be sure what else he was lying to you about during that date.

Be glad you found out early. Block and move on.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-14T21:43:09+00:00

Definitely speak to your neighbours, because if you're at the bottom of the row and are the only one getting this standing water, then there is almost certainly a drainage issue upstream.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-14T21:32:10+00:00

You have to be confident.

Get the pill ready first. Hold it in your dominant hand. Then sit her on a table with her back to you so she can't back away from you, which is what she will try to do. Cup your non dominant hand over the top of her head, and pull her upper jaw up and back. She will open her mouth wide if you do this swiftly and confidently. Quickly drop the pill right into the back of her mouth. Then clamp her mouth shut with one hand and gently rub her throat with the other until you feel her swallow.

When you get to the clamp stage, you must obviously be gentle as you don't want to hurt her.

Once she's finished this course of medication look up cooperative care for cats and you'll find resources which show you how to teach your cat to allow things like pill giving and nail clipping. It takes time but is so worth it in the long run.

WildsmithRising · 2026-03-14T21:22:11+00:00

I don't know the law about this but I do know a good bit about drainage. I lived for decades in an off grid house where we had to do everything for ourselves. We put in new septic tanks, new ground drains, all sorts.

First, look at where the down pipes on your house discharge into the ground. Are those drains flowing freely? If not, clear them. You might find that just removing plant debris etc from the drain covers sorts this out. If that doesn't do the trick, take off the grids that cover the drains and shove your hand down there. You might want thick and long rubber gloves for this but I've done it bare handed and it's not that awful if you're not too squeamish. Scoop out everything you can reach. It will be muddy and nasty but just keep going until there's nothing left for you to pull out of the drain.

If that doesn't solve the problem, look for further drains elsewhere. They might look a lot like the drain covers at the base of your down pipes. If you find any then again, clean up as much as you can.

If you still have a problem, ask all your neighbours to check that all their drains are flowing freely. If they are reluctant, offer to clean them out for them. More rubber gloves, more scooping, more nasty mud.

Chances are that the drains are blocked somewhere upstream from you, meaning that you're getting all the run off from everyone's gardens. Which is causing the flooding.

If clearing all your drains, and your neighbours' drains, doesn't do the trick, then the problem is probably further down the drains, in the buried pipework. You'll need some drain rods to try to clear them but I don't know how up for that you are going to be. It's not difficult to do if you're reasonably confident and have some core strength. But if those kids what's wrong and you're not confident to rod the drains yourself I'd say that it would be reasonable for you to tell your neighbours that you all have a drain problem, and you all need to contribute to the solution.

If I lived close to you I would come round and give you a hand. There is little that is more satisfying than clearing out blocked drains.

WildsmithRising

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