A Tale of Two Treadle Irons. NOT a tutorial, just looks like one.

Restoration Field Notes
 All of us who are interested in bringing the old machines back to life have read a lot of contradictory information on the boards about what to do and how to do it.  The most accurate advice (and plenty of others have said this also) is "there is no one way to do things."  Chemicals that do a beautiful job on one machine destroy the finish on another machine.

I'm planning a series of blogs with "field notes" in which I will tell you what I did, why I did it, what else you might consider doing, what I screwed up, what I did to fix it, and the truly astonishing revelation of how long it took to do it.  These may look like tutorials, but that would assume that I know what I am doing.  Usually I don't. 

This is a really long post and it is ONLY about treadle irons, so read on ONLY if that topic fascinates you.  Tune in next week for more cute pictures of Heather and her adorable children and what they have been creating with their people-powered sewing machines.  

A Tale of Two Treadle Irons

Treadle on the left:  Before.                       Treadle on the right:  After.

Two set of treadle irons recently passed through my hands that had very different characteristics. 

Side by side before restoration they appeared to be an almost identical dirty brown.  One had layers of greasy dust and the other one had dust and light rust.

My only experience is with Singer treadles, so that's what I am talking about here.

Remove the cabinet from the irons

This is easier and less intimidating than you might think.  There are four screws that hold the cabinet on to the top of the irons, and there may be additional brackets holding them on to the legs .  Peek under there and you will see them.  Take them out.  Lift the cabinet off.  It isn't heavy and one person might be able to do it, but it is bulky so if you have an extra person around, grab them for a minute.  Literally, a minute.

You can skip this step, but it really is simple and quick to do and it makes cleaning the treadle irons much, much easier.

It's also possible to disassemble the treadle base but I never have.  If the treadle is operating (pedal moves the pitman rod that moves the wheel), that's good enough for me.  And if it is not operating, I would not have bought it in the first place.  There are too many decent treadles out there at decent prices for me to bother with a broken one or one with rust or missing pieces.

Total time required:  less than 5 minutes

Repair or replace parts

I would only do this if I had inherited a family treadle that needed repair.  Objects with family history are in a special category that transcends economic considerations. 

If you have acquired a non-family non-working treadle, you will probably find it cheaper to  buy another treadle than to buy parts to fix it. Of course, a sudden onset of VSMAD often results from the initial treadle acquisition, so you may just consider that first treadle as a parts machine for your future treadles.

VSMAD:  Vintage Sewing Machine Acquisition Disorder

Remove any rust

Extensive rust would also deter me from buying a treadle, but you may spot an otherwise decent, functioning treadle with a few spots of rust.

Someone else will need to chime in on rust removal.  See below on what I tried that did not work.

Clean the irons

Here is a project where you don't have to be obsessively careful about cleaning products.  I have used a variety of kitchen cleaners (PineSol, Mr. Clean and the cheapo orangey stuff)

Slosh the cleaner on a section of the irons with a brush or a cloth, scrub.  Use a toothbrush to get in the crevices.  Wipe it off.  Repeat.  Repeat,  Repeat.  Repeat.  Turn it upside down.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  You get the drift.

Greasy, furry logo before cleaning

There's a good chance that it has not been cleaned in 100 years.  The first one I cleaned had greasy grunge that actually looked like brown fur.  Just keep scrubbing and cleaning until it is gone.  Your goal is to get all of the dirt off.  Once you begin to get down to the actual paint you should be able to distinguish between an area that is tolerably clean and one that still needs further scrubbing. 

Don't worry about rinsing at the end.  There is one more step to go that will remove any residue from the cleaner.

If possible, do this outdoors.  First, the horrible brown stuff that will flow down off the treadle base has to go somewhere, and outside is a better place for it than your floors.  Next, there are so many nooks and crannies on a treadle base that even in the best interior lighting you will not be able to see all of the dirty bits easily.  Full sunlight is the way to go. 

Some of the paint may have chipped off, and some may be loose and will come off with the cleaning.  If it is loose enough to do this, I want it to come off now. 

Approximate time will vary according to the degree of filth.  The brown furry greasy one took about 2 hours to clean.  

Dusty rusty one on left, before cleaning

One of my treadles had light rust under the dust, and I thought some 0000 steel wool might take the bloom of rust off.  I was wrong about that, but on the upside it did not remove or scratch the remaining paint and it did a dandy job on the few spots of grease (under the oiling points) that were on these irons. 

I dunked the steel wool in the cleaner, let most of it drip off, and then gave the whole thing a scrub down.  I went lightly over the gold logos, and again the steel wool did not appear to do any harm.  After scrubbing each section of the machine I wiped it down with a cloth dampened in the cleaner.  

I might try steel wool again, cautiously, on a greasy one.  Remember, just because it didn't scratch the paint on this one does not mean that it wouldn't on another one.

I was somewhat concerned that all this liquid would merely promote more rust, but it evaporated quickly.  It was a crisp day with low humidity, around 50 F.

The lack of decades of grease meant that this cleaning went much more quickly.

Time for the steel wool wipe down:  just under 30 minutes.

Comparing the two led me to wonder about their histories.  Perhaps the greasy one sat in a kitchen, and the rusty one was in a parlor.  Sitting in a parlor in the humid South for decades before the age of air conditioning could have led to the rust.  And the layers of grease undoubtedly protected the kitchen irons from rust.

Pause to evaluate

I imagine it is easy to repaint a treadle base.  A spray can of black Rustoleum should do it.  The question is, do you really want to do this?  This is just another one of those personal preferences.

Logo after cleaning.

My own preference is for machines that look good but show some age.  If the chipped paint reveals gray iron, I leave it alone.  The gray softens the look.  If you paint it glossy black it will probably look terrific, but may not appear in harmony with your vintage cabinet and machine.  Think of a wrinkly old lady you have seen with dyed jet black hair.  No matter how good the dye job, it's never going to look right.

After cleaning, were you astonished to discover gold paint on the Singer logos?  If that paint is worn, you can ponder whether to touch it up or not.  I did, and lived to regret it.  I should have stopped at this point.  See above about age-appropriate beauty treatments.

 

 

Brightly painted logo.  Too brightly.

 

Painting the gold trim

I touched up the gold paint on the formerly-greasy irons, which I am keeping for myself.  I'm not entirely happy with the results.  It looks a bit garish to me.  Not garish enough for me to want to try to fix it, however.

You need a good small artist's paintbrush and a can of gold paint.  I used a Rustoleum American Accents gold satin paint, simply because I had a can of it sitting around.  And you need a steady hand.

I had the most trouble with the large oval surrounding the logos, and my paint job looks sloppy.  I did it first freehand, was not satisfied, went back and marked it off with blue painters tape and did it again.  It looks better but not great.  From a distance, however, it looks just fine.  And I'm not expecting anybody to get down on their hands and knees to examine the paint job.

Sharpie makes a marker with actual paint in it.  My new favorite thing for touching up chipped paint on a machine.  Or painting over mistakes in the gold paint.

The logos have raised images and lettering, and if your hand is steady enough and your brush is small enough it is a fairly simple matter just to lay some paint down.  If you are lucky the outlines of the old paint are still in place and you will only need to fill them in.

Approximate time:  This took me another two hours.

Oil the moving parts

Normal maintenance is a drop of oil at every point of movement.  We're not ready for that just yet.  The goal here is to flush out any cleaning fluid that sneaked into the joints, at the same time dissolving and flushing out old dried oil, dust and dirt.  This phase is also best done outdoors.

Use sewing machine oil.  There are a myriad of other products, all more expensive.  If you use them you will have to flush them out with sewing machine oil at the end, because they leave residue behind that will dry and harden.  So skip the expensive stuff and stick with the cheap stuff.  Any brand of sewing machine oil will do. 

Run oil into each point of movement until it starts to drip (it will only take a few drops).  Use either the treadle pedal or the flywheel to turn it several times,  More oil, more turning, more oil, more turning.  Is it moving more freely?  Keep going.  When it stops making improvements, sit at it and treadle it for a couple of minutes.  Oil it again, treadle it for another couple of minutes.  Keep going if you are still detecting improvements.  If the performance is smooth and consistent, leave it for a day.  Then oil 'er up again and treadle it for another couple of minutes.  Still smooth and consistent?  Then wipe off all that oil.

Time:  Depends on how gunky the joints are.

Wax

The final step in the cleaning process is to use an automobile cleaner/wax product.  I used Meguiar's, but I don't think the brand matters.

The bottle instructs you to wipe it on and polish it off.  I put much more effort into the front end of the process, and use it as a cleaner and rub it on.  More brown stuff may come off on the cloth. At the end of this vigorous wipe down, use a clean cloth to wipe on a coat of the cleaner/wax and let it dry thoroughly.  Then use a microfiber cloth to wipe off the wax and buff it to a shine.

Total work time (not including drying time):  One hour.

There is still brown stuff coming off.  Shouldn't we press on and clean it some more?  Happily, the answer is "no".  At some point you stop taking off the dirt and start removing the 100 year old paint.  The question is:  where is that point?  Since I can't tell, I just relax, admire my work and move on. 

Reassemble

Pop the cabinet back on top and put the screws back in.

Time:  less than 5 minutes.

Again, the disclaimer:  read the blogs and boards, but in the end you have to make all of the decisions and you will be the one stuck with the results.  Whatever you decide  to do, test a small and inconspicuous area first.

Thanks to Nicholas Rain Noe of The Vintage Singer Sewing Machine Blog for suggesting some detailed restoration blogging. 

To anyone who read this far, hope you enjoyed it.  Leave a comment, like "more please" or "promise you will never do this again".

Notched Handwheel Gone Awry

Rumor has it that you can cut a notch in a Singer handwheel and attach a hand crank to it.  This should do two things:

• save the extra bucks that the spoked handwheel costs
• allow the bobbin winder to function (it won't with the spoked wheel)

Heather kindly volunteered her husband to cut the notches as part of a barter.  The notches are notches, can't see how anything could be wrong with them.  But the finger on the hand crank is just too short to seat securely in the notch.  It looks more or less OK until you go to use it, then it immediately slips out of place.

Singer 99 notched wheel and handcrank

In place

Out of place

 And yes, the notch is wider than the finger, but that should not matter.  By the way, he also cut a notch in a Singer 237 handwheel, which is thicker, and that works on the 237.  In that case also the notch is a bit wider than the finger.

Any ideas?

thanks in advance,
Cheryl

Musical Sewing Machines: When the music stops, who is in the cabinet?

 My husband's grandmother's 1922 Singer Red Eye 66-1 treadle has gone to live at DD Aurora's.  The MIL and I are thrilled that she wants it.  Aurora says it is an art object.  I say that she should know how to operate all of the devices in her house.  This argument is designed to appeal to the engineer in her.  Let you know how that goes...

cleaned up well, don't you think?

Naturally I have to have another treadle.  Last Easter I bought one with a pretty rough cabinet and a gunked up Singer 127 Sphinx inside.  I bought it for the treadle because I already had a Sphinx.  Then DD Emily extravagantly admired my Sphinx and its hand crank (she loves the rhythm of the vibrating shuttle).  I cleaned the gunky Sphinx and gave it to her for Christmas.



So I had an empty treadle but like I said it was cosmetically rough.  It does have drawers, this photo shows it in prep for cleaning. 

I watch CraigsList daily, and although there are a lot of truly delusional sellers out there, there are also good machines going for reasonable prices. 

Before restoration

 

Eventually it all came together:  a CraigsList posting for a nice looking treadle with a Singer 66 Lotus inside.  I've been yearning for a Lotus as an art object.  I wouldn't turn down another Red Eye either.  They are both beautiful, beautiful machines, but a pain in the neck to treadle, IMHO.  You'll see the Lotus later after a good cleaning, and with a hand crank.  Maybe that won't turn backwards and break the thread EVERY SINGLE TIME I pause for a moment.




Studio student Heather likes the people powered machines and will be taking the funky treadle home with a Riccar 108 zig-zag machine inside, a post-WWII Japanese vintage beauty. 

Riccar 108, near-mint all metal powerhouse

So what is going into the newly acquired 7-drawer treadle?   A Singer 115 with Tiffany decals.  The 115 has the reputation of being a good treadler, and I am looking forward to the test drive.  The irons have been restored and the cabinet is almost finished, so it will be soon.

Singer 115 after about 20 hours of cleaning and polishing

In other studio news, it's amazing how much can get done while baby is sleeping.

Raven checked out a Singer 185, but prefers the 99.









Her second project is a teddy bear.  She tried out the incredibly cute tiny clothes pins that I found in the office supplies section at Walmart.  Much less intimidating than sharp pins and they worked out well.

She finished sewing the bear and took it home to stuff it.

Is 5 months too young to start sewing lessons, do you think?  He really wants to get his hands on this machine.

Sewing Karma's Gonna Get You

Lucky me.  I met a young woman who wanted to learn to sew and she asked me what I would charge for lessons.  I told her, but also told her that I was open to the idea of bartering.

She then uttered magical words that were music to my ears:
"I am a massage therapist."

So now I am getting a weekly massage from a professional massage therapist (Heather James at Hillsborough Yoga and Healing Arts) and she and her daughter are getting weekly sewing lessons.  This will remain a health-issue-free blog, but trust me when I say that I do have issues for which massage provides the perfect therapy and relief.

Not only is the massage wonderful, but having people come over to play with me in my studio is just as wonderful.  Not only that, but one of them is a 9 year old girl who is very interested in sewing.  Not only that, but a 5 month old baby comes along for the ride.  This may or may not be YOUR idea of heaven, but it is mine. 

On her first lesson, Heather completed a pair of pants for baby Gryphon from a recycled sweater. 

Adorable, don't you think?  Heather went home and made another pair, too.

On lesson 2 Raven came along with her mom.  Here you see her using a Singer 99 with hand crank to add rick rack to a strap.

By the end of that session she had the straps sewed on to the tote.

She came back with me on Saturday after my massage and while her mom was still working and finished up her roomy tote bag.  She did an excellent job.  Just look at how straight those straps are.  First class.

The bag is made from upholstery fabric with a coating on the inside, the straps are the serious kind I use on luggage, and there is rick rack.  The Singer 99 crunched its way through two layers of all that on the bottom seam, powered by Raven.  

I gave Heather and Raven the 15 minute tour that I call "The History of America From The Late-1800's To Now Through Sewing Machines."  (leaf tensioners, vibrating shuttles, 66 in a treadle, 115, 15-91, 15 clones, 15-125, 306, a Kenmore 89 cam stack machine, and my modern Janome with 500 decorative stitches.  It's a selection designed to tell a story, not the complete herd.  mwahahahahahaha.)

They like the people powered machines and on the next lesson they can try sewing on the 66 treadle and Heather can check out a vintage Japanese zigzag machine that I adapted to hand crank.

Someday I will outline the DragonPoodle economic philosophy, but for now I will just say that casting your bread upon the waters can come up trumps.  How's your sewing karma? 

Seduced by Color. AGAIN. (and some sewing machines)

Another post about crocheting (and the last one, I promise!)

National Paveway, 3/4 size, weighs a mere 16.5 pounds.

But first, photos of my latest restorations (so that my vintage-sewing-machine buddies don't get bored and wander away! )

Regular readers met this little machine last spring.  Here she is "before".

You can read the earlier post about her here if you like.




And here is the "after".  Not bad, eh?

Thanks to Wes Cook at Dual Supply in Hillsborough, NC, it now has a lovely "hand knob" a la Laura.  Wes is the owner of the kind of hardware store that has everything, and he knows where it all is, too.  He spent a LOT of time helping me with this and with another one and claimed to have enjoyed the experience.  The total charge by the end was $1.17 (I brought the glass knob with me).

The big news on this one is that I came home yesterday with a 3/4 size Free Westinghouse and this machine fits in that cabinet.  Sort of.  It won't fold down.  The Free Westinghouse is brown crinkle and you may see it after its spa treatment.

Singer 347, basic zig-zag all-metal machine

Twin Singer 338's.  Take Singer flat cams

By the way,  for the total novice sewing-machine-repair-person-wannabe, there is NOTHING like having two identical machines on the bench.  Unless maybe it is THREE.

Three Singer 401's.  Two have found new homes by now.

Now for the crocheting. 
It seems I just can't catch a break.

I was determined to crochet a moebius scarf to match my purple suede jacket and keep me toasty warm in case we ever get around to having a winter here in NC this year.  On the first go-round I fell for some beautifully colored acrylic.  A few days after that fiasco I was driving through beautiful downtown Mebane, NC, and noticed The Twisted Knitter yarn shop.


Kim Pate of Twisted Knitter sat down with me at a table in a sunny corner of the shop and pulled out several skeins of different yarns so that we could see what went with the jacket.  I left with Noro's Silk Garden in similar colors to my first scarf.  The level of service was what I always feel entitled to when I go in a small specialty shop, but rarely receive.  I spent 5 times as much as I had spent on the acrylic, and SHOULD have been treated like a queen.  And was.





And although I was impressed with Kim and her shop, I have to say that I just don't "get" the Noro Silk Garden.

• First, you would think that a yarn that is 45% silk, 45% Kid Mohair, and 10% lambswool would be soft.  NOT.  Scratchy, in fact.  
• Next, you would think that an expensive yarn would be produced to high quality standards.  NOT.  The thickness of the yarn varied from color to color (It's a variegated yarn) with giant slubs in spots, NOT in a pleasant thick-and-thin yarn kind of way, but much more like a beginning, and very unskilled, hand spinner had done it. 
• Finally, you would think that skeins with the same color number and dye lot would be the same color,  REALLY, you WOULD think that!  NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!  When I went back to get more, Kim had to go in the back and get out a whole box and we had to pick through them to find skeins with the same colors in them.  And I am not talking about variations in shades, but skeins that had some completely different colors in them.

In short, I am totally bewildered by the Noro yarn.

I more-or-less solved the thickness problem by using a double strand of it to crochet my scarf, figuring that the thick colors and the thinner colors would play nicely together and they did blend well.

And I am done for the year.  No more moebius scarves.  No more expensive trips to yarn shops.  Sadly, no lovely cuddly soft warm beautifully-colored moebius scarf for me as I had envisioned.   It is warm and I like the color but hate the scratchiness.

I did have a wonderful time in The Twisted Knitter, though.  How about you?  Are you treated well in expensive specialty shops (like quilt shops)?  Or are you totally ignored?  I've had more than one bad experience in the closest quilt shop to me and refuse to give them my money.  I once took my SIL Mary there but they were way too busy schmoozing with the regulars to even speak to us, let alone wait on us or take our money for the things we wanted to buy.  Now, Mary and I both bathe regularly and don't look like derelicts.  That was the very last time I crossed their threshold.  I was embarrassed to have taken Mary in there and subjected her to that.

And speaking of SIL Mary, I'm hoping she didn't read my last post in which I trashed acrylic yarn.  I have a beautiful afghan that she crocheted for me decades ago.  Still looks as great as it did when new, and it has been washed several times.  It has not pilled, twisted, or stretched out of shape.   It must have been a superior species of acrylic.  Just like everything else, they probably don't make it as well these days.  Twenty years ago I think that Noro would have been laughed off the stage.

BIG news in the studio!  I'll tell you all about it next time.  This post has already become a novelette.

Seduced by Color. Moebius Magic.

A post in which I offend:

• rich dudes
• supermodels
• acrylic yarn

You have been warned.

I am beginning to understand how a guy must feel after he falls for one of those really beautiful or magically attractive women who have not much else going on.  Spellbound by her attractions, all common sense flies out the window.  Later, when he thinks it over, he realizes that he should have known all along how it would end.  But at the time, he was just dazzled.

It happened to me.

In this case, I did NOT fall for a babe, but I did fall for an absolutely beautiful yarn.  In acrylic.  ACRYLIC!  I have known better than this for the last 40 years.  But I was absolutely seduced by the lustrous, luscious, vibrant color.

I looked all through the yarns at Great Yarns in Raleigh and kept coming back to this. I tried to reject it, too, and asked a clerk for help in finding a wool in similar colors.  I didn't seen anything in the bright colors I love except for some tiny skeins of silk yarn at about $1,000 an inch. Or something like that. 

In the end, I bypassed the more subtle colors of the natural wools for the shallow, superficial and beautifully bright acrylic.

first draft in white cotton

I wanted it to make a moebius scarf.  I still remember vividly the moment in junior high school when someone first showed me a moebius strip.  I poked around a bit online looking for patterns but eventually just started crocheting.  REALLY easy.   You work from the inside out and at the end of each complete round you have added a row to both sides of it.  It's magic.  Really.

How to crochet a moebius scarf   (what I did in parentheses)
Chain as long as you want, plus 2-3 more for the turn  (72 inches, which was 160 stitches using chunky yarn and a K hook).  Turn and single or double crochet (your choice) in each chain stitch.  Lay it out flat on a table and bring the two ends together.  Instead of connecting them into a straight tube, turn one end over and then attach them.  This creates the moebius strip. 

Chain up to the next row and keep crocheting. (With single crochet after the first chain up you can skip this and just crochet continuously.)  You will find yourself going around the outer edge of both sides before you come back to the starting point.  Make it as wide as you want.  (Mine was 7" but different yarn, different needle size would create a different drape.)  Try it on several times until it is as wide as you want.

I did three rough drafts in white cotton, double crocheted for speed.  These will eventually go in the dye pot unless one of the DDs really likes the white.  All of the drafts came out fine, I refined my technique a bit each time.  I've been crocheting since I was 8, but there are always several years in between bursts of crochet activity, during which I forget half of what I ever knew.

You can wear it long. 
Looks better on Sophie this way than it does on me.



You can wear it looped around your neck.

I enjoyed every moment of working with this gorgeous color and experiencing the moebius magic.  I'm sure Mr. GotBucks enjoys the time he spends with his latest supermodel girlfriend, too.

Now for the morning after.  It's still acrylic.  It's behaving like acrylic already.  I've worn it ONCE.  In the sunlight it looks exactly like.............acrylic.  It's every bit as warm as.................acrylic.  I think I hate myself.

You can pull it up over your head if it gets really cold.

Unless you stupidly made it in acrylic. 

 

Did I mention that I have an entire steamer trunk of Bernat Sesame 4 wool in various colors?  (Long story).  And a laundry basket full of miscellaneous yarns from thrift shops.  Of course I had nothing that would go with my purple suede jacket. 

I've read about dyeing wool with Kool-Aid and I might just throw some Kool-Aid at some of that Bernat and see what happens.  I could use some more moebius magic before the urge to crochet fades out.

What Did You Get For Christmas?

I'll show you mine.....

Singer 285K, a 3/4 size machine circa 1965

This showed up under the Christmas tree.  Jennie, recipient of one of my Singer 401s,  bestowed this upon DD Emily to pass along to me.  Ah, sewing machine karma. 

This absolutely adorable machine is widely considered to be one of the worst of the all-metal vintage Singers ever.  You can read a thorough and scathing review of this machine here.  (I would credit the author by name if I could find a name, btw.)  It's a good review and I could not have said it any better, or taken better pictures.

I first read this review several months ago and have been longing to get my hands on one of these ever since.  The weirdo lower drive mechanism was every bit as fascinating as I had hoped.  What WERE they thinking?  The reviewer suggests that they were smoking crack, an anachronistic drug reference that tells you that the reviewer was not around in the mid-1960's.

It came with a case in excellent condition, both cosmetically and structurally.  Word on the boards is that plastic cases weren't really designed to hold cast iron machines for decades and most have crumbled by now.

The original owner later added a piece of rainbow ribbon to the handle, I assume.  A very early-1970's touch.  I was there and I remember these things.  Much of the joy of vintage is the trip down memory lane.  And if it turns out I was wrong and the rainbow ribbon was original to the case in 1965, well, I still will have enjoyed the trip.



The DDs gave me LOTS of great books, both old and new, including:
Perfect Pineapples
another book on paper pieced pineapples that I can't find on Amazon now
Adventures in Bookbinding
Celtic, Viking & Anglo-Saxon Embroidery: The Art & Embroidery of Jan Messent
which plays VERY nicely with the bookbinding book.  And if you don't know of Jan Messent, you are not living a full and rich life.  Just saying.

And as if that wasn't overwhelming enough, I also got Persia Wooley's Guinevere trilogy.  Plays nicely with Jan Messent's work, too!
Child of the Northern Spring
Queen of the Summer Stars
Guinevere, the Legend in Autumn
If you also are a big fan of Arthuriana, you know that many, many, MANY authors have tackled the Matter of Britain. I'll pick up just about anything Arthurian in the thrift store, but it doesn't take more than two paragraphs to discover what dreck most of them are.  What a joy to find something worth reading!  I have finished Child of the Northern Spring and find Wooley's Gwen entirely convincing as a Celtic queen, and a nice antidote to Marion Zimmer Bradley's insipid Gwen.  Other than Guinevere, I DO love The Mists of Avalon though, which also views the Arthurian world through the eyes of women.

Do you have a favorite author of books about King Arthur's court?  I would really love to know, please post a comment.  After all, life is about more than sewing machines, isn't it?  ISN'T IT?..................

Back to the Singer 285K:  I love it even with, or especially because of, its fascinating flaws.  Mine has two speeds:  off and 100 m.p.h.  It's one of the fastest machines I have run, scary fast and with little speed control.  I haven't tried it with a hand crank yet, which would certainly solve the speed problem, and at the slow pace of a hand crank the vibrations would be much less of a problem.  A project for a rainy day.

We had a wonderful family holiday, the kind everyone thinks they are supposed to have, but that does not always happen for whatever reasons.  A real Norman Rockwell experience.  Next year we will probably go back to being normal!

Vintage Book Review: The Golden Age of Style

Happy Holidays to one and all!  And if neither Christmas, Hanukkah,  nor Kwanzaa floats your boat, rest assured that I also wish you happiness in whatever ethnic, cultural, or religious holiday comes your way next.  And if even that doesn't do it for you, then I wish you happiness in spite of your curmudgeonly self.


 
For us, it is Merry Christmas.  Both DDs will be here, and Grandma is in excellent health (better than the next generation down for sure).  The poodles have new sweaters, the candy canes are on the tree.  The presents are wrapped.  The Carolina blue flamingos in the front yard are wearing their Christmas wreaths.





The studio is also the guest room (more accurate to say that the lovely large basement studio has a queen sized bed in it) so it is all cleaned up and I am drooling over thinking about getting snowed in next month and doing all the projects that I thought I was going to do in 2011.

My Christmas present to you is some non-holiday related eye candy from the book The Golden Age of Style:  Art Deco Fashion Illustration.  Published in 1976, the book itself is not vintage but the subject matter is.  So my headline is deceptive, but succinct.

 Lots of lovely illustrations, most in color.

Lots of lovely information, about both the history of fashion and the history of fashion illustration.  The photo above helps put Art Deco into context by showing the Belle Epoque that preceded it.

 Heart-meltingly beautiful fashions.

In my life I wear jeans and t-shirts.  In my mind I wear Poiret.

Ho ho ho!

Pink November

Once upon a time I found this little 3/4 size pink Kenmore on Craigslist.  It is a shoddy bit of engineering and/or workmanship.  The stitch quality is mediocre.  Amazingly enough for a machine made in the early 1970's, it has a a vibrating shuttle system like a Singer 127 or others of the first few decades of the 20th century.  If it is such a piece of junk, then why did I buy it?  Silly question, really.  It's PINK.  Really, really pink.

So I have been longing for a pink machine that I could respect---and sew on.  Maybe even pop into the treadle.  And after months of never seeing a pink machine, in November I hit the jackpot.

A pink Atlas straight stitch machine.  If you are looking at the picture and asking "Is that really pink?" then my photography is better than usual.  In full sunlight it looks like a pink-y beige.  In artificial light it looks like a beige-y pink.  And yes, that really is the wall color in my guest room.  It used to be my office, which is explanation/justification enough. 

bed decal

 It turns very smoothly but has minor wiring issues, so I haven't tried sewing with it yet.

This is metal, not a decal

















The very next day I scored another pink machine, a Singer 15 clone in luscious, immaculate condition.  The young woman said her grandmother had sewed with it a lot, but you would never believe it.  But then the young woman's house was also immaculate, and she had a husband, a large dog, and a two year old boy.  Clearly she inherited the "immaculate" gene, unfortunately missing from my own lineage. 

Look at the gloss on the bed--you can see the reflection of the motor.

This is also a pink with beige tones, but it is more definitely pink than the Atlas.  The young woman had stripped the fabric off the case and bleached it to remove some mildew.

I believe the crown above the word "Elgin" indicates that this machine was manufactured by Toyota.  My very favorite machine for piecing is another Toyota 15 clone in apple green and white.


The decals are not extravagant, but they are lovely.

Both of those were Craigslist finds.  Then on Tuesday I wandered into a local charity shop which I am not going to name so that I can say trashy things about them.  They know nothing about sewing machines, their pricing is based on brand name and how new the machine looks (Touch N Sews look good to them, poor fools).  The clerk at the cash register is very nice, but the manager is another story.

There was a straight stitch Kenmore in there for $40 which has been there for a year and a half.  Right next to it, marked $10, was this machine.  I assume the manager has never heard of this brand, which didn't sell in huge volume in the U.S.  The last time I bought a Necchi, the checkout clerk said, "Oh, you got the Nietzche."

A Necchi Nora, about the same color as the Atlas, a salmon pink.  I've heard amazing things about the quality of the vintage Italian Necchis.  No cams, but hey, a girl has to have a mission in life, right?

I've read about this also, but don't remember anything except that it is a great feature to have.  Eventually I will investigate.  But by now it is December, and I have one or two other things going on.

How is your Christmas crafting going?  Because of the uncertainties of that dratted old Life, I can never commit to holiday crafting, but while cleaning up the studio I did find a gift object that I completed months ago.  And I have a project going on that will probably be finished in time.  If not, I've got a jump start on 2012.  Assuming, that is, that we make it to Christmas next year and the world does not end with the conclusion of the Mayan long count calendar cycle on December 21, 2012.

If the world does NOT end, but we merely experience the total collapse of civilization, I assume that most of the readers of this blog will be ready.  Ready to sew, anyway, on those treadles and hand cranks.