Composition

I'm no writer even if I was editor of my high school newspaper. As it turns out, I work with a whole group of people who have literature and journalism backgrounds so most of the serious writing tasks go to them. In my private life I find I'm writing all the time when I post ads for my sewing machines and for my sewn items on Etsy. Yet it's always nice to sell a sewing machine without having to take photos, write it all up and keep it posted. Last night was a winner in the let's-keep-it-easy department.

I posted an ad for a copper colored Carlton and got a response by dinner time. She was coming right after work so I set it up and tested it out while making dinner of BLT's and last summer's green beans. This lovely Japanese woman brought her husband along and they both looked closely at the Carlton but were not so happy that it was only straight stitch. Oops. I didn't write that in the ad but it always looks so evident to me when there's no lever for stitch width control. Did I have a zigzag machine? You bet! I brought up, amidst their offers to help me carry it, the Hamilton:

Hamilton in blue

The Hamilton sounds so nice, with a bit of a zit zit zit sound and makes a very nice stitch, plus it has the 4-step buttonhole with one of the best end products I've ever seen: perfect buttonholes! She was sold but then asked if I had others because she had a friend... so we looked at what I had in my showroom living room. The two Kenmore's, fully loaded, were too intimidating, so we went over to the Dressmaker in the Straovarious cabinet I refinished last fall:

Dressmaker SAMB

Straovarious cabinet refinished

She liked it, so much in fact, that this one was going to be hers and the Hamilton was going to her friend who had small children and would be more difficult for her to come and look for herself. The Dressmaker was in an ad that had expired and I knew I was going to have to start all over again so imagine my relief knowing it had now found a new home. She like that it had a manual and a box of specialty feet that the Carlton did not have so after they left I remedied the situation. I dug around in my collection of feet and found a wonderful set of Singer attachments that fit the Carlton:

Extra feet plus needles and bobbins!

I have another post about how to use many of the special feet and it is are fun for the straight stitch models to have extra features like the ruffler and bias binder. I corrected the Carlton ad to say straight stitch but also added the extra feet as a bonus. Whew! One hour after dinner and two sewing machines walked out the door and another got an upgrade. Not bad for an evening at home with my hubby and collection of sewing machines. Here's the Carlton in all her copper colored glory:

Carlton before she took residence in a new case

Isn't she pretty? There's a new home for her yet, just waiting patiently.