I have for you, a Post of Substance!

I have not been feeling well for going on two weeks now, and I took a day to stay home and sleep and take cold medicine…..I feel better right now than I have in days!
Which brings us to The Post of Substance…..(I apologize in advance once again, for my severe lack of photography skillz.)
I’m going to talk about pinking machines!
While Other Noelle was here, I gave in and purchased one of the swanky versions of the Simplicity rotary cutter.  Because I’m a ‘go big or go home’ kind of gal, I purchased every cutter blade I could get my hands on.  (I am really hoping for more styles…..wouldn’t it be lovely to have something that would do pinked scallops?!)

I would very much suggest buying the machine and blades on sale, while it is a fantastic machine, it’s on the pricey end, for what it does.
I was kind of surprised as I started playing with it to realize that you need a Phillips head screwdriver (oddly enough, not included in the package) to unscrew that clear plastic piece every time I wanted to change the blade.  There is a safety switch that doesn’t allow the machine to run without the cover, which is kind of silly.  I’m sure I can resist the urge to stick my fingers in a rotating cutting blade.  I’ll be thinking of a way to keep the safety switch engaged all the time, so I can operate without the cover, or a way to quickly snap the cover off and on.
The adjustable width guide is pretty flippin’ awesome.  There’s also a pedal and a separate speed adjustment knob which is pretty helpful.
Ok, on to the cutting blades!  Well, the term ‘cutting’ is a bit misleading….the ‘blades’ aren’t at all sharp; pinking is achieved by squishing and stressing the fabric fibers until they break apart….which is the same way my antique pinker works.  The antique pinker and the modern motorized version work surprisingly similarly, in fact!
The antique pinker has the blade on the bottom of the plate, and the blade is adjusted up/down;

Whereas on the Simplicity cutter, the blade is stationary, and the solid cutting wheel is adjustable underneath the plate;

Here is a sampling of the cutting blades currently available for the Simplicity cutter:
Small pinking:

Medium wave:

Large wave:

Medium scallop:

There’s also a straight cutter (awesome for cutting strips!), and a deckle cutter, which I didn’t purchase.
My antique cutter (which I purchased on eBay some years ago) has a much more decorative cut:  (although it needs to be cleaned and tuned for a better cut!)