It's been a very busy month of sewing machine buying and selling so I've had the chance to reorganize the basement workroom. It was getting a little ridiculous down there and I don't even want to pretend it is normal to have aisles you walk down because things are stacked up. Doesn't this sound like a hoarder's lament? Please, I am not a hoarder but I needed to prove that to myself.
Due to the number of machines I came across this past fall from Erin, Mindy, and Judy, I needed to work on getting those machines diagnosed, fixed or parted out, sold or at least labeled, and I think I've finally done it. The empty cases finally made it to the garage attic, only pulling three back inside to put machines in, and placing the project machines at the back of the room with machines for sale in the front. I have had a wonderful donation of batting from Mindy and then bought more cotton batting at a terrific price but it takes up so much space! Finally, I pulled out fleece and batting to make up some cat and dog kennel mats/pads and could consolidate containers. Whew!
With sales high I can get more listed and I found a couple I just know someone will love as I do: another Brother Select-o-Matic in teal and a Viking 19, such a green beauty:
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| Brother Select-O-Matic in teal |
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| Viking Husqvarna 19 |
Both machines are in beautiful condition and stitch nicely, too. Manuals were printed off and the Viking 19 got a spiral binding, a little feature I can now add from home. Unfortunately, if I want to make the Brother manual correctly paginated I'll have to scan it over again but I inwardly groan when I think about doing that so I printed off what I had, hoping just to have the information is helpful.
Of course, I've been doing a little sewing, too, and made up those little zippered cases for earbuds:
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| Earbud holders in three flavors |
It would be too easy to just stitch these up so I used an idea I found in an art museum shop by weaving vinyl tape measures together for the back:
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| I hope they "measure up" |
What machine did I use? A Bernina 730, of course, since they can sew on any fabric and give such a nice result. They take too long to make but are way too much fun so I hope to make up 4 more from what's left of the set of a dozen measuring tapes. Sometimes it's all about the fun and isn't that why we have so many sewing machines? Some are just more fun than others or give us a joy to use once in awhile.
I'll leave with final photos of my sewing/workroom: don't judge, there's a lot of living done in that space.
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| Sewing project on the right with machines I'm now using... |
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| ...and machines on the left, oh so many machines! |
5 comments:
Sometimes you just have to ignore the ‘mess’ and do want you gotta/wanna do!
My cutting table is buried under a rebuild project (bent needle bar/re-timing) for a nice Sphinx recalled Singer 128 I am going to put a hand crank on.
Is that a Mary Proctor flip ironing board in the background? I am on the hunt for one of those. The flip function seems so useful.
John Thomas in NC
Auto correct strikes again! recalled = decaled
John, I don't know if it's a Mary Proctor ironing board but it is one of the expandable kind. I actually got it free from a CL posting. The owner said the people who said they would come pick it up were no-shows so she was a bit hostile when I got there. She did show me how it worked and was glad I was actually going to use it. I did have to make custom pads and covers but since I have a few sewing machines to do this....
The Mary Proctor type of flip ironing boards have a leaf in the front of the board that folds down to make the ironing surface "front tip" into a sharp triangle useful from its original rectangular shape for ironing cuffs, etc. I just like the big wide rectangular surface for ironing swaths of fabric in a hurry. I also have an ironing press that is handy.
John Thomas in NC
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