Bermy- The best tip I can give you on silks and knits are that there are different needles for differet fabrics. Knits, you can use a "ballpoint" needle that won't sever threads and give you a run in your fabric, and with silks, I'd get an ultrafine needle. There's a really cool trick you can do where you transfer your pattern onto freezer paper, then iron the freezer paper glossy side down to your fabric and it sticks there, you can sew it with the fabric on and then tear it away from the seam if you use a short enough stitch. Also when sewing silks, you can put a layer of tissue paper on each side of your fabric to help it stay together and not bunch the seams and glide smoothly through the feed dogs.

I'm having a really frustrating afternoon. Mail order pharmacy has not shipped my birth control or R's rx for his ouchy eczema. I was supposed to start the BC yesterday, ugh! Also got a call from the bank, they said appraisal came in low, but didn't want to give me details over the phone and set up an appt for me and DH for Wednesday.. I am a stressball right now.