Cabinets and Miniatures

 It's that time of year again where I need to clear out the cabinets from the garage so we can get both cars in before it snows. When I peek into the garage I see two cabinets with sewing machines that are listed and ready for a new home, one refinished but empty cabinet, two cabinets in the process of being refinished, one waiting to get listed, and an industrial I just don't know what to do with.

State of the garage

Up front is the cabinet with a Singer 201-2. It's one of my favorite cabinets, a cabinet no. 2 of the treadle variety but not treadle, electric.

Singer 201-2 in refinished table

It came all apart so I could strip and refinish every last piece. The straight legs even needed to be painted, something I haven't had to do with this model of table so I went to Ace Hardware for a sample size of brown paint, about the cheapest way to get a mixed color in a small batch. It wasn't quite right so I went back and had it darkened. Turned out to be a great color that I might have to use again. All those pieces were like a puzzle but after doing several parts three times it finally works. Isn't she a beauty? And the sewing machine works well, too.

I couldn't resist a free Singer 401 and I thought the cabinet was going to be okay. Once it came into the garage I realized there was just too much flaking varnish so the whole things got stripped and refinished:

Singer 401 will go back in this table

This model had no real marks on it, just the flaking varnish so there was exposed wood that had turned darker. It's going to look spectacular when it's done (even the fake drawer pulls polished up nicely). With the nice weather we are enjoying I hope to get all of these done and listed for sale by Saturday.

Now we can get to the one I'm going to keep, the Davis vertical feed. The cabinet is oak and has seen better days with the veneer chipping on all sides of the top. I just had to make a decision about how to deal with that much chipping but I kept it intact and just sanded, getting ready for sealing coat. What was I going to be underneath the veneer? I didn't want to find out. The irons were pretty rusty so I cleaned them up and painted them. This was a first for me, at least I don't remember painting irons before. They turned out really nice but the cabinet languished. I finally got going and have it stained and ready with the 401's cabinet for a seal coat:

Davis cabinet, irons behind it

You can see I'm busy and looking forward to the craft fairs at the end of the month. Yes, they are back!

A package came in the mail a couple months ago and I have yet to share the contents with you. My sister, Sue, said she was sending me something but it wasn't ready yet. By the time it came I had almost forgotten those words so was so surprised to open the box to find this:

A tiny suitcase?

Once I got it opened I found a miniature Necchi:

Hand crank toy Necchi

Fits in its own small carrying case

It makes a good chain stitch:

Chain stitch sample

When I had it open to oil I noticed the red lever on the bottom:

When fully open you can see it's a music box! The red lever engages the mechanism or turns it off. The tune sounds familiar but I cannot pin it down. I'm going to have to share with my daughter Kelly who would easily be able to identify the tune. The back story to this little gem goes back a year or more when she sent me a photo of the machine and asked if she should buy it at a local garage sale. I said yes and then forgot about it. The hand crank mechanism was broken and then she had the dilemma of how to fix it.  JBWeld was suggested and that seemed to do the trick.  I'll turn the handle carefully! All in all, it was a very thoughtful gift from a thoughtful sister, one I will treasure.