Total Chaos in a new location

 

It's going to be quite a while before anything interesting or useful comes out of DragonPoodle Studio, or the adjacent DragonPoodle Workroom.

I love my "new" (circa 1971) house and the studio and workroom are going to be AWESOME.  Hopefully it will be sometime in 2021, and not 2022, when full awesomeness is achieved.

There are two rooms on the lower level of the house, both 13' x 25'.  One is completely finished and will be the studio.  The other one is partially finished and will be the workroom.  But they both have FLOORS.  Actual floors that are level and have vinyl tiles on them.  Not funky painted concrete that is NOT level and on which ones wheeled chairs tend to drift. 

I moved in two weeks ago but my chair lift just got moved over here and installed yesterday.  So now I can ride up and down and actually get down there whenever I want to.  I'm still unpacking the living spaces upstairs and that has to be my main focus until it's finished.  But I have started slowly moving things into place downstairs too.

 

There is also a little room with a window labeled "walk in closet" on the floor plan that is clearly meant to be a powder room and may become one some day.

(These photos were taken the one time I went down there before the chair lift was installed.)

  It's going to take quite a while.

Total Chaos, No Shame

 Last time I hinted that there were big things in the works here and I hadn't planned to discuss it until it was over.  I'm moving about 45 minutes away and two doors down from one of my daughters.  Same size house with an almost identical layout.  

I've been in this house 32 years and I'm using this as an opportunity to weed things out but I still have an enormous amount of stuff.

The mover couldn't get over here to give me an estimate and asked for pictures and the easiest way for me to do that is to dump them all on the blog.  Faint-hearted or squeamish readers should turn their heads away now.

All the remaining comments are for the movers.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here are the photos as requested.  I am still packing and putting boxes in a 16 foot pod.  I would like your company to unload the pod once all the furniture is in the house.  Each box is labeled and color coded as to what room it will go in.

Much of what you see here will be packed in the next week and a half.  I will move all the lamps and art work.

I have approximately 43 sewing machines, most of which are cast iron and weigh 40 pounds @.  Almost all of them are in cases but I am still packing and putting some machines into empty cases so I can't be more precise at this time.  The cases should be thought of as dust covers and not ways to move them.  In other words, don't trust the handles and latches to hold but they will protect the contents during the move once they are in the truck.  

I will also have a twin mattress and box spring in my car that I would like you to move into the house.

LIVING ROOM AND FRONT HALL

Notable items:  loveseat, recliner, assorted chairs (some will be moved in advance), curved glass china cabinet, large hutch, cedar chest (may or may not be here for the move), 36" flat screen TV, 50" new flat screen TV still in box.  3 cast iron treadles and their cabinets (sewing machine removed from them.)

KITCHEN

Toaster oven, microwave, KitchenAid mixer, cuisinart, vintage GE refrigerator.

There is a stainless steel refrigerator at the new house that I would like to have moved back to this house.

DINING ROOM

There is a large dining table under all the junk, most or all of which will be gone by the move. Six dining room chairs. One very large antique hutch which separates into two pieces.  5 sewing machine cabinets.  

GUEST BEDROOM

King sized bed.  Wardrobe.  toy chest, three card tables.  Two small bookcases.

MASTER BEDROOM

Full sized bed, two antique dressers, two nightstands, recliner, hanging clothes which will wrapped in plastic bags and won't need to go into a wardrobe box.

WORKROOM

Pilates machine.  3 wire racks. Loose desk top and two small chests of drawers that support it.  Small bookcase with sliding doors.  Rolling tool chest.  

BASEMENT STUDIO and LAUNDRY ROOM

There is a door to the outside and outside steps.  The washer and dryer are not being moved.

Upright freezer.  43" flatscreen TV. 5 wire shelving units.  One 10 foot long quilting frame and an extra-large sewing machine.  4 2-drawer lateral filing cabinets.  3 3-drawer lateral filing cabinets.  One 4' x 8',  3/4" plywood top.  Small rolling tool cart.  Three sewing machine tables.  One dresser.  One table with a concrete top.  Hanging wall shelves (items will be removed).

The gun safe is not going to the new house.

Side Roads to the Buttonholer Rabbit Hole

 (An earlier post was all about buttonholers and how I went completely down the rabbit hole and spent three weeks testing, evaluating, photographing and writing about them.)

 

While I was testing the low shank buttonholers for straight stitch machines,  I wandered down some side roads from time to time.  This is what I am enjoying about lockdown--the time to do things slowly and get something completely done with no time pressure.

I used my personal favorite straight stitch machine, an apple green and white ModernAge 250 manufactured by Toyota and of the type nicknamed "15 clone" because they are a direct copy of the Singer Model 15.  This machine has worked flawlessly for years even though the check spring had broken off.  Back in the pre-pandemic era I was using it to teach someone who had a 15 clone of her own at home, and it bothered me that this machine was missing the check spring (it didn't bother the student at all btw).  So I spent some time dis-assembling the tensioner, replacing the check spring, and then re-assembling it.  Took me two tries and a google search but once again the machine is working flawlessly.

 

I figured I would test some of the buttonholers on the Necchi BU Nova that I discussed in a previous post, and then correct the "fixing" I did and then thought better of.  Comments from readers made me realize that I had probably just created a future problem by my "fix".  Thanks to Dre in PA and another person who contacted me privately.  Plus, it was still sitting on my dining room table.  Problem was, that Necchi is a high shank machine, and I don't have a single high shank buttonholer.  This led me down another side road as I went through two small boxes of high shank feet and dug through them selecting the best one of each type to dedicate to the Necchi.  And photograph them for a future blog post.  There went another afternoon.  And I did fix the Necchi by undoing the previous "fix", by thinking about what was wrong and why it might be so, and then by swapping out the clutch knob from the Necchi with the terrifying wiring.  Problem solved, machine put away, spot cleared on the dining room table for the next machine to test buttonholers on.

 

Another machine I planned to use for testing the buttonholers was a Wards Signature 220, which was a lovely machine that I had restored in November and low shank.  But the buttonholer simply would not fit.  The configuration was just wrong and it absolutely would not go onto the presser foot shaft.  Guess what--another side road because I decided to write a Craigslist ad and accompanying blog post about it.  

It has the four step buttonhole feature, so it really doesn't need to have a buttonholer.  Moved it off the table to make way for the next machine to test those buttonholes.  It sold quickly on Craigslist and went to a good home.

 

Another buttonholer testing fail with a really lovely dark teal and white vintage Japanese zigzagger, which also turned out to be a high shank machine.  I took time to write up a blog post about it and sold it on Craigslist to help combat the Great Sewing Machine shortage of 2020.

Singer 223

 

I have a few other vintage machines that I restored some time ago, but I don't remember what type of shank they have and I wasn't in the mood to find out that they wouldn't work.  So I unearthed a Singer 223 with a completely chewed up needle throat plate.  

 

Because I knew it was low shank, that a Singer buttonholer would fit, and that the throat plate wouldn't be an issue because it would be covered up anyway.  And this did work.  And I need to spend some time searching for a vintage parts vendor to see if I can find a throat plate for this.  This model is one of my favorites (OK, I know I say that about a LOT of models but it's always true!) because it has both a zigzag stitch and a blind hem stitch. 

 

This makes it an absolutely perfect machine for a dressmaker looking for a good vintage machine.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Big things going on in my personal life which have directly affected my sewing machines.  Can't talk about any of it online yet but I am super busy right now, so what I said up above about enjoying the relaxed pace of pandemic life has flown out the window.  

So how did I manage to get this post out?  Because it was already written.  I usually keep a couple of posts in progress and work on them off and on until they ripen.  This one was all done so up it goes.  And you will hear from me again in the future but it might be a while.

 If you are one of my personal friends who knows what is going on please DON'T mention it in the comments below.  Not because it is any kind of giant secret but there are reasons.  Thanks.