VS2 Restoration: The Early Months

1891 Singer VS2      Before

That is not dirt, folks, that is rusted out metal.

and after

In this series of posts we will explore the complete restoration of a Singer VS2.  I have planned for a long time to write up a fairly complete documentation of a project like this, and was just waiting for the right machine to come along.  Today's post shows the "before" pictures and discusses the restoration of the cast iron treadle.  The rest is coming soon, I promise.

This is what I decided to do, based on what the owners of the machine wanted me to do.  It is not the right way, the only way, or the best way.  I'm not promoting any particular products or techniques, just sharing my results with you.

Background:  My daughter has fabulous neighbors (Herman and Sadie) who have done a lot for her.  I have been very thankful to know that she has such great and supportive people living next door to her, and had been looking for a meaningful way to say "thanks".   Somehow baking a loaf of bread just was not enough.

Then Sadie's sister Patricia retired and moved in with them and brought with her their grandmother's treadle.  Aha!  I volunteered to restore it for them.  Patricia wants to sew with it.  The absolutely perfect project.

Assuming that some of Sadie's friends and relations will read this, let me make one thing absolutely clear up front:  this is what I do for FUN.  You may be tempted to think:  Oh My Gosh, what a horrible lot of work!  But it is only work if you don't like doing it.  For me this is FUN.  The longer it takes, the more time I spend having FUN.


BEFORE
The machine looked pretty bad.  The irons had rust and corrosion.

 The veneer on the cabinet was peeling up and had missing spots.

One drawer was missing.  The other drawer was present, but completely unglued and the bottom was split.

The bonnet had also come apart.

The ornate drawer pull was corroded.  And the top of the drawer had a missing corner.

The base of the head was rusted and corroded, and some of the bed decals were gone.  Literally gone, because they had gone with the paint when the paint flaked off with the rust.

The chrome plated metal parts had rust and corrosion, which also means that some of the chrome plating was gone.

On the upside was the most important fact of all:  their grandmother had sewed on it regularly and kept the important working bits maintained (simply meaning that she brushed the lint out and kept it oiled).  How do I know this?  Because in spite of all that obvious wear and tear, both the irons and the head were moving absolutely freely.

And that is the truth and beauty of these old machines.  Take just the slightest bit of care of them, and they will last for centuries.  Literally, centuries.  We kid ourselves by thinking that civilization inevitably advances.  What are we creating now that will endure for centuries?  I can't think of anything.  Not anything positive anyway.  Pollution?  Species extinction?

THE IRONS:  Cleaning the irons

There was 130 years of dirt on these irons.  My guess is that it had been kept in the kitchen a good portion of that time.  I have seen machines with this furry coating of dirt before.

Think of the dirt in such as case as tree rings.  Decades upon decades of accumulated dirt.  You will never get it off all at once, no matter how strong the cleaner you use.  Well, maybe sandblasting would do it.

I removed one of the legs at the beginning, which left the machine still standing but also gave me much better cleaning access to the flywheel and all of its workings.  By the time I finished I had taken both legs off of it.  They were each held on with two large bolts and came off fairly easily.

legs off, propped up on a metal table

I sprayed it with Awesome from the dollar store, recommended by Myra.  Working on one section at a time:  sprayed it on then immediately scrubbed it with a thing like a brass toothbrush.  Gave it another spritz and wiped it off with a paper towel.  It literally came off black at first.  And this was really black, a coal black, darker than I have seen before.  Made me wonder if a coal stove was in the kitchen.  My great-grandmother grumbled every time she did any baking in her electric stove.  She said it never baked as well as her old coal stove had done.  Sadie and Patricia later confirmed that their grandmother also had a coal stove.  I love antique sewing machine investigations.

Repeated the Awesome/scrub/wipe three or four times (many more times for the joints), each time getting less.  But it was still coming off brown on the fourth wipe.

And eh, voila!  The logos on the sides still have some of their original gold paint.

there are some traces of the original gold paint but much of this is rust

And this is just phase one of the cleaning.  Removing the bulk of the grime.

The 80% principle

At each phase of the cleaning, the goal is to remove 80% of the dirt that is there.  Then move on to the next phase.

For phase two, I got out a hand-held steamer.  Chose a small section of the cast iron at a time, ran the steam over it, and then wiped it off with a paper towel.  Did this twice.  We're down to a light brown stain on the paper towels by now.

can you see the steam coming out?

After the furry coat of dirt has been removed, the irons are revealed.  About 50% of the paint is gone, and there is some rust on the bare iron.  There are spots where the original casting was bad (just guessing) creating jagged spots.  But the good news is that what I originally thought was corrosion was just peeling paint.  There are only a few tiny spots of corrosion.

Phase three was the Dremel tool.  Wire brush attachments removed obviously flaking paint.  I don't need to take it all off because the new paint will cover up lots of imperfections.  But the paint that is left needs to be holding on and not ready to jump off!

The logos on the sides got more attention.  A diamond tipped tiny cone shaped bit cleaned out the details.  I have painted these before and the crisper the logos the better the final paint job will be.

The pitman is now revealed to be made of wood, a feature only found on older Singers.  The pitman is the rod connecting the pedal to the flywheel.  Later pitmans were made of cast iron.

Doing all of this is tremendously satisfying.  The dirtier it is, the more fun it is to reveal the bones of the machine beneath.

Phase four:  Denatured alcohol and steel wool
After all this cleaning, the irons were still slightly tacky with a remaining film of grease, but the final scrub down with denatured alcohol and steel wool (twice) got it clean enough.  The goal is to have a clean surface that the new paint will adhere to.

I did this over four days right after Hurricane Arthur had passed by and left us some fairly cool, dry weather.  And although all of the restoration is more fun if you can do it outside, this is the only part that ABSOLUTELY has to be done outside.  The dirt that drips down from the cleaning products, and the dirt that flies around from the scrubbing is something that you don't want in your house.

Painting the irons

My favorite product for painting treadle irons (well, OK, the only one I have ever used) is Hammered Rustoleum paint in black.  I have a can that is more than ten years old but was only opened a year or two ago.  Hoarding, anyone?  The color is more of a dark graphite gray than black, and I think this slightly softer color is more attractive with an antique machine than a strong black would be.

Several people have asked why I don't use the same Hammered Rustoleum in a spray can.  I like painting, and I like the total control I get with a paintbrush.  If you sprayed you would have to tape off all the joints where metal moves against metal.  With a paintbrush I just carefully avoid them.  It's just a personal preference.  I'm willing to believe that spraying IS easier and faster, but I like using the paintbrush.

To touch up the gold logos I use a Sharpie gold metallic PAINT pen.  Not the regular Sharpie metallic marker.  I tried several different types of gold paint on an earlier treadle restoration and this one was the best and quite easy to use.

If you mess up, and I certainly did my share, just paint over the mistake and try again.

When Sadie and Patricia originally turned the machine over to me, I asked them what level of restoration they wanted.  They told me they wanted it pretty, as pretty as I could make it.  Over the next several posts I will show you how I leaned to replace veneer, and how I overcame my fear of wood stain.  I will reveal to you just how I obtained a set of Singer VS2 reproduction decals MONTHS before they came on the market.  And I will continue the ongoing love affair with Hammered Rustoleum paint.

I also need to get back over to their house to take many more "after" photos.  In my rush to finish it up so that I could deliver it on Christmas Eve I forgot to take pictures of the finished machine in its cabinet, on its treadle base.  Made my self-created deadline, but only have a few photos taken in their front hall.

Links to videos for the Singer VS2

This post is written for my friends Sadie and Patricia, whose grandmother's Singer VS2 I restored.  Everyone else is welcome to listen in, of course.  Many of these attachments work with lots of other machines too.

Winding the bobbin and loading the shuttle: by Lizzie Lenard.  She demonstrates this on a machine that has a rectangular bed rather than a fiddle base (and a hand crank rather than a treadle) but otherwise this machine is mechanically the same as yours.

Threading the machine:  by Lizzie Lenard.  Shown on the same rectangular bed machine.

Original attachments that came in the "puzzle box"

Here is a link to the manual for the attachments in the puzzle box.  (Printed and in your notebook, but please note that your box has a slightly different collection of attachments.)

Singer No. 12 Ruffler:  by FiddleyBits.  She shows how to do "puffing" (looks like gathering), ruffling (a series of tiny tucks) and shirring, using the shirring plate next to the ruffler in the puzzle box.  Shirring looks like puffing, but you can do many parallel rows of it.  I have not tested this ruffler, but I have used other rufflers so if you try it and it does not work properly, just give me a call and I will take a look at it for you (Sadie and Patricia).

Singer Underbraider:  by Lizzie Lenard.  This is shown on a different type of machine, but it will explain what an underbraider is and generally how one works.  I have never tried this myself.

Binder:  by FiddleyBits.  Binders Part 1 shows how to assemble it from the items in the puzzle box.  She also shows several other models of binders, but fortunately for you she shows the puzzle box binder that you have first, so you can stop watching the video after you see yours, and proceed to:
Binders Part 2 which shows you how to use a binder.  Again, she shows the puzzle box binder first and then moves on to show other models.

Hemmers:  Once you have watched Binders Part 1 you will know how to attach the any of the hemmers to your machine.  This video shows a very modern sewing machine, but hemmers still work the same way they did 130 years ago.  Your puzzle box has five different sizes of hemmers.  Hemmers are among my very favorite attachments.

Tucker:  by FiddleyBits.  The tucker she shows is slightly different than yours but I could not find a video of the one in your puzzle box.  Your tucker attaches to the presser foot bar rather than the bed but would work the same way.  This is another attachment I have never tried.

Quilting Foot and Guide:  by Xander Byrne.  He shows it on a different type of machine, but the foot is identical.  This allows you to create evenly spaced lines of stitching.  You will also use the quilting foot without the guide when you use the underbraider.  Xander is British, so the translation for "wadding" is "batting" in American!

Additional attachments

Edge Stitcher foot:  by Lizzie Lenard.  An amazingly handy device for connecting two edges RIGHT along the edges, or for attaching lace or other trims RIGHT along the edge.  There are samples included in the bag with your edge stitcher.

Cording/Zipper feet (two, one for each side).  I could not find a video for these.  I have included samples in the bag with the feet.  These allow you to stitch very close to a bulky edge such as you would have with piping or a zipper.

A final note to Sadie and Patricia:  Your Singer VS2 sewing machine has a standard low shank (where the presser feet attach to the bar) and theoretically any low shank presser foot would work.  However, several attachments I tried did NOT work.  I think it is the configuration of the feed dogs that prevented the fabric from feeding through with some of those other attachments, but that is just a guess.  If there is something you want for your machine, please call me before rushing to JoAnn's or Walmart to buy it.  I probably have it, and we could test mine on your machine first to see if it actually works.

And a note to my faithful readers:  YES, photos of the restoration of this Singer VS2 are coming soon!  I wanted to have this list of links up  by the time I deliver the machine to them on Christmas Eve, but I want Sadie and Patricia to be the first to see the amazing transformation of their grandmother's machine.

Stupendous Stitching, a Craftsy course

Got a reminder from reader Dre in PA that I "teased" you on this in my last post and then went radio silent for over a month.  Mostly what I have been doing in that time is working on some studio upgrades, and I am preparing a LONG post on that.  But in the meantime...

I have taken several Craftsy classes and really enjoy them.  The only one where I have actually finished the project is Stupendous Stitching with Carol Ann Waugh.  You begin with a piece of stabilized fabric, add couching and stitching and eventually quilt it.  Well, I haven't REALLY finished it because I haven't quilted it yet.  The class project recommended framing it, but mine will become a giant tote bag.  Some day.

this is probably the most accurate color representation in this blog post.

Back in January of 2010 I first experimented with snow dyeing, with mixed results.  When I first saw the results on this piece, I said to myself "what the heck can I EVER do with that?"  It is interesting.  Garish.  So when I was looking for a piece that needed to be totally altered by massive amounts of stitching, this was the obvious choice.



Most of you know that I am a vintage sewing machine person, but modern machines DO have their place in my heart.  I really love decorative stitches, and my modern Janome does dozens of them, and in a maximum 7 mm width.  It also does the type of stitches where the machine goes back and forth to create more complex patterns than the vintage cam machines.

When I first bought the machine I made a sewing machine cover that also functions as a stitch encyclopedia.  The embroidered panel is a souvenir that BF Amber brought me from China.

I buy tons of tapes, yarns, threads, ribbons, trims, etc. at thrift shops and hoard them.  I have accumulated a HUGE hoard of stuff.  This gives me lots of choices when project time rolls around.  I probably end up spending about the same amount as I would if I went out and bought new stuff for each project, BUT I get MUCH more interesting color combinations.



When you buy new stuff you are at the mercy of the color police.  There is a vast conspiracy by the Color Marketing Group to determine what colors you will buy each year:  in clothing, in cars, in wall paint, in fabric, and in ribbons and trims.  I am not making this up.  So when you buy only new stuff, you end up with a project that is flat, boring, and looks like it was made in a factory somewhere.  Just my opinion.  No one would EVER think that this project was made in a factory somewhere, lol.

The project began with couching, in which you apply yarn, ribbon or trim to the piece by stitching it down.  Then I spent many, many deliriously happy hours listening to music and adding decorative stitching to the piece.  I pretty much dropped everything else in my life for a week and a half and just did this.

This was all about process rather than end product and I did not worry about anything.  I used a much larger piece of fabric than the class project recommended.  This made it difficult to feed the fabric through the machine in a smooth and even way, and resulted in glitches and distortions in the stitches.  In the end, however, the sheer amount of stitching distracts the eye from the errors.  That's my story and I am sticking with it.

My mother-in-law named the piece "Magma", which I think is very apt.  She showed it to her friends.  I begged her to stress that this was an experimental piece in which I was practicing some techniques.  I doubt if she did because she reported their comments to me.  They said the kind of things that polite Southerners do say when they can't think of WHAT to say.

This made me laugh.  In a good way.  Hey, I know what a weird piece this is, and I am aware of all of its flaws.  But I love it.  And I don't expect anyone else to love it, or like it, or even want to spend more than two minutes in the same room with it.

One of my favorite moments in quilting came after I had won second place for "most creative" for another experimental piece done for a challenge at my quilt guild.  We submitted them anonymously.  As I sat back down after accepting the ribbon my friend Jo said "I knew that was yours."  I asked her how she knew.  "You are the only person here who is THAT far outside the box."

Oh, yeah!

Introducing Sunny, the Robot Girl

Free Moda Bake Shop pattern Wiggly Whimsy.

Back in the spring I bought a mid-arm sewing machine, the Sunshine 16, from Pennywinkle Valley Ranch.   These machines are built by Nancy in Tennessee and her small American workforce.  Not by underpaid minions of transnational corporations in other countries.

I already had a Pennywinkle frame, bought years ago at a local charity shop.    I used a variety of domestic machines on it with varying luck.  I have written about it before here.  My best experience with a domestic machine on the frame was with a Pfaff 1221, which had a 9" harp and was in general a totally awesome machine.  Sold now, probably a mistake but there are SO MANY sewing machines in the world.  And in my house.

The logo on the side is not lighted, but still it glows.

The Sunshine 16 has, surprise surprise, a 16" harp and will allow me to quilt wider paths and therefore be more productive.  That's the plan anyway.  I named her Sunny.  Yes, that IS totally lame.  And although not all of my sewing machines have names (or genders) sometimes they just DO.  She's a girl.  But not a human girl.  She's a robot girl.  Just look at her.  I'm not going to try to explain or defend it.

Hello there.  My name is Sunny.

I learned a poem when I was a tiny tot:

there was a little girl
and she had a little curl
right in the middle of her forehead
and when she was good, she was very, very good
and when she was bad she was horrid.

That pretty much sums up my first two days with Sunny.  When she was performing well, she was a dream to drive.  Other times, I spent hours pulling my hair out trying to figure out what was going wrong.  Most of it was "operator stupidity".  Here's what I have learned so far:

• If you move the machine around too quickly or change direction suddenly, the thread breaks.
• If you don't have the needle set perfectly, the thread breaks.  It takes an industrial needle which has a round shank.  No flat side like a domestic needle has.  So it is quite easy to get the needle in there with the eye ever-so-slightly off to one side rather than dead center.  
• If you use it late at night when you are tired, the thread breaks.  I assume I have poorer fine motor skills late at night.  No beer, wine or other substances were involved, sadly.  But if there were, they would probably cause the thread to break also.

Baby quilt loaded

Then my friends Jo and Janet came over to check her out.  I removed the quilt I had been working on to load up a baby quilt with a long leader for them to practice on.  Removing the first quilt was a quick and easy job because I have long zippers on the frame, so the quilt just zips in and out.

There are three rollers and three zippers: the bottom layer gets zipped at the beginning and end.  The top layer gets zipped at the end only and pinned to the bottom layer at the beginning.  Once pinned, the whole thing can be zipped out.

I was going to have Jo and Janet work on the actual baby quilt, but they were satisfied with working on the long leader.  They both did very well, too.  Yes, the thread did break, but they both got some good quilting in between thread breaks.

Janet drives while Jo supervises

Jo gets her turn too

Here's the funny thing:  when I went back to quilting the next day, suddenly I was MUCH better at it, and rarely broke the thread.  Thus proving that old adage:  if you want to learn how to do something, teach it.

Almost finished!

Too short

And it turns out that I would have had to take the original quilt out anyway.  Both the batting and the backing were too short.  All fixed now, and waiting to go back on the frame.  But in the meantime I got hugely distracted by another project.  It's SHINY.

Family Treasure

1917 Singer Model 66 in unrestored condition

Cousin Beverly called last week with a sewing related question.  Then she mentioned that she needed to buy a sewing machine.  But before I could shout down the line "DON'T DO THAT!"*  she went on to say that she had an old machine but could not get anyone to come out and look at it.  Her house is way out in the country on the family farm land.  I guess my fame as a sewing machine repair person has not spread all the way out there.  So I told her that working on old machines is what I do for fun.

*friends don't let friends buy crappy new plastic sewing machines


I told her that I would expect her to sit with me while I worked on it so that she would know how to maintain it, and she was enthusiastic about that.  The girl is into vintage, like all right-thinking people are.

She inherited it from Aunt Beulah, a legendary sewing-person and quilt maker.  Beverly's mom has several of Aunt Beulah's quilts and Beverly is plotting to acquire some of them.  I can tell you that because her mom is not a computer person and not online in any way.  And I don't really think she means to break into the house in the middle of the night and steal them, just talk her into parting with some of them.

Aunt Beulah definitely knew how to keep a machine maintained.  When we sat down everything was turning, but stiffly.  A few drops of oil and she was spinning like a top.  But the real reason I know it was maintained well is that the screws on the needle plate came out easily.  This needs to be done from time to time to clear the lint out.  Most old machines I work on have lint packed in there like dense felt, and the screws are frozen with dried up sewing machine oil.

The drawers were full of treasures:  all kinds of attachments, the original manual, and a replacement leather belt in a cardboard case marked 80 cents.

A happy Beverly!  Treadling away like a champion.

We got it sewing in an acceptable manner, although the tension is a bit off and refused to be reset.  Ditto for the stitch length.  But it is making a strong seam and the stitch length is fine for almost anything.  I promised her a full spa treatment for the machine, irons, and cabinet some time next year.  Right now I am in the middle of an all-out restoration project on another treasured family machine which I will write about later on.

The hardest part of the job was connecting the plastic tubing with the tiny connector thingy.  I prefer this to leather as a treadle belt because it won't stretch and need to be redone.  I did give Beverly a choice since it does not look traditional, but she plans to use this machine.  And her granddaughter Kailah whom you have seen before in this blog here will be using it too.

Kailah using a Singer Spartan hand crank

In fact, Kailah spent a day with me earlier this summer and made a dress in ONE DAY, start to finish.  It was a longish day, and I took a nap in the middle of it, but we still finished it.  We shared the work, but she definitely did her half of everything, from laying the pattern out on the fabric, pinning, cutting, sewing, drawing the elastic through the casings, everything.

 She chose a poly-blend fabric from my stash and a pattern that I used often back in the 1960's and early 70's.

She wore it to vacation Bible school the next night.

if she was not destined to be a scientist, she could easily be a model.  but scientist is way better.

Pretty impressive for a ten-year old person, right?

So have you guessed what the family treasure referred to in the title is?  Is it Aunt Beulah's Singer treadle?  No, silly, it is young Kailah.

Is It "Art"?

Pillow.  Title:  Nine Olmec Heads

This is the only piece I have ever done that I consider to be "art".  The central panel was featured on Quilt University's facebook page as their cover photo for a week.  But that is not why it is art.  More on that in a moment.

That selection by Quilt U is one of only two times I have received recognition for my work.  The other one was a second-place ribbon for "most original" in my local quilt guild's challenge last year.  I mention these things because I always feel it is important for me to position myself for you, dear readers, as the non-expert person that I am.  I got second place for "most original" mostly because the piece I submitted had the guild members scratching their heads.  "What the heck IS that?"

My first husband (splendid guy, and it was ALL my fault btw) was an artist.  A real artist.  While we were married he was an art student and a janitor in a factory at night.  He went on (post-me) to become a successful commercial artist and only left the field when computers became dominant.

This brief marriage (hey, it was the sixties) gives me insight into the artistic soul.  See comment above about being a non-expert.

When I create something pretty and someone compliments me by telling me that I am "artistic" I first cringe, and then immediately try to explain to them why they are wrong.  Not the best interaction with someone being nice to you, and I don't recommend it.  I'm still searching for the right thing to say in these circumstances.  So far I'm settling for "glad you like it".

So, what, in my non-expert but also non-humble opinion, is "art"?  Art is created with intention and meaning.  Intention to convey something, not merely to create something beautiful. The intention may be vague.  The artist may not be able to articulate the meaning, but it is there.

This pillow, titled "Nine Olmec Heads" is the first of a planned three pieces (all titled Nine Olmec Heads).  The other two pieces are still in my one non-Olmec head, and have been for years.  The intention is personal and private, and the meaning is known only to me and my BF Amber.  The very first time I ever met her I pissed her off, and the subject matter was Olmec heads.  Yes, we are both total geeks.  Normal people can probably not even imagine what it is like to get all steamed up over the topic of Olmec heads.  Fortunately we got over it right away and it remains a subject of hilarity now.

Amber is the good looking one.  She has forgiven me for my (in her opinion) misguided ideas about the Olmecs. I secretly still think that time will prove me right, if we both live long enough.

I recently spent a wonderful week in Paradise (aka Santa Barbara) with Amber and her family.  I spent some time with her at work and there on the sofa in her office was the pillow I made years ago.  The central panel (ink jet printed on fabric) has faded somewhat.

The faces originally were are bright as the 1980's stripey fabric bordering them.  When I found that fabric in a thrift shop I immediately time-traveled back to the 80s, and then thought "what horrible fabric, I will NEVER use this."  But my invariable plan is to buy all 100% cotton fabric priced at a dollar a yard or less.  And once again this instinct proved sound.  Even a horrible fabric can find a purpose in small doses.

Even, perhaps, to create "art".

Enfolded in Enablers

People in my life laugh at my obsession.  HOW many sewing machines do you have now?  (around 100).  I comfort myself with the knowledge that the hobby supports itself financially, since I do sell them whenever I can.  I have lost money on only a few machines that I bought in the early days before I knew what I was doing, and a few non-fixable ones that became parts machines.

Some have been given to family members.  Some I sell to friends for the amount I have invested.   Some I sell on CraigsList for a bit more (I price them to compete with the plastic machines at Walmart), and a few choice and desirable models sell for even more and those pay for the tools and supplies.  Even those sell for a tiny fraction of the price of a non-Walmart plastic machine.

Don't confuse a self-supporting hobby with making money, btw.  The hobby is fixing them up.  I don't really make anything for all the labor I put into them.  But it is not really labor to me, it is fun.

I buy at thrift shops and on CraigsList.  And I am lucky to be enfolded in enablers.  My family members find them for me.

Singer 301.  Thanks, Patty!  Patty is a serial enabler who has found and bought more than one for me.

My friends find them.

Singer 301, thanks to the late, great Jan.

Friends of family members find them for me.  And then become friends of my own.  You know who you are, Jenny!  Even husbands of friends of family members get into the act.

Singer 285.  Thanks, Jenny!

Singer 401.  Jenny's husband Charlie bought me one of these.  Thanks!  Ignore the bamboo chopstick spool pins, btw.

My guild buddies find them.  Or even donate them!

Singer cabinet with bonnet and extension table.  Thanks, Sherri!

Myra and Dexter refinished it for me.  Thanks, y'all!

And a nice Singer model 27 inside.  

One of my late husband's buddies called me up to tell me about a beautiful treadle he saw at an estate sale.   I spent a happy week restoring this one and it really is gorgeous. I never planned to keep it, I am drowning in treadles now.  But for the purchase price of $25 I got a week of fabulous occupational therapy.

Probably the prettiest cabinet to come through my hands.  Thanks, John!

Fortunately Myra was more than willing to take it off my hands.  We are bartering:  I get lots and lots of fresh eggs from her hens, one dozen a week.

Myra's new Red Eye, a Singer model 66

Former customers call or email to tell me about machines they have spotted in the wild.

My formerly imaginary friend* Linda also calls me with sightings from time to time, but since she lives about 2 hours away I haven't actually succumbed to any of her temptations.  Yet.
*originally only knew her online, but now we are in-person friends

And recently a local blog friend found one for me.  Meaning that she lives nearby, she commented on my blog and then we met for lunch.  She does some amazing work herself, and sells paper flowers, stationery, and recovered cases on etsy.  And you can see more pictures of her gorgeous paper flowers here on instagram.

Thanks, Maureen!

I think that buying me a sewing machine transforms her from a blog-friend to a real-friend, don't you?

Completely as-found, I have not even wiped off the dirt yet.  Imagine how good this will look restored!

How lucky can a DragonPoodle be?