Hey Stella!

It has been another Elna week, one I don't think I've had for awhile but it was entirely successful. One of my earlier customers, Sara, got in touch with me when her desire for the White "My Fair Lady" sewing machine overcame her husbands protests about getting another sewing machine. Her compromise was going to be one-comes-in so one-goes-out and her Elna SU was going out: would I be interested in buying it from her? My memory told me that this was one where she got a mother load of cams with this one so, yeah, I was very interested! But a couple of days before she comes I win the bid on an Elna Stella, an adorable 3/4 sized sewing machine:

Elna Stella 57

She comes in her own little carrying case but, no, that's not right, it's not a case but sides that open and flip down:

Flaps down (and removable)

Not only is she compact with the foot control and a few extra accessories in that vinyl pouch, the rest of her necessities are stored under the hood:

What more could you want ?

The machine came with all of the accessories in the vinyl pouch so when I remembered the overhead storage and opened it up I could see it have never been used. In fact, looking down into the machine in the bobbin area show NO LINT under the bobbin casing. There's a few pieces of red lint in with the bobbin casing but underneath it was clean as a whistle. I surmise it has hardly been used. Be still my heart! When ever I hear the name Stella I think of Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire where he yells to his wife "Hey, Stella" and boy, do I feel like yelling out "Hey Stella, you are one great sewing machine! But we are going to put you to use!" It does sew wonderfully and I'm planning on making the next little girl's dress on it.

Sara comes over with her Elna and the famous collection of cams, almost every one they made:

Elna Supermatic in beige

The beige color isn't as popular as the green but both work the same and this one came so complete with all those cams:

Can you count that high?

I hold the box out to my husband to show him the variety and his first response is "No, thanks" because he thought they were chocolates! I assured him they were way more valuable than a box of chocolates. The Supermatic runs fine with the neat knee lever but she definitely has a flat spot on her friction wheel but I've done that before and documented it on New Plan for Elna Plana. Then we find a new friction wheel is included so I only need Ray Whites special tool. It's certainly a happy day but wait, this is not an even exchange, so money passes hands as I made this a better deal for Sara. I'll have to do some work on this but think it will make someone very happy to have such a complete and good working model. Why was Sara selling? Like so many of us, she hoped it was going to be a really great sewing machine for her but they never really bonded. She's a White sewing machine kind of gal so now she has two Whites that she is comfortable with. I understand that and that's why I have so many different manufactures and models represented because we all have our go-to machines that just make our sewing experiences all the sweeter.

Ah, Stella: I hope you are just that sweet!