Special Order

I've been busy finishing up a special order from a November craft fair, something that I was told I didn't need to have finished until after Christmas. It is well after Christmas, but now the pot holders are finally done:

18 hot mitts with 2 towels

She wanted to pick out her own fabric so I've had fun with this print of vintage kitchey items in aqua, orange and yellow. As I got towards the end I remembered I had some extra towels in those colors so I made up two towel holders. She doesn't need to buy them, doesn't need to buy any of the hot mitts if she changes her mind. Eighteen is a LOT of pot holders but she said she has many sisters and sister-in-laws and they would not be for Christmas anyway.

This brings me to making buttonholes on the Singer 201 I was using, a straight stitch sewing machine that did a great job with all those thicknesses, especially with a walking foot to keep the fabric from sliding and ending up crooked. Singer made a number of models of buttonhole attachments and I have several but opted for one that was somewhat beat-up just to see if it would still work:

Singer buttonhole attachment for low shank sewing machines

The plate screws down to cover the feed dogs, even if they can be lowered. I tried it without and it just went nowhere. Next the cam is inserted into its underbelly, snapped shut, and wrestled onto the presser foot shank. At the same time you are trying to get this monster on the shank you need to "slip" the arm mechanism over the needle bar screw. By that time you need to stop for a break and take a few deep breaths. A sample buttonhole was made and then I went right to the towel loops:

buttonhole under orange button

That's pretty tiny to see so I took a short one minute video of the machine in action. Note how the fabric moves from side to side for the zigzag:

Pretty cool, huh? This is thanks to a high school friend who helped me get this video work done. It's my first video for my blog! Be prepared to see other demonstrations from now on.

Vintage fabric,vintage sewing machine, vintage buttonholer: I'm becoming a vintage kind of girl, but of course, I remember those days, too. Next up: aprons from vintage patterns, another special order!