2016 NC TOGA day 2: I wasn't there

no post on today's TOGA.  Edna held a class.  I went shopping.

I know from experience that on EVERY trip something important gets forgotten.  I decided decades ago that I would never let this bother me.

The worst time was when I showed up at my friend Mary's house in Baltimore.  Her then-teenage son came out to help me unload the car.  "Could you get my suitcase out of the back seat?"  I asked him.
"What suitcase?"   Next morning Mary and I were in K-Mart buying me some underwear.

Not so bad this time.  I went to get dressed this morning and found that I had not packed my jeans.  The only pants I had with me were the baggy saggy knit pants I wear to the gym (and for the drive yesterday).  So, shopping.  Goodwill to the rescue. I was planning to hit the local thrift shops today anyway.  And now I have a pair of jeans to get me through the week.


There's a similar legendary story about a woman from Cincinnati who came all the way to the NC TOGA only to discover that her clothes had not made the trip.  To this day she is known as "Peeled Pam".  Peeled because we are all known as onions, an early corruption of treadleonians.

Green onion (meaning a newbie) and formerly imaginary friend Barbara will be here tomorrow, as will long-time onion Linda with her onion sprout, young Naomi.  Linda is another formerly imaginary friend, meaning that we first knew each other only online (my imaginary friends).

and purple onions are those who injure themselves while working on sewing machines.  been there, done that.

any other onion terms out there?

see you tomorrow

2016 NC TOGA day 1

It is that time of year and I am back in the beautiful countryside outside of Monroe, North Carolina.

Time for the NC Treadle On Gathering and Academy, what my friend Art calls "sewing machine summer camp."

and between last year and this year I had forgotten how my heart sings when I drive past miles and miles of corn fields.

lovely, lovely zea mays, aka corn

"Corn" does not spring to mind when one thinks of North Carolina crops and I don't see it in Orange County where I live (we don't have any oranges either).

I grew up in Ohio, smack dab in the middle of the corn belt.  You can take the girl out of Ohio but you can't take the corn out of the girl.

Everything that could go right, did today.  How often does that happen?

The day began when a horsefly bit me on the hand half an hour after I had missed my getting-up deadline.  I leapt out of bed to wash it off with hydrogen peroxide, but at least I did not oversleep by any more.  so, all good.

good weather, nice drive listening to the audiobook The Last Kingdom.  Loved the TV series.  Loving the book.

got to the hotel at noon, hours before check in time, but they had a ground floor room ready and upgraded me to the two-beds-and-a-jacuzzi room for free.  Linda and young Naomi will be joining me later.

and I made it to the first event of the TOGA right on time:  Susan's basic repair class.

Fearless Leader Susan

Are you wondering why I came to a basic repair class, and the same one I came to last year?  Don't I already repair sewing machines?  Yes, but Susan has been in this game for decades and I always learn something new from her.  And it is fun to hang out and get to know more people.  Not to mention working on machines is TONS of fun in a group.

Linda, all the way from New Zealand, got one of Susan's machines to play with.  A lovely Jones hand crank.  I have only seen one other, and have never found one in the wild.

a badged Jones

and the back side of the Jones, because it is well worth looking at.

Debbie brought two machines to work on, this one the trusty Singer 99.

and a Davis New Vertical Feed.  This is the model that takes regular sewing machine needles.  The earlier models take much more obscure needles.

Davis vertical feeds are much sought after because they are needle feed machines.  They have no feed dogs: the needle comes down, moves the fabric back, comes up, moves forward.  repeat etc.   There is absolutely NO possibility of the fabric layers shifting, making it great for any kind of sewing and especially for quilting.  I'm working on a string quilt at home on my Davis NVF and there is not a single pucker to be seen.  Puckers are simply impossible with the needle feed system.

With Susan's help they got it working and were dancing in the aisles.  OK, that is a slight exaggeration.  But Debbie WAS very happy.

Edna was there sewing.  She will be teaching some classes the next two days.  She is using a more modern Pfaff with that fabulous IDT, integrated dual feed. Like a built in walking foot only better, and one that works with some of the other presser feet.   Sorry, I don't remember the model number of Edna's machine.

But I once had a Pfaff 1221 and it was one of the finest machines ever to come through my hands.  I kinda sorta still miss it, but the woman who has it now NEEDED it.  And she paid me well for it too.

and Joann was sewing also.  I mostly saw her cutting and I didn't check out her modern machine.

It was a much smaller group then last year.  That's my stuff in the front spread out all across the table.  Couldn't have hogged this much space last year.

And it never occurred to me to take photos of the three machines I worked on.  That's my Singer 348 off to the right.  At least it was mine, I brought it to give to Susan to give to a young woman she knows who wants to learn to sew.  I love the 348s.  Simple and easy to operate and that lovely turquoise color.

After the class and on the way back to the hotel I saw a family diner kind of place (Knife and Fork) and stopped for breakfast-for-dinner.  The scrambled eggs were farm fresh or my name is not DragonPoodle.  Well, OK, my name is not ACTUALLY DragonPoodle but those eggs were really, really fresh.  (If you have only ever eaten months-old eggs from the grocery store, your life is sadly incomplete.)  And the country ham was great.  The eggs were so fabulous I didn't even mind (much) that the toast was made from the cheapest kind of grocery store white bread.  The usual mixed bag in that kind of place.

I was in a great mood after all that sewing machine goodness and the music absolutely fit my mood.  Music from the mid 1960's, my high school years.  South Street.  Duke of Earl.  Can't remember the last time I heard either one of those.  I silently sang along, remembering all of the lyrics.

Overheard:  Customer asks waitress "Is the barbecue pork or beef?"

I almost fell out of my chair laughing.  A true North Carolinian might not even get the joke.  Beef? (puzzled frown)  You can make barbecue out of beef?

see you tomorrow.

Machines for sale at the NC TOGA

TOGA TOGA TOGA

It's that time of year again.  Time for what my friend Art calls "sewing machine summer camp".  The NC TOGA, Treadle On Gathering and Academy.  Think swap meet plus classes.

Activities at DragonPoodle Studio (the silly name for my basement sewing room.  and living room where the antique treadles live. and the dining room which houses a dozen or so machines. and the back bedroom where the tools and un-repaired sewing machines live.  basically my whole house.)  have changed fairly radically in the last few years.

The new knees require lots of time in the gym, and lots of walking (giant thrift stores meet that need now that the summer heat is here).  Much more time out and about, much less time working on sewing machines.  And my current craze in sewing machines is for painting them, but none of those will be for sale.  So I don't have tons of new machines to offer.  But I do have a few.  And I have a few left over from last year too.

I also usually re-check everything out before bringing them.  Not this year.  I will go over anything I bring during Susan's Tuesday class and share the results with potential buyers.

Miscellaneous

Kenmore 1040 case with rose pattern

Kenmore 1040 case
Last year I bought a case for a half-size Kenmore 1040 (its original case was slightly broken).  The seller threw in another slightly broken case.  If you put both of the slightly broken cases together they could make one good one.  Speak up if you want me to bring them.  It is possible that this would fit any of the Kenmore 10xx series but I cannot promise this.  Not on the price list because there is no charge!

In addition to the machines there will be vintage sewing books, vintage and vintage-y sewing accessories.   And some fabrics.

MACHINES

Treadle

Wheeler & Wilson No. 9, unrestored but sewing perfectly

I sold the big van and bought a SUV, so only one treadle will fit!  but this one is a potential gem and deserves a blog post all to itself:  Wheeler & Wilson No. 9

Treadleable zigzaggers

Both of these Singers should fit in any Singer treadle.

Singer 177

Budget model basic zigzagger.  Budget model means no light and a directly wired and somewhat underpowered motor.  But if you want to treadle it you can remove the motor easily.

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a Singer 237

Singer 237

This is a favorite model for treadling because of the zigzag capability.  Reliably all-metal except for two plastic parts (that I know of).  This arrived in the studio recently and I have not serviced it yet, but if you are interested I will have checked it out before you buy it.  and the photo is of last year's 237, but this year's looks just like it.  It does have a spool pin.

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(A photo of the really cute New Home 671 will appear here if anyone is interested in seeing it.)

New Home 671

a lovely cam machine.  one problem:  the zigzag cam is NOT present.  Instead it has a blind stitch cam. Anybody want a blind stitch machine?

Non-treadleable zigzaggers/multi stitch machines

Singer 337, zigzagger

Singer 337.  It straight stitches and zigzags, what more do you need.  And it is turquoise! 

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Singer 348, cam multi-stitch machine

Singer 348.  Another in the same family as the 337, but takes the flat black Singer cams (zigzag cam included).  I bought one of these (not this one) in 1968 and sewed on it until 2000, so this model has a special place in my heart.

Straight stitch machines

Singer 66, rust bucket edition

Singer 66.  Plenty of rust.  It wiggles rather than turns but it wiggles enough to make me think that it MIGHT be repairable.  No bobbin cover.

Update on the rusty 66.  I oiled it up and it is now turning, proving once again that it is hard to kill these old girls.  I'm bringing it whether anyone asks for it or not.  If no one takes it it will get imposed on someone via the raffle table!

At the time of writing this post, the Singer 66 bobbin slide cover is available from sew-classic.com for around $6.

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Singer 66 with motor and godzilla finish

Another, much nicer
Singer 66, crinkle or godzilla finish (pick your favorite nickname), with motor.  Missing bobbin slide cover.  turns freely.  treadle-able, but no motor mount--the motor is bolted to the frame in a different way.  so, not hand-crank-able.  The motor runs very slowly, no idea why.

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Singer 27 BEFORE the front slide plate went to another machine

Singer 27.  No motor mount, so treadle-able, but not hand crank-able or motor-able. No front slide plate, but it does have a shuttle and bobbin.  And the price is really just for the shuttle and bobbin.  Turns very freely and sews well.  I did service this one and planned to re-paint it but I already have one no-motor-boss 27 already painted and don't see any need for another one.

sew-classic.com also has the 27 slide plates

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the infamous Singer 285

the cute 285 case will also hold any other 3/4 size Singer

Kitty has dibs on this one.  Singer 285, in a case.  Richly deserves its reputation as the WORST cast iron machine ever made by Singer.  Fascinating mechanism, you might want to buy it just to study it and shake your head.  The nice case will fit a Singer 99 or 185.  And the price is really just for the case.  If you just want the case let me know and I will donate the machine to the landfill.  No kidding, I would never let this puppy loose on the unsuspecting thrift store public.

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3/4 size Morse

Di has dibs on this one.  3/4 size Morse.  It sews well, it's cute, it's 3/4 size.  I had hope to fit a hand crank to it, but the motor mount is in the wrong place, so no way.

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Singer 301, short bed

this is the cradle that allows a 301 to snap in and out of a cabinet

I refinished the top only of this cabinet and it looks good, but no photo of the top

binder, 3 extra bobbins, zipper/cording food, narrow hemmer, all slant shank for the 301

and a real GEM
Lynda has dibs.  Singer 301, black short bed.  In a lovely cabinet and with additional presser feet shown above. Buttonholer in pink Jetson case also included (but no photo).  If you don't know the 301, you should!  Same basic mechanism as the pricey Featherweight in a full size machine.

I will also sell it without the cabinet.  Price is for machine, cradle and cabinet.  If you want the machine and just the cradle the price will be the same.  If you don't want the cradle I will adjust the price.   the cradle lets you snap it in and out of the cabinet easily and quickly, making it great for taking to classes and events.

Now for the same not-so-fine print from the last post.

This will ONLY be for sale at the NC TOGA or at my home in North Carolina.  I will not ship under any conditions, so don't ask.  (Every year someone reads this and then pleads for an exception.)

I will only bring it if someone is seriously interested in buying it.  Seriously interested means that you really think that you WILL buy it if it lives up to the description.  You are NOT making a commitment in advance.  I WANT you to see it and try it out first.  If you change your mind there will be NO hard feelings.  This has been my policy every year and it works well.  It saves me from hauling heavy stuff to the TOGA and then back home again.

The asking price will be listed on the NC TOGA Yahoo group page but not here.  There are a lot of really good reasons for doing it this way. 

I always offer a 30 day guarantee but you would be responsible for getting the machine back to me within that time frame.  And not by shipping it!   So the guarantee policy is really for my local CraigsList sales but if you can get it back to me I would certainly honor it.

see you in Monroe!

Wheeler & Wilson No. 9, NC TOGA

This Wheeler & Wilson No. 9 has been waiting patiently for me to restore it.  And it has the potential to be a really dandy machine.  Just haven't gotten to it, and in the meantime more and more machines come to live here.  So I am going to offer this for sale at the NC TOGA.  See end of post for the fine print.

This machine, cabinet, and irons have NOT had the full 20 to 50 hours of spa treatment.  I did make sure that all was up and running well and stitching perfectly.  So maybe 5 to 10 hours, including test stitching.

Here's what has been done to the machine

I vacuumed off the spider webs and cat hair (not much but mysteriously appearing both on the top AND on the underneath side of the machine.  I'm picturing the machine tipped back for oiling and up jumps the cat to rub against it.  How else would cat hair get under there?  Leave your theories below in the comments.)

Oiled the machine and the treadle irons and installed a clear plastic belt.  With Singer irons I figure that if you get them turning and  they continue for 10 rotations after you take your foot off the pedal, they are turning freely enough.  These continued for 15 rotations.  Nice.

Removed the needle and polished it with 1000 grit sandpaper.  Did you know you can do this?  In this case it took off some light rust.  It will also remove burrs.  It will also take the modern coating off of a modern needle, but it is a handy thing to know if you have vintage and hard-to-find needles.

Sandpaper is even a quick fix for the modern needles if you get a burr and don't have a replacement handy.  And it is after midnight and you are finishing up your kid's costume, due tomorrow.   Or something like that.

Put a rubber band around the treadle belt groove in the hand wheel, a standard move for me.  Treadle belts are supposed to be loose-ish, just barely tight enough so that they don't slip.  The rubber band provides some nice traction.  They don't last forever but it is really easy to replace them.

Printed out the manual (Google it, the Needlebar site has it).  Threaded it up and started tinkering until I got a good stitch.  Adjusted both upper and bobbin tensions, and the presser foot pressure, and all three were way off.  I find that presser foot pressure is an easy thing to overlook.  In this case it was contributing to puckering (as was the too-tight upper tension).  I loosened up the presser foot pressure until a strong tug WOULD pull the fabric out from under the lowered presser foot.

Here's what has not been done to the machine

Lots and lots of cleaning have NOT happened. 

The next owner can decide how much (if any) cleaning to do on the decals.  They are really nice and I would hate to mess them up. Sometimes we have to know when NOT to restore a machine.  This may be one of those cases.

There is a strip of veneer missing from one side--and missing pieces are in one of the drawers. Not positive they are all there. Once this is fixed a quick session with Howards Restor-A-Finish would be great.  But I have not done that.

The once-lovely metal accessory box has some missing paint chips and a few dings.  And a magnificent collections of accessories.  I have made no attempt to sort them out, identify or test them.  Note the five extra bobbins (and one in the machine)

So, if you are looking for a restoration project where YOU KNOW IN ADVANCE THAT THE MACHINE WORKS and you will be at the NC TOGA, this could be the machine for you.  Not to mention that this is a legendary model, but you probably already know that.

Now for the not-so-fine print.

This will ONLY be for sale at the NC TOGA or at my home in North Carolina.  I will not ship under any conditions, so don't ask.  (Every year someone reads this and then pleads for an exception.)

I will only bring it if someone is seriously interested in buying it.  Seriously interested means that you really think that you WILL buy it if it lives up to the description.  You are NOT making a commitment in advance.  I WANT you to see it and try it out first.  If you change your mind there will be NO hard feelings.  This has been my policy every year and it works well.  It saves me from hauling heavy stuff to the TOGA and then back home again.

The asking price will be listed on the NC TOGA Yahoo group page but not here.  There are a lot of really good reasons for doing it this way.

I always offer a 30 day guarantee but you would be responsible for getting the machine back to me within that time frame.  And not by shipping it!   So the guarantee policy is really for my local CraigsList sales but if you can get it back to me I would certainly honor it.

see you in Monroe!

Paint Along 6: Painters Tape and Toothpicks

Believe it or not, this is the LAST post before we actually paint the machine.

All we have to do at this point is cover everything that should NOT be painted.  This includes any remaining shiny metals bits (we removed everything removable in a previous post).  It also includes all holes, even the extremely teeny ones.

When we get to the painting part I will be using a can of paint and a brush, and you may be using a spray can.  If you have a steady hand with the brush (and some tiny brushes) you can skip plugging all of the holes.  Just don't drip paint into the screw threads of any of those little holes.  Or, better plan, go ahead and plug them all.  You're going to need those plugs at the end anyhow when we spray clear coat over the whole machine.  But that is a story for a future day.

Tools

Blue painters tape.
Razor blades or exacto knife (better, if you have one).
Scissors.
Toothpicks.
Bamboo skewers (like for shish kebab).
You could go all upscale with an assortment of small dowels, but you really don't need them.
A cutting board or scrap piece of wood, not shown in this photo, but visible in later pics.

A few more removals

You have already removed most of the removable shiny bits.  Here are a couple that will sometimes come off easily.  I had mixed results, as you will see.

The first thread guide (at least on my vintage Singers) can sometimes be wiggled back and forth and persuaded to come out.  Be very gentle in your approach to this--the last thing you need is to snap it off.

It worked this time.

The spool pin on these old Singers were just whacked in (not screwed in).  If you have a screw-in spool pin, lucky you, just unscrew it.

Do not do it this way.

If yours was whacked in, you can try to gently persuade it to come out.  Sometimes they are loose anyway.  I do NOT whack it with the big hammer shown.  I tap it gently all around with a little hammer.  Tack hammer for instance.  No luck with this one and I gave up on it quickly.

Tape.  And sticks.  And sticks with tape on them.

You want to use blue painters tape and NOT masking tape or any other kind of tape.  There may be other painters tapes but it has to be painters tape because it does not leave a residue when you pull it off.

Now we start covering up things in no particular order.

Below is a shallow indented hole.  Use your fingernail or the pointy end of the bamboo skewer to press firmly around the rim of the hole.

And then carefully trace around with the razor blade or exacto knife.

I don't use the exacto knife very often and it was only when looking at these photos that I realized that I should have put in a new blade.  Later in the process I used fingernail or skewer to create a crease in the painter's tape around the rim, then peeled the tape off, carefully cut around the crease and then put the painter's tape back on.

But because I have done this before I have a sense of what the quality control parameters should be.  This is good enough, I think.  Find out later for sure....

To protect a hole, you need to fill it up.  Some of the holes were just the right size for the bamboo skewer, and I cut little bits off of the straight end of the skewer.  The right size, by the way, is just a smidge smaller than the diameter of the skewer.  You want to slightly force the skewer into the hole.  If it is loose in there it will fall out, and it won't reliably protect the hole from getting paint inside it.

To create a stick just the right diameter, wind a length of tape around it.  Add more until it is just a bit larger and can be snugged down into the hole.

One width of tape cut in two made the pieces you see below.

There were holes too big for this method and dowels might be useful.  But what I did was wind a tube of tape sticky side out and (again) just the right size to wedge into the hole.  The one below got cut in half also.

Progress so far.

I always plan to photograph EVERYTHING and always manage to forget at some point.

The take up arm is wrapped individually.  then I just started laying pieces of tape into the interior.  I want the paint to wrap around the edge of the opening so I don't just tape straight across.  I just keep stuffing tape pieces in there until all the workings are securely covered.

The opening to the feed dog region was taped, carefully burnished in the groove that the plates slide into, and then trimmed with the exacto knife.  You want the tape to cover the groove that the plate slides into.

I also forgot to photograph the taping of the remaining bits of the tension that I did not remove.  I will tell you that this is the biggest pain in the neck of the whole taping project.  The spring is very fiddly.  It's awkward to wrap tape where it needs to be wrapped.

But you are bigger and stronger than a roll of painters tape, so here's a tip for conquering that tensioner:  just keep pushing more tape at it until it submits.

Same process for covering both the gold Singer logo and the serial number:  tape, burnish, cut.

Ah, that dull blade.  it looks worse in the giant photo than it does in real life, but it looks bad enough in real life.

and to some extent you can clean it up a bit with the skewer.

More wrapping and stuffing of tape.

and here we are.  about two hours later.  ready to paint.

and I was excited.  Until I remembered the bobbin winder, the hand wheel, and the hand crank.  Oh, well.  A week later I got back to it.

The bobbin winder is way too complicated to tape before painting.  I will carefully paint it with a paintbrush.  Then I will use clear fingernail polish as a clear coat.

Another option with the bobbin winder is to strip off all the paint and leave it a silvery metallic color, again clear coated with fingernail polish.  I did this on an earlier machine and it worked well.

The hand crank has lots of fiddly bits to cover, but here is one that comes off easily.

I wrapped the metallic finger and its screw in painters tape so that they would stay together until we are ready for reassembly.

In the gear section of the hand crank, I shoved bits of painters tape down into the space until all seemed secure.

The hand wheel rim is lots of fun to cover.  Think about the sewing technique of clipping curves.  Lets you wrap a straight piece of tape around a curved surface.

That's it, all ready to paint.  I will probably find a few more tiny things to cover when I actually begin painting.

Because Nellie, future owner of this machine and age 6, has requested a pink and/or purple machine, I will be experimenting with mixing some paint colors.  (No pink or purple hammered paint available last time I checked.)

and the next few posts will focus on the upcoming NC TOGA, Treadle On Gathering and Academy.   If you don't know what a TOGA is, the link will explain.

Drop a note in the comments if you have or will attended any of the TOGAs, and especially let me know if you will be at this year's NC TOGA.  See you in Monroe!