I call it the Pink Pearl

Ooh, isn't it cute? And at my age – 41, soon to be 42 – having spent so many years choosing always the black one, or the brown one, or the green one (of anything, everything) – is it endearing or embarrassing that I am somehow now irresistibly, inexplicably, inexorably drawn to the pink one? This pink one, I mean. The pearlescent pink Kenmore Mini Ultra 3/4 Size Sewing Machine, from Sears.

My birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I've been thinking about what I might like to spend my birthday money on. I always pick something that feels like a gift, something I wouldn't normally buy for myself because it's too expensive, fancy or frivolous. This year the decision coincides with the apparent demise of my first sewing machine, which was a present to me from my mother on my 20th birthday. It succumbed to a mysterious paralysis almost two months ago and I've been missing it, missing it! Now that summer is here there are so many projects I want to start, and while there are a couple of items on my list that wouldn't be so hard to sew by hand, that isn't really how I want to spend my entire summer.

I still have hopes that my original machine may be fixable, if I can find someone who's willing to work on it. But so far everyone seems to think it will cost more to repair it than to get a new one, and that I'd be better off junking it and treating myself to a new one with blinky lights, a computer, a little LED display and thousands of fancy stitches. The problem with that is, I still like my old sewing machine! If it can be fixed, I'd be happy to just keep using it forever. The new ones I've seen are almost all plastic, and ugly, and way too complicated while at the same time appearing to be not very well made or durable. My original machine is lovely, in two different shades of pale grayish-green. It's small, all metal, and does (did) everything I need it to do without mucking up my life with a lot of superfluous parts and features.

Still, if it can't be fixed, I will have to move on. And if I do, this pink one may fit the bill. It isn't very fancy, either. It only does six stitches – but that's four more than I ever used on my current machine. And I assume from the picture that it is plastic, but it comes with a 25 year warranty, which I assume means it can't be ALL that crappy. It also comes in mint green, which I haven't seen but have a feeling I would not like, and white.

Another option is this. It's heavy duty, and costs three times as much as the pink one. I like its apparent durability, industrial-strength good looks and basic, no-nonsense feature set. It looks like the kind of sewing machine someone might take with them into exile in Siberia, or Detroit, or some other equally remote, hard-sewing, worker-oriented kind of place. I could probably use it to make shoes out of dead reindeer or used tires, if I ever wanted to. But can it sew a quarter-inch strap on a piece of half-thrifted, reconstructed silk lingerie?

The most exciting project I have in mind at the moment could probably be accomplished with either machine. Remember how I was bragging that I had repaired the worn-out crotches of my favorite old baggy linen pants, and wasn't going to have to do any more summer shopping this year? Well, the combination of lots and lots of time in the saddle (of my bike) and the resultant weight loss has undone all my good work, and it's looking like now I am going to be needing some new pants this summer, after all. The worn-out ones are still together enough to use as a pattern, if I'm careful ripping them apart, and I had this great idea, inspired by my current favorite pants, that if I'm going to be sewing up some new ones I might as well redesign the pattern to my own specifications – so I'm going to be making some giant-legged super-pants, the kind where each leg is almost as big as a skirt, to wear with small summer tops and swirl around in while dancing in the moonlight and preparing my daily lox omelette and breezing along the bike path on my way to work each day.

I know pants like these aren't fashionable, but that has never stopped me before.

They're going to have HUGE pockets, too. I can't wait!