New space

Lately I've been working on re-arranging the basement. I have my sewing area down there, and my husband has an area where he does projects. I thought we could use our space better, and make a new and better space for the kids to play, if we moved things around.

My spot is done. Here it is!

I don't usually keep my machines out of their tables - I did it just for this picture. I kind of love it, though, seeing all those old machines out and ready for work. I'd love to host a treadle workshop sometime...if only my house was bigger (this is actually less than 1/4 of the basement of my 900 square foot house).

This cabinet came with the house. The previous owner was a school custodian, and this looks an awful lot like cabinets I've seen in schools' science labs around the district. I absolutely love it.

This is what the rest of the basement looks like. I'm going to get a tablecloth with a flannel backside and tack it up over the shelves. I'll FINALLY have a design wall! Oh, and the shelves will be covered too.

I cleaned out my old corner of the basement and I've started setting up things for the kids there. I feel sentimental, which is silly, considering that I'm just on the other side of a shelving unit from my old corner. However, I'm really excited about what my kids' new space will look like!

Like I said, my house is around 900 square feet. I share it with a husband, three kids, and three cats. It's cozy and we have to use every inch well, which is why I'm so glad that I have my own space in the basement for my machines and my sewing. I feel really lucky. I also think it's good for my kids to see someone modeling how rewarding it can be to make things by hand and follow creative pursuits.

This past weekend we had a rummage sale. We did fairly well. I had the White Rotary in the garage and for our rummage sale I dragged it around onto the porch so I could sew while watching our merchandise.

It was really nice! Later I moved the machine into the basement and put all of its drawers in. Now it's ready for regular use.

Right now in between working on machines and arranging my space I'm also working on a quilt for my cousin. I'll have to post pictures soon...it's just a patchwork quilt but I think it'll be really pretty!

White Family Rotary

I've been having some luck with sewing machines lately. Today I gave away my Davis Honeymoon and Bradbury machines to someone who will get more use out of them. It makes me feel not so bad about picking up yet another treadle, even though I just got that New Home this week.

But this one was free...someone on Facebook was just looking to give it away. It was meant to be!

This is my new White Family Rotary!

The woman who had it actually bought it at a rummage, and used it up until a few years ago. She kept the manual, an extra belt, and the attachments. She even kept the oil can!

The cabinet is so pretty. I can see why people love White cabinets.

We took the machine and drawers out to transport the machine, so I can't wait to get it all put back together. It's going to be beautiful!

This will mean some re-arranging of my current machines...my sewing space can only hold so many machines. However, I'm sure we can slide it in. It's a beauty!

Welcome home, New Home

I always peruse Craigslist. I have an app that lets me search my local Craigslist and the Craigslist listings for one town over, and it's part of my nightly routine to do a search for sewing machines.

So when I saw a New Home in a parlor cabinet for a mere $20, how could I resist? I didn't know much about New Homes, but the price was right for me to find out.

It turns out that New Home was a pretty interesting company, and the machine was pretty cute!

This is the treadle mechanism. I was kind of sad when I picked it up because there were no cabinet drawers to rifle through, but over in the corner there was a mix of sewing junk and dust, and there were two long bobbins lurking in there. Score!

You can also see the original finish. Beautiful.

There was a name scratched into the oil pan, and below it is written "RR #2." I wonder who it belonged to...

This was the cabinet when I picked it up two days ago...pretty good, but kind of grungy from living in someone's basement for years...

And this is how it looked yesterday. It still has flecks of white paint all over it, but the finish is much improved. I washed it with Murphy's Oil Soap and went over it with Howard's Restor-A-Finish. 

The machine head will still take some tinkering and oiling before it'll sew easily, but I'm really pleased with my new machine.

Oh, sweet Davis

My poor old Davis Advance. It's my oldest machine*, manufactured in 1896. I so, so, so wanted to sew on a pre-1900s machine. But the thing just won't sew.

I've tried threading. And re-threading. And using different needles in different orientations. And the results are always the same...it sews a couple stitches, and then stops.

Yesterday it occurred to me that maybe I'm threading the shuttle wrong. This is the Davis shuttle.

When I bring the thread down under the spring on the side, it hangs limply along the shuttle, like this.

It's really loose, and maybe as the machine sews it slips along the shuttle. When I take the shuttle out the thread is often coming out of the back end, instead of the front, like this.

The pictures are fuzzy but there's a little metal finger in the center of the shuttle. I feel like the thread should maybe go under it, or something...is that right?

Any ideas?





* Oldest machine that I can accurately date. I have a German hand crank machine that has a fiddle base and a transverse shuttle, and it looks positively ancient. I have no idea when it was made, though.

Hello, Free

I heard a theory that if you tell the universe your wishes, the universe's energy will bring the things you desire to you.  I don't think it's legit...however, I do believe that when you write down your goals you act with your goals in mind, and your actions are more likely to bring you closer to your goals.

I look at Craigslist every day, mostly to ogle the sewing machines.  However, since I wrote out my list of machines that I want I've been keeping a special eye out for those machines...and for the price I want to pay.  When I saw a Free listed I wanted to jump...but it was listed for $100, which is more than I want to spend on a sewing machine.  I kept watching and when it went down to $60 I went for it.

The cabinet is near-perfect...just a couple small nicks.  The machine's decals look new.  It's so pretty that my husband persuaded me to let this be an "upstairs machine," instead of living in my sewing area in the basement with my other machines.

So, it's upstairs.  It didn't take my daughter long to cover it with her dolls.

The handle pulls are so beautiful.  Also, the drawers on the right side of the machine are locked in place when the machine is in the cabinet, so I can keep scissors and needles in them without worrying about the kids getting them.

Auto-lift technology!  The machine comes up when I open the lid.

The low light in these photos don't do the machine justice...the decals are in great shape.

Peacocks!

So pretty.  Why can't things look like this today?

It came with a whole box of attachments, plus extra bobbins and a tucker.

So fun!

And this was in the box too.

I'm so thrilled.  I still have to get my Davis Advance going (I just got the needles in the mail yesterday) and then I'll start working on this one...and maybe I can get some actual sewing in too!

Welcome home, Advance

It's been about two months, but I finally found time to get out to my parents' house and get the treadle base for the Davis Advance.  Welcome home, old girl!

It looks pretty good for 118 years old.  It was manufactured around 1896. 

I love the tray with the little holes where the bobbins go...or they would, if I had more than just one bobbin...

The finish on the top of the cabinet is in rough shape, but the finish on the sides and back is still beautiful.  And I like the design of the irons better than Singer irons.

This is the bracket that holds up the little table on the side of the cabinet.  Even this bracket is pretty.  Everything about these old machines is just beautiful.

The front plate isn't as pretty as my Singers, but I kind of like its simplicity.

The decals are pretty worn on the front, but on the back you can get a better idea of what they looked like.  I bet they were beautiful on the day they were made, and again, they're in pretty good shape for 118 years old.  Nothing else that I own will be in this shape in 118 years.

It's my only coffin top machine.  I wonder what was set on top of it to make that weird grid shape in the finish.

I need to order a belt and some needles (it takes extra-long industrial needles, not regular domestic needles).  I can't wait to start using it regularly.

Of course, that brings my herd census up to:

Three treadle machines
Two hand crank machines
One electric machine
Three machines that are missing parts or are just homeless machine heads

I have four other machine heads that I listed for sale on Craigslist.  It kind of hurts, but really, I need the space for machines that are at least close to functioning...not to mention fabric and all of my other hobby stuff.  Hopefully they'll find a good home, and not someone who will turn them into lamps or tractors.

Davises

This week I was perusing Craigslist -  a nightly activity for me - for sewing machines.  Most of the time I just look at the machines, but this time one ad caught my eye.  Someone was selling an old machine - and included a ton of pictures in the ad from Pinterest about what you could do with the treadle irons.

Yikes.

I emailed him to ask if he had the machine still, and he did!  He said it was a Davis Honeymoon...I Googled and was pretty sure that was a vertical feed model.  I was so excited...I've wanted a Davis vertical feed for a while.  So I drove two hours round-trip...in the snow...getting lost twice...to get this machine.

It wasn't a vertical feed.

It had a vibrating shuttle.  I really don't care for vibrating shuttles.

It had a leaf tension mechanism.  I don't care for leaf tensions.

I was so disappointed. 

The funny thing is, though, that just last month my parents gave me a Davis Advance machine for my birthday.  It was really sweet - I had followed the auction on shopgoodwill.com, but the price went higher than I wanted, and I talked myself out of the purchase.  However, I had shown the listing to my parents, and when I bowed out they jumped on it.  I had thought it was a vertical feed, and, again, I was wrong, but I was really happy to find that it was made around 1896.  I had always wanted a pre-1900s machine, and even though this one was only 5 years older than my Singer 27 from 1901, I was still so happy to have a machine from the 1800s.

I wondered if I could still sell the irons and use the Advance's irons for both machines.  Just swap them out.

I think it might work.  The machine beds are both the same size. 

And really, I have such a soft spot for these old machines, it didn't take long to start feeling a fondness for the Honeymoon.  The decals are grimy, but pretty.  

I still plan on selling the cabinet and irons...which is a pity, since they're so pretty...

I'll list them for a couple of weeks, and if they don't sell it won't be the end of the world.

I am sad that the slide plate is missing on the machine, because that's where the serial number is.  I'd love to get a date on this.  I also really want to get the irons and cabinet for the Advance from my parents' house so I can get both machines up and running. I can't wait to start using them.

Attachment Love

Today I did a little work on the Carpenter's Wheel quilt.  Nearly at my due date and still able to use a treadle sewing machine - that proves how easy they are to use!

The set-up I use for piecing and straight-line quilting is actually a combination of two sewing machines - I had a sewing machine head that I was able to oil up and use, but the cabinet was in pieces.  I bought a second 27 (I felt sorry for it!) with a completely frozen head, but a cabinet that was at least intact.  They were both made in the same giant batch of Singer 27s in 1901, so I don't feel bad about smooshing them both together. 

Some people may think that the second 27 was a poor purchase, but the cabinet came stuffed with goodies in the drawers - machine manuals (how cool!) and a big box of attachments.  Attachments to make hems, attachments to make ruffles, attachments to shirr fabric, and an attachment to quilt.

There it is!  It's just a guide bar to help you follow lines you've quilted previously.  They still make them for modern machines and they look a lot the same.  They work the same too.

The quilting is not actually that puckered, I just neglected to smooth it out before I took a photo.  Oops.

The quilting bar wasn't expensive - 20 cents in 1901, which is about $5.50 in today's money.  I forget how much the whole box cost, but it was pretty expensive.  I'm so lucky that I found one!

Two "new" machines

Today I found a nice woman who lives within driving distance of me...and she happened to be selling off seven hand crank sewing machines!  Joy!  I went to look at them today and took home two of them.

I was seriously torn between a few of them...in the end I wound up dithering between an Ideal with beautiful decals and a box full of attachments (I'm a sucker for a rusty box full of a jumble of attachments) and a Bradbury.  I took the Bradbury.  I already have a box of attachments for my Singer 115 and a puzzle box of attachments for my Singer 27, so I figured I have enough gadgets lying around.  Plus, this machine was from England!  All my other machines are American.

Isn't it a beauty?  I love the decals.  The enamel is chipping off in places, but I still really like it.

The base is badly damaged, but after looking at it and emailing some pictures to my dad, I think it's within the realm of repair.  We'll try.

Apparently it cracked while being shipped to this woman's house, and then it appears that an attachment wedged itself into the crack, which means the cracked pieces no longer fit together.  If I can get that piece out I think it'll all come together again.

I don't know who this guy is, but from what I've Googled he's on all the Bradbury machines.  

These decals make my heart swooooooooon.  I did some Googling and I think the design is called Celtic Knot.  This makes up for not owning a Singer with Celtic Knot decals.

The other machine I got is a transverse shuttle machine.  I think this one is pre-1900s.  I'm excited because I've been wanting to own a machine with a manufacture date in the 1800s.  Unfortunately, it's in rough shape. A lot of the enamel is gone, and the decals are just history.  Still, it's interesting.

The seller thought the machine was German, so I did a Google Image search for "antique German sewing machine badge" and matched this one up with the Durkopp Company.  It makes sense because the bottom of the machine is stamped "D & Co."

The same symbol is on the base.

And what a base it is.  So ornate.  I love the female faces on the four corners and the ornate feet.  Who does that anymore? It's also my one and only fiddle base machine.

That hand crank is seriously old school.  See the faint chips of green and orange paint?  I bet this machine had gorgeous paint back in its day.

The stitch length adjuster (I think) and the serial number...just four digits long.  It's 2437.  I'm dying to know how old this is.

Sadly, no shuttle...and I'm sure there's no hope in ever getting one.

I'm very pleased with them.  I'm still researching them - I'm coming up with info for the Bradbury, but the Durkopp is really tough to research.  We'll see what happens.

Blah

I haven't been sewing much...lots of stress at work combined with normal pregnancy exhaustion makes it tough to go downstairs to sew.  Not to mention that my sewing space is in the basement, and we've had a ton of rain which has created a small stream through my area...blah!

But tomorrow I'm going to go scope out a potential early Mother's Day gift for myself, and maybe get it!  I'm going to look at some hand crank sewing machines that a local people powered machine enthusiast is selling.  From what I understand none of them are beauties - rusty, chipped enamel, missing decals - but they're interesting to me because they're all English or German.  My collection consists primarily of Singers, with a National and a White thrown in for good measure.  I'm really interested to see some other machines.  And I'm also interested because one of the machines has a transverse shuttle!  I have some vibrating shuttle machines and round bobbin machines but no transverse shuttle ones. 

Ha - so tomorrow I might be geeking out with a new machine or two...and then I'll get right back to sewing.

Button hole success

I tried out my buttonholer tonight on my Singer 115.  It took a while to get it all set up since it was the first time, but then I cranked out a button hole super-easy.

I snipped out the center of the hole, and...success!

I'm no seamstress, but now I'm tempted to make something with button holes, just to use it again.  It's such a clever little device.  I'm going to study the manual to make my button holes prettier...they were a little ragged looking, but I could tell they were still of higher quality than the button holes on my cheaply made shirt. 

Love it.