Finally

It has taken several months of selling but I finally have all of the sewing machines with cabinets in the house or sold and I got my car back in the garage. My goal is to get the cars back in the garage before the first snowfall but we had two small snowfalls with no real accumulation but I knew my time was coming to an end soon. A storm and drop in temperature is coming this week and that was where I drew the line in the sand. We had a dishwasher installed yesterday and it had been taking up its share of space so with its removal my car was ready to go in. Here's the happy result:

Both cars in the garage!

Now before you get too excited for me, know that I bought another table model on the same day. I saw an ad for a Singer 301 and, wouldn't you know it, in a school cabinet with matching seat. I asked if it came with the cradle and even explained what it would look like but they weren't sure. Between having the dishwasher installed and picking up the Singer 301 I stopped at the car wash because it was going to be the last chance before real cold stepped in and car washes stopped. I gladly added the Singer 301 in table in the back of my clean car, not sure what I was going to do when I got home. Two sisters were selling it, deciding it was time since the original owner had passed away six years ago. Besides, one of the sisters already had mom's Featherweight and she was happy with it, still using it, too. I demonstrated the cradle before we hauled it upstairs and into my car and they were fascinated, not knowing it would simply lift out with the push of a lever. Yes, it was very clever of the Singer designers!

How the cradle works but with a different cabinet: see lever on left?

Once home, I got it cleaned up and checked out but found I needed to rewire the foot control. One of the sisters told me it just kept running when she plugged it in so I figured it needed new wiring and it certainly did. As the cord entered the foot control the rubber covering was worn away so bare wire was rubbing bare wire so it made a full circuit, keeping the motor running constantly. Once that was corrected with all new wire (same foot control, same plug end), I plugged the machine in and ran it for awhile. Okay, but not great, so I kept cleaning the interior although it wasn't particularly dirty.  What did the trick was cleaning off the old grease on the metal gears, three sets of them with feed dogs, handwheel to motor, and main gears on top. Triflow is a no-no on this type of gear and will slow them down, according to Bill Holman who worked on Singers all of his professional life. It's true: I've had to go back and remove the Triflow grease because it slowed down a Singer 201and replace it with (gulp) petroleum jelly. Yup, that's Vaseline by brand name. Man, she took off! It made all the difference. sometimes simple is better.

My newest Singer 301: ain't she sweet?

And finally, I have the story of an Etsy package that took a long time and the long way to get to its destination. I'm always happy to get a notice when I sell something in my Etsy shop so when a lovely calendar tote was bought by Kim, I packaged it up right away and sent it to Ohio.  On November 24 I get a message from her asking if I had sent it yet. What? I sent it on November 17! From there I sent her the tracking number and we were almost mesmerized as we followed its path. From Des Moines to Cincinnati, back to Des Moines, to St. Paul to Cincinnati to Indianapolis to Minneapolis where it stayed from November 24 until I sent out an inquiry on November 29. I apologized to Kim and she was very good natured about it and even took a photo when it finally arrived on December 2:

Kim's package when it arrived.

She loved the tote bag even if it took over two weeks to arrive. What could either of us say? It did finally arrive. Sometimes you just gotta love it. Finally.. 

Going From Cute To Cuter

Friday dawned clear with a light breeze so I decided the lawn needed mowing, a nice way to start a day off. But the grass was too wet and it was too early to start up anything loud so I looked at my pile of current fabrics and my eyes fell upon a skirt I bought at Goodwill Outlet last week. Too bad I don't have a photo of that skirt because it is now a very cute little girl's dress:

Simplicity 2377, view A

This little cutie started out as a Coldwater Creek size 6 boarder print skirt. I know the photo looks navy and pink but it's really black with red flowers (isn't it cute in the navy and pink?). The bottom width was only 52 inches so that limited quite a few patterns. I really didn't want to make it as a top for size 2 or 3 so I kept digging until I came up with this simple pattern:

Simplicity 2377

If I made view A with a simple skirt it just might work. As I pulled out the pattern pieces I could see that the skirt was only the same piece for the front and back and as I held it up to the bottom of the skirt I found out I only needed to cut it to length, leaving the seams and hem intact. How simple is that? Would I have enough for the bodice and sleeves? That was a bit tricky since there were small darts right under the waistband and I needed all of that fabric. If I positioned the darts evenly across they might not be noticed or might look purposeful so it was worth trying. I managed to squeeze all of the parts on the remaining skirt fabric for a size 5 except for the back ties but I could come up with something:

Grosgrain ribbon for back ties

It all went together so quickly with the ease of elastic on the neckline and sleeves. How to finish up? I tried little buttons down the front, along the waistline, ribbon waistline, and ribbon bow. The bow looked the best in slightly narrower ribbon than what was on the back ties but it still needed something to finish it off. Out come the buttons! I managed to find a white flower button that is very vintage looking, somewhat pearlized looking:

Bodice detail of bow and flower button trim

That photo looks more black and red, the real colors of the dress. If you look really close you will still not be able to see those tiny darts near the sleeve seams as they melt into the fabric. I sewed the bow on really well with the sewing machine so it's not going to come apart in the wash, a pet peeve of mine.This was a big success in re-purposing a woman's skirt into a little girl's dress, complete with the border print showing all of its flowers.

Now we need to discuss the sewing machines I used. My Viking #1 is currently in place but nearly covered with kitchen towels, waiting for buttonholes to be made so I looked around and found a lovely Bernina 700 that I have apparently forgotten to tell you about. I responded quickly to an ad about six weeks ago for a Bernina 700 and snagged that baby up. All is not perfect, though, as it came with only one foot and the 700 only does straight and simple zigzag, nothing else. That was a little disappointing but with the high quality of its stitches I felt it was worth the purchase:

Bernina 700

It came with the extension table, original foot control (they are HUGE), and print manual all in the upgraded green suitcase carrier. I went ahead and bought an accessory box with a nice variety of additional feet:

Bernina box with feet #7, 16, 33, 285, 470

Of course she makes beautiful stitches but I can't seem to get the hang of the exposed belt right where you need to touch the handwheel to give extra control for some parts of sewing:

Bernina 700  with belt semi-exposed

In the original manual it does show this as normal so I can confirm it's not some kind of re-make. I can also see that this machine was purchased in Madison, WI on 10-19-'67. Wow. This sewing machine is older than many of my readers, no? Even though there are no built-in stitches beyond the zigzag, it does show you how to make many different designs by manipulating the needle position, stitch width and length, and counting stitches. Okay, that can be accomplished, but it would be easier to get out the embroidery floss and needle! Or maybe you could just upgrade to the Bernina Record 730 with a whole variety of stitches; they always have you yearning for more!

While I was in Bernina-land, I also used my Bernina 1100DA serger to finish the seams so it would not only look professional but would also hold up to many washings. Photos were taken and it's already in my Etsy shop, surely a new speed record for me! What's my shop called? It's InStitchesKarenDubay where you will find this Black and Red Border Print Dress. Did I ever get the lawn mowed? It was a vacation day for me so I ended up trimming bushes at the back of the yard and eventually mowed only the front yard. The back yard is calling my name but it's still early, lawn mowers make too much noise for an early Saturday morning, so maybe I should take a look at other finds in my "pile of wonders" to see what I might create. Or maybe I should work on that stack of kitchen towels. Or maybe I should finish up the hot mitts I promised my sister Sue for her birthday over ten days ago. So many choices, so little time. And I stitch on.