A Machine For Michael: Blunders # 1 and 1A. And a useless giveaway

About a month ago I ran into my old buddy Michael at a party.  We got to talking about sewing, since that is the only topic in my brain these days.  Michael reminisced about a time back in the day when he hung out with theatrical costumiers.  He said he would love to learn to sew and was thinking about buying a machine.   He wants to duplicate some high-end home dec items at low-end prices.  I made him promise to let me find him a machine and he had no trouble with the concept that the old vintage machines are a hundred times better (conservative underestimate) than the new plastic ones, even plastic ones costing thousands of dollars.  Some people can’t wrap their minds around this.  I told him I was sure I could put a package together for under $50.

BAIT?

So the hunt was on.  I used this as an excuse to comb the thrift stores near and far.  And I always check CraigsList every day.

And along the way I made some serious blunders and learned a lot.  I don’t mind the blunders if I learn something.  My low income prevents me from making costly mistakes.

Blunder #1:  The Singer 457

No excuses for me here:  I WAS WARNED.  The vintage singers yahoo group has a wealth of information, and I know how to search the archives, so I knew in advance that this puppy had plastic gears.  But I have always thought that its configuration would be perfect for a beginner:  straight, zig-zag AND a blind stitch.  That’s 99.9% of what anyone needs.  $25 at habitat and it had TWO foot controllers.  I didn’t fire it up, but turned the handwheel and it looked like it was working.  But when I got it home, guess what, the plastic gear was broken.  And yes, it would make a stitch or two before stalling out.  I spent a pleasant Sunday morning cannibalizing it for parts and discovered a mint green bobbin winder tire inside, perfect for my “new” Singer 15-125.  Or maybe this is bait for the pristine, mint green, Singer 319 that I long for.

No net loss anyway, the parts are worth more than $25.

Blunder #1A:  The OTHER Singer 457

Prior to all this I got into a conversation with a woman at Habitat over another 457.  She was considering buying it for the cabinet for a machine she already had.  We later exchanged a few emails and I knew she wanted to offload the 457.  I offered her the $10 she had paid just for the machine.   All this took a while and by the time she got back to me about it I had bought the 457 mentioned above and discovered the broken plastic gear.  Anyhow, this one has worked out well enough because we met for lunch and had a terrific time.  Our only dispute was over payment:  I wanted to pay her, she wasn't willing to take money for a broken machine!    It has no foot controller and the bobbin was not turning, so this one is just another dead 457.  I cannibalized this one also, but sadly it had an ordinary black bobbin winder tire and not the mint green one I was hoping for.

The first one I bought came with a manual.  I will never buy another 457, although I would take donations just in case there was another mint green bobbin winder tire inside.  I really, really hope that none of you own a 457, but if you do and need a manual, send me your snail mail address.  First come, first served, no charge.  

You could however, if you liked, pay it forward and do something nice for someone else.  Or you could send me a pristine, mint green, 319.  I wouldn't say no to that.

Stash Mastery #2: 2.5" Strips and Squares

I spent many, many, many hours getting my fabric stash organized.  Although it took hundreds of hours over a 16 month period, it was soothing and enjoyable to sort, iron, trim and fold each piece.  Other, more normal people would probably find it mind-bogglingly tedious.  And now I can see everything, lay my hand on anything at a moment's notice, and know the approximate amount/size of each piece.  Well worth the investment of time, IMO.  Time has a different meaning once you are retired, BTW.

During the stash organization project I also trimmed up the ends of each piece and cut all the leftover bits and pieces up into useful sizes:  2.5" strips of anything 16" long or longer, and 2.5" squares of anything smaller. Long ago I experimented with a more complicated scrap system.  But I never did anything with them so I decided to simplify to just these two sizes.  The 16" length works for the bargello quilt pattern.

I bought 8 large glass candy jars at Walmart to store the squares and strips:  red/pinks/purples, yellows/oranges/browns, blues/greens, and black and white.  These are lined up on top of a shelf unit in "Studio North" (aka the living room) and look terrific.

I've already used the strips to piece two twin sized bargello quilts, one of which is quilted and finished.  The other one is waiting to go on the frame. 

BTW, replacing a worn out king sized quilt with two twins for the DH and me turned out to be a brilliant move.  We've got a super king sized down comforter (regular king with half a twin sewed to one side, needs custom covers of course, but keeps the aforementioned tushes covered from the cold air).  Sometimes one of us wants an extra quilt, and the other one doesn't.  The DH also likes to use the quilt as a sheet.

Quilts for our bed have to survive frequent washing AND the action of tiny dogs trying to tunnel to China.








I also pieced 130 4-patches from the squares.  On this quilt I was playing with values and only used the lightest and darkest of the squares.  Every block has a solid navy center.  I kept the reds out but other than that didn't both much about color or what goes with what.  It's all about the values.

Set them on point, alternating with solid magenta blocks.

I used the design wall for the first time to plan this quilt, which is now ready to have the blocks sewn into rows.   The design wall began life as office cubicle panels, a thrift store find. The panels are just leaned up against some steel shelving.

The second photo only shows the top half of the quilt in progress.  The entire thing went all the way down the wall and flowed onto the floor.  I was surprised at how well the blocks stuck to the wall.  Any movement (or air flow from the vacuum cleaner) dislodged them, but if left alone they stayed up for days.

Those yellows are jumping out too much.  I had my doubts about them when they were on the wall, but one of my design principles is to put in something that jars just a bit for liveliness.  But now that I see the photo I think I will replace them.  More piecing ahead.

Perfectly Fitting Pants for the Perfect Paleolithic Tush

Every woman should have pants that fit perfectly.  They are truly life-altering in their effect on one's psyche.

Pants that fit perfectly don't

• bag
• bind
• bunch
• constrict
• pinch
• pull
• sag
• strain
• twist

They feel great when you are

• bending over
• dancing
• driving 
• hiking
• roller blading
• running
• sitting
• sky diving
• standing
• walking

Pants that fit perfectly

• sit perfectly
• are the perfect length for your taste
• have the leg width just the way you like them:  not too floppy, not too tight
• fit perfectly in every dimension at every point: waist, seat, thighs, knees, calves, ankles

In the last week I have made three pairs of pants, and have the 4th and last pair cut out.  I tend to make them in batches, so they tend to wear out in batches.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  We won't discuss the weight gain if you don't mind.

My favorite type of pants are very simple in design:  elastic waist,  medium weight woven fabric with a touch of spandex in it, pockets on the front but not back, slim but not tight legs.  The latest addition on this round of pants-making is a clever little cell phone pocket inside the right hand pocket, a detail copied from one of the DDs pants.

How to make perfectly fitting pants?  it's really easier than all the millions of words printed on the subject:

• take the pair of pants that fit you the best
• wait until they die (are no longer wearable)
• analyze the things that are not perfect about them

• in my case the center front is always too high and the center back is always too low
• deconstruct them stitch by stitch (takes me about 2 hours, but I am notoriously slow at everything I do)
• make the necessary changes to them (in my case taking a tuck in the center front seam and slash and spread the center back seam).
  

TMI
Pants that fit perfectly don't have to be on a perfect body.  Although I, in fact, DO have the perfect body.   For the Upper Paleolithic, that is.  If you don't know what I mean, just google Venus de Willendorf.  Although I am not as well endowed up top as Ms. de Willendorf, I can match her cellulite for cellulite on the lower torso.  I'm sure that is way more than you ever wanted to know about me, but even us lush-goddess-types can enjoy a perfectly fitting pair of pants.

Stash Mastery at long last

Be warned!  What you are about to see took 16 months and untold hours of time.  Hours and hours and hours and hours of ironing and folding.  So much ironing, in fact, that I burned out one steam press.  This task is not for the faint of heart or anyone who does not just LOVE ironing.  (It's not that I'm all that crazy about ironing, but I do love my steam press.)

16 months ago this was all on the shelves and organized by color but the pieces were folded any old way and all the various lengths were mixed together.  The only way to discover what I had in any particular color was to dig through all of it in search of the hidden gems.  Fat quarters were especially good at disappearing.  Studio Maxim:  If you can't see it, it doesn't exist.  It was always a horrendous mess.

Bicentennial fabric

I've been a quilter since the American Bicentennial in 1976 and I am a thrift shop-a-holic.  About 3/4 of the stash was bought for 50 cents a yard or less at thrift shops.  Before I retired I spent decades collecting but not quilting much.  I have a fabulous stash, if I do say so myself.

The key to designing any organizational system is to think about how you will use it. What do you need it to do?  I need to be able to see all of my fabric, and I need to know approximately how much of each piece I have.



The way they are folded tells me how much there is

• 5 yard lengths or longer are wound on bolts on the top shelf
• thanks to Mary Jo's Cloth Store for the free empty bolts
• 2 to almost 5 yard lengths are folded to a width of 11" 
• 1 to almost 2 yard lengths are folded to a width of 5.5"
• less than 1 yard lengths are in clear plastic boxes
• yes, I do know that this is forbidden by the quilt police 

Although it is organized mostly by color, I do have separate stacks and boxes for special items like my own hand-dyes, novelty fabrics and very large florals.

Start by folding your yardage in half width-wise (hard to figure out how to describe this!), and then again.  For example, a 3 yard long piece that is 44" wide becomes a 3 yard length 22" wide on the first fold, then 11" wide on the second fold.

An 8.5" x 11" plastic cutting board is the only tool you need.  In step 1 it measures the 11" width.  Home dec fabrics and other fabrics of different widths may need an extra fold and the plastic board helps.

Rotate the cutting board so that you are folding around the 11" side. 

Flip it over and over until the whole length is folded around it.

Slide the cutting board out from the center and you have a nicely folded piece to put the on the shelf.

For shorter lengths, add an extra width-wise fold at the beginning.
Fold 1:  from 44" wide to 22"
Fold 2:  From 22" to 11"
Fold 3:  From 11" to 5.5"


For lengths at least one yard but less than two, wrap it around the cutting board.

approximately 4.5" x 5.5"

For lengths less than 1 yard but at least a quarter yard, fold to 5.5" wide and then fold in from both ends to form a little bundle.  Small plastic boxes from Walmart hold the little bundles.





For the first half of the project I was measuring everything and putting a half sheet of paper in the folds with the dimensions on it. Eventually I decided that this was overkill.

I had also planned to scan a bit of each piece and put the photo and the dimensions into EQ (Electric Quilt quilt design software).  Also overkill at this point, because I rarely use EQ.  If I had my own fabric database I might use it more.  Someday.  Maybe.  Probably Not.

I also started out by pressing everything with a spiffy new digital steam press, which I loved and overused until it died.  Heartbroken, I stopped pressing everything, but did press the selvedges flat on each piece, and tumbled the worst wrinkles out in the dryer.  Pressing everything was also overkill because wrinkles will form in the folds anyhow, but having the selvedges flat makes folding much easier.

Then, in one of those amazing turn of events that makes people believe that the universe is genuinely  interested in their personal welfare, a steam press appeared before me at a local thrift shop.  On Senior Citizens 10% Discount Monday.  I have been going to thrift shops avidly since 1968.  This is the ONLY steam press I have EVER seen in a thrift shop.  $10 minus the geezer discount and another 10% discount on my membership card. 

 Even better, it is not digital.  It's the electronics that went wonky on the one that died.  The memory of what I paid for that one still burns, believe me.

and speaking of burns, if you buy a steam press you will burn yourself, probably badly, probably repeatedly.  Ask me how I know.

and although the name of the object is "steam press" I never put water in mine.  I just use a spray bottle to dampen if necessary.  I've gone through so many steam irons that I finally took the pledge to give up the steam. 




It took a year to get all of this organized.  I enjoy projects like this, and I have the time to take my time.  And although this took untold countless hours, the payoff has been huge. I found many wonderful fabrics that I had forgotten about.  I can now lay my hands on anything at a moment's notice.   It is very easy to maintain the system once everything is tidy.  Slide the plastic cutting board into the stack and lift a bit wherever you want to remove or replace a piece of fabric.

The real question is:  how many more decades or centuries would I have to live in order to use up this fabric?  None of these photos shows the full 9 feet of the wall, by the way.  I'll be 62 this summer so even the most optimistic estimate would only give me another 40 years. 

At 3 or 4 quilts a year, this looks like more than 40 years worth of fabric to me, even if I stopped buying fabric tomorrow (sounds of hilarious laughter offstage).  What do you think?

Spring TOBE and the people powered machines

The Treadle On folks hold several block exchanges a year.  TOBE = Treadle On Block Exchange.  The blocks must be pieced on a people powered machine such as treadle or a hand crank.  The spring exchange this year was a simple rail fence and I decided to join in.

Somehow I always manage to fall into projects that take on a life of their own.  I had never been in a block exchange before, and originally I was just going to make a minimum number to see how it worked.  Honestly.

A year ago when SMAD (Sewing Machine Acquisition Disorder) first struck, I didn't take the DH's grandma's Singer 66 out of the treadle to clean it because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to put it back together properly.  Those two tiny screws are no big deal to me now.   After making the first set of TOBE blocks I began swapping machines in and out of the treadle like mad.  I tried the hand crank on everything in sight.  I learned a lot along the way and finally bonded with the little Singer 99.

Singer 128 hand crank conversion.  Too small to fit in the treadle.

Singer 99K hand crank conversion, also too small to fit in the treadle.  I hated this machine when it had a motor (I think the motor needs some serious work), but as a hand crank it is lovely.  I have since performed a motorectomy and  bought it its very own spoked wheel and hand crank.   Next I will try it with leather.  Leather workers love this model with the hand crank.

Singer 127, The Sphinx.  Lovely as a hand crank or treadle.  Just lovely in general.  Sigh....

Singer 309K two-toned, acquired while I was working on the TOBE blocks.  I also have another, MUCH uglier 306W.  Both of these worked fine in the treadle with the spoked wheel from the Singer 66 (or any other spoked wheel AFAIK).  This was great news because I have plans to paint the ugly 306 and put it in a treadle.  Neither one of these worked with the hand crank, however.  There just was not enough clearance for the wheel to turn.  I have seen 306 hand crank conversions, but to do it you have to drill a hole in the solid hand wheel.

I ended up sending the maximum number of blocks for the exchange: 60.  I received the blocks from the other participants and they are lovely.  Because everyone has their name and town on them, I don't think I should share them here, but I will share some of the ones that I made.  Enjoy!

This was the first block exchange I have ever done and it was fun.  The purpose of Treadle On is to encourage the use of (rather than merely the collecting of) people powered machines.  It's a very friendly group and there are some novice quilters there who got into sewing through owning the machines, rather than the other way around.  The most intimidating part of the whole thing was all that PENMANSHIP.  Never my strong suit when I was young, it is a nightmare with a hand with a couple of old-lady-type-frozen-up-finger-joints.  But I surprised myself and surpassed my very minimal expectations.  I think they were all legible.

I also learned why you can't treadle or hand crank a Singer 15-91.  Of course it is obvious once you know, but seeing is worth way more than a written explanation.  In short it's gear driven rather than belt driven.  Taking off the hand wheel and peering into the gears was a revelation for me and now I "get" it and understand that machine much better.   I took the opportunity to pick out the 50 years old lube and re-lubed it, too.

Smackdown: Singer 201 vs. Pfaff 131, from Anne Graham

Here's another contribution from guest blogger Anne Graham.  
You too could be a guest blogger.  Write about your vintage sewing machines and send pictures.  It really is just that easy!  You KNOW you have a lot to say about your machines, why not share?

Anne writes:

I have finally gotten to the final test of the series.  This one
included two known favorites of mine, the Singer 201 and the Pfaff
131.  Both machines were made approximately the same time and for the
same purpose.  The countries are different and the condition they came
to me are also different.  Each one was a freebie.

The Pfaff 131 was a gift from someone who had in turn received it from an elderly neighbor.  She was, like her machine, from Germany.  She was also known to be a fine seamstress.  I know this to be quite true as the machine was in immaculate shape when I got it.  The tools were missing but the bobbins were neatly stored according to color and weight carefully in a front drawer.  It needed new external wires from age and a new belt but that was all.  I promised to give this a good home and did.




The Singer 201 was along for the ride when I bought the cabinet it came in.  It was inoperable and very very dirty.  Because of the fine reputation this model has I took it and spent some serious time in cleaning.  I bought some parts to replace worn and missing ones.  All the while I wondered if I had truly lost my mind.  It was so enjoyable.  I do not know why I am compelled to do this.  After a while I did get it to turn and eventually run nicely.  There is more work to be done but it is up to the test.

I am now at a point in the sewing of my project where quilting is all that is left.  Each machine needs to be able to use a walking foot or feed the fabric and batting through evenly.  Each machine will have to
be able to use clear nylon quilting thread easily.







Singer 201 Pro's:  She took to the walking foot like it was made special for this machine.  It is not the special strait stitch kind either, just a common Alphasew model.  It pulled the fabric through and stitched with no tangles underneath or pulling off center.  No problem with clear thread and held tension in bobbin too.   The light placement is nice - in front of the machine.  I prefer this to the back.   It is fairly quiet considering the strength it has.  On a side note, Because it is in a case I can take it's powerful sewing ability wherever I want.  It just needs a luggage carrier.

Cons:  The machine's motor still needs some work so it is a little slow.  It will improve with more work.  This machine is a biggie, so to use it in a case means you have to raise your arms to sew with it.
The height is inconvenient when on a table and if you are doing quilting it is a lot of time in that position.



Pfaff 131 Pro's:  This baby is smooth.  It is beautiful, powerful and fast, fast, fast.  The manual it says it is a lightweight high speed machine for corset and shirt production. It may have been intended to be a home machine only.  One thing for sure, it is not lightweight in the literal sense.  It is so heavy I could not use it in a case, it had to go in a cabinet.   It sews perfectly with the quilting thread.  I like that I can open the cabinet and let the quilt lay flat while working on it.  That helps me a novice quilter by keeping it all
smooth and not bunched up.  It is a low shank like the Singer 201 and also takes a walking foot nicely.

Cons:  I have no idea why, but the Pfaff has the dumbest bobbin access of any machine.  Unless I am doing it wrong, you have to tilt the machine up each time you change a bobbin.  There is an access plate for the bobbin area but I can not get my hand down there far enough to replace one.  It's hook is vertical just like the 201, by the way.






Very very close in this segment.  They are almost exactly alike but...........the winner is the Pfaff 131.

Cheryl at DragonPoodle comments:
Anne wonders if she has lost her mind.  Many of us wonder the same thing.  Why is it so satisfying to work on these machines?  There are a million reasons, what are yours?  I love bringing them back to life by revealing their beauty and restoring them to operating condition.  But it goes much deeper than that, doesn't it?


and about that Pfaff bobbin set up.  The Singer 306 is the same, you have to tilt the machine back to change the bobbin.  You get used to it---unless you treadle it.  Then it is a real pain because you have to release the belt to do it.

King Tut and Geek Quilting

Saturday morning was gray and gloomy but the BF and I slipped away to my new favorite thrift shop, which seems to be the motherlode for all things sewing.  It is, in fact, so good that for once I am unwilling to share the information!  Regular readers of this blog will know that I almost always provide links to any place that I shop.  This one I am hoarding all to myself--and the thousands of other people I see in there.  If you live in the NC Triangle region and really, really want to know, email me and I will probably come across with the info.  I will accept bribes, such as the names of YOUR favorite local thrift shops.

I came home with even MORE fabric, despite having recently taken the pledge to stop buying fabric "unless it really rings my chimes".  As a pledge that has proved to be pretty worthless because there are lots of fabrics that ring my chimes.  This week it included fabric with people playing beach volleyball.  How could I possibly leave that behind?



And then there were the giant blue polka dots.  I can never resist polka dots of any size.

Finally, the piece de resistance:  A lovely white damask fabric from Dakar, Senegal, printed with purple stripes of King Tut. 

Purple!  Stripes!  King Tut!  From Senegal! 

Any quilt I make with King Tut should be pieced on The Sphinx, I think.

I should mention that thrift shop prices for cotton yardage are in the 50 cents to 1 dollar per yard range around here.






A bag of vintage presser feet caught my attention, as well as another box of Greist attachments (I already have a couple).  The Greist box included a tucker, which had previously eluded me.  And the bag had vintage left and right zipper feet (and an extra right foot as well).  It was the zipper feet that pushed me over the edge to spend the $2 on the bag.  Not because I want to use them (I prefer the infinitely adjustable cheapo generic one) but because they are just adorable.





The threatening skies turned to rain, so I spent much of the rest of Saturday updating my studio spreadsheet.  You all keep records of every foot and attachment you own in a spreadsheet, don't you?   This is one of the reasons why one of the DDs calls what I do "geek quilting".






When the vintage sewing machine bug bit me I needed a way to keep track of the sewing attachments and accessories, hence the spreadsheet.  I had it more or less organized and could sort by manufacturer, name of attachment, shank size, etc. but it had too much stuff on one page.  So I created a new page each just for cams, machines, and buttonholers and the like, leaving the presser feet and other accessories on the original page.

I used to be a management analyst for the Defense Department, and although that job only lasted two years (me and the Army were NOT a good fit) in many way the job was a perfect one for me.  I just LOVE to organize things.  Give me a closet to clean out and I am happy as a clam.

downstairs parts cabinet

So I started thinking about how to store the feet and attachments that I want to use in "Studio North" aka the living room.  The main studio is the former downstairs family room.  Downstairs I have a parts cabinet with one type of foot per little drawer.  Anything that lives upstairs has to look like it belongs in a living room.   Plastic parts cabinets do not qualify.






I pulled a small side table with three little drawers from another room and into it went the parts box for the Singer 306 and its bobbin box, and ditto for the 15-91.  I weeded everything out of the recently acquired Greist box except for the parts that fit on the attachment post (the hemmers, edge stitcher and binder).



The problem with keeping all these parts in their original boxes is that they are jumbled up in there and hard to see.  So because I already had everything listed in the spreadsheet, I was able to make sliding paper covers for the boxes with the contents itemized.  Geek quilting at its finest.

The Singer boxes are pretty fragile.  I doubt if Singer gave much thought to making cardboard boxes that would last 70 to 100 years!  I opened them, slid the top under the bottom and then slid the paper cover over all.  This minimizes the wear and tear on the fragile boxes.

99% of the sewing I do in Studio North is just straight piecing on the Singer 15-91, and I use the gauge foot for small pieces or the walking foot for long seams.  But during the next power failure it is nice to know that I can pop the Singer 306 into the treadle and sew any darn thing I want with any fancy presser foot.  I won't, but I sure do like knowing that I could!