More Vintage Linen

 Picking up on the last post about using tablecloths, I seem to be on a roll and can't stop sewing up those vintage linens. I went into a huge storage container at the bottom of the pile to see all of the linen I've collected. Some got washed, pressed, photographed, and made ready for my Etsy shop. Others had stains or even holes so I have earmarked them for porch pillows. I then worked on making summer tops out of two of them in better shape. Here's a very fancy top sheet that was probably never even used it was so pristine:

Bed sheet?

The embroidery was only along one edge so that was my conclusion. I went with a sleeveless shirt pattern and put the fancy work at the bottom

Decorative edge extends on the back also

I like it but it seemed like it was a long way from the top of the decoration to the neckline so I added a row of stitches

Embroidery stitches using light gray embroidery thread

What machine did I use for this nearly perfect stitch? My Bernina Record 730, of course. Now I'm happy with it. Next up was a cross stitch tablecloth that reminded me of a little shirt my daughter Kelly wore when she was only five years old. I didn't trust myself to make up a peasant blouse pattern although there are free ones online. Here's what I came up with using a commercial pattern:

I couldn't fit the long sleeves onto the tablecloth so I tried elbow length sleeves with the scalloped edge of the tablecloth at the bottom. It worked great so I went with that rolled hem edge for the hem of the shirt, too. As it turns out, not every serger can make a decent rolled hem (I tried three) and I finally had to pull out a Simplicity tiny three thread serger to get the best rolled hem. I leave that one set up for rolled hem only!

While looking for the sergers, I had to check out a shelf that had some old White treadle heads. I know I'm not going to be using them so I bit the bullet and listed all three for sale: I got two calls for buying all three! Dwayne came down yesterday and picked them up, telling me he refurbishes and sells them to the local Amish community. We then had a bit of discussion if I would have others without motors and I just might have to take him up on that. I would love to see some of these machines go to good homes and sometimes a motor is the only thing that holds them back. Dwayne might be my next best friend.

Everyone is sewing and buying sewing machines with cold weather and indoor activities at an all-time high. Some sell as soon as they get posted, other linger but are just as worthy. They are all my friends, but some just a little lower on the list. 

Keep calm and sew on.

Dueling Sergers

I love a happy ending, don't you? I've learned in repairing old sewing machines that patience is not only a virtue, it is absolutely necessary if you are going to learn anything without breaking it first. Today's story is about a serger that I've had since August 2015, bought at a neighborhood garage sale:

Simplicity Easy Lock 800

It's fairly small but all metal so heavy and I like sergers this way: they don't jump all around at high speed and isn't that how many of us run our sergers? As it turns out, there is a tiny metal prong that is called a chaining tongue, needed for the formation of the typical interlocking of a three thread stitch. Here's how it's supposed to look:

Arrow points to the chaining tongue

Don't blink or you will miss it, it's that tiny. When needed it is pushed up into place by a lever and then pulled back when making a rolled hem. That seems easy enough but I found out it's so tiny and rather delicate and very easy to break. In fact, I broke three of them! By the time the third one broke I just said "Forget it: I'll just use it for rolled hems" because it make a nearly perfect rolled hem.

But that bugged me. I shouldn't have to keep it in the back, only to come out for a rolled hem. And then one came up on Goodwill Online auction and I got it. It's always my hope that I'll be able to fix something when there is a fully functioning one by its side. I ordered a new chaining tongue and then set them up:

Simplicity Easy Lock 800 side by side

It worked! As I could explore the newer, functioning model I could see how it was supposed to look. I had taken the whole lever and tongue off the machine and it was difficult to see how it would slide in:

Red arrow is on top of the lever

You have to position in just so, without the tongue screwed on, keep in in place while you got the tiny tongue screwed on with a nut on the backside...only to do it several times until I got it right. I have to admit, I'm not too crazy about pulling the lever back down due to breaking it so many times before but I think it's in there pretty good and if I'm careful it just might work. Whew!!!!

Now I have two cute little Simplicity Easy Lock 800 sergers, both with print manual and extra DC-1 needles in handy tote bags. I'm not too worried because they run well, compact, and will be price significantly lower than a new serger. I'm pleased with my efforts even if I did have to buy a spare serger to get it right.

For all you local readers, this is the big weekend for the Textile Center Garage Sale. I already volunteered yesterday, sorting books and magazines. There seemed to be a rather large number of them this year and I got to buy after my shift was over. Stay tuned to my next post where it's show-and-tell with all of the goodies!

Petite

What is it about those 3/4 sized sewing machines that has many of us so mesmerized? We love the Kenmore 158-1030 to the 1050, Elna Lotus and Stella, Bernina Sport, the Singer 127, 128, 99, and of course, the Singer 221 a.k.a. The Featherweight. Tthere were a few duds made, such as the Singer Genie and the remake of the Featherweight, but Singer certainly found it's market early with the 99 and 221. Today I'll tell you about a 3/4 sized machine that surprised me.

Heading home after our church food distribution program, I usually stop at a local thrift store because on Tuesday it's Senior Day and I want that extra 40% off. I wasn't disappointed when I couldn't find the Riccar someone told me they spied earlier in the day because I did find a Simplicity Lite:

Simplicity Lite

It did not have the power cord/foot control with it so I couldn't test it but it was priced accordingly and I figured I could take a chance. It came with the nice storage compartment in the front that held a few bobbins, extra feet, empty bottle for oil, feed dog cover plate, and a tiny felt circle for the spool pin.

Simplicity Lite accessories

 Once home I found a cord setup that fit, got a little oil into her, and she ran! I couldn't resist taking it all apart to see what the gears looked like and was amazed to find metal gears for the feed dogs and only nylon or plastic parts for the cam assembly. A bit of cleaning, grease on those gears, and more oil and she was ... sounding worse. What had I done? Take a look at the stitch selection: there is no length or width adjustments, just 4 lengths of straight stitch and three widths for zigzag, two utility stitches (elastic and hemmer), plus a four step buttonhole. No dials, just those 9 selections but what more could you want if you are just starting out or only using a sewing machine for occasional mending? When I switched to zigzag it sounded fine, only straight stitch was noisy. Tension started to get worse and since it was getting late I put it all away and called it a day.

The next morning I find the Simplicity Lite staring at me from the table where I left it the night before and now I remembered an old "trick": I go get a new needle and good thread. This makes all the difference as now it stitches much better. There are still some skipped stitches so I might have to get back in and see what else I can do but look how good those stitches look right now:

Simplicity Lite stitch sample (good buttonhole!)

The yellowing on the plastic body parts doesn't faze me either since I know how to use a bleaching agent to get them clean. What? I didn't tell you about this yet? Well, here it is: you can use a solution from the beauty supply store to bleach out those yellowed parts. Having read about this on Facebook, there was a whole recipe that I carefully wrote down but then I read the comments. A hairdresser said when she had leftover developer she used it to clean up a whole list of items. One day she figured out she could try it on plastic parts that yellowed, usually due to exposure to the sun. Sewing in a sunny room? It might brighten your mood but it will also yellow certain plastics on a vintage sewing machine. The hairdresser said all she used was cream developer in 40 volume so that's what I bought. I carefully "painted" it with a foam brush onto some very yellowed parts,

Yellowed parts with blue tape to hide name plates

slipped them into a zippered plastic bag and placed it in the sun for several hours.

Sunning themselves: a little vacation for your sewing machine parts!

 They brightened considerably but those parts that were the most effected needed to have a second dose. Some of the plastic had marks left on it so I buffed them out with a compound used on automobile clear coat finishes. All in all, they looked much better so it was worth the time and effort.

Looks pretty good and already sold!

 For under $5 I have enough of this bleaching agent to whiten anything that comes my way. And that's your fun tip-of-the-day!

Vacation Day 4

This vacation has been more fun staying-at-home than I could have imagined, even with hot, sticky weather. That has kept me from working on cabinets and tables out in the garage but it has gotten me sewing and working on sewing machines. Day 4 of my vacation found me tackling a wiring job for a Singer 15-90 that came to me with wire nuts as connectors. That's not necessarily bad but they should not be exposed so I decided to connect the ends with solder and shrink tubing. It turned out great after cleaning up:

Singer 15-90 with great decals on bed

but to solder without someone helping me to hold those tiny wires while I used the soldering tool was a bit difficult. Then I remembered something I could use called "Helping Hands" designed to be an extra pair of hands. During our errand running, we stopped at Harbor Freight and managed to find this little gizmo for only $5:

Helping Hands (it's actually called that!)

I set it up with an example of how it can be used for the photo shoot but I haven't actually used it yet. I can't wait to try it out! If this is set up on the wood board I used for soldering it will truly leave my hands free to hold the rosin and soldering tool which get very hot.

The little Singer 99 repaint has been sitting on the floor of my sun room and is just begging to be finished up. There was a nice case in the garage I wanted to use but upon further inspection I could smell it across the room: mildew! The covering got stripped off and the wood box was scrubbed up in the utility sink since most of the surface was left with dried glue. The bottom of the case had those black spots of mildew so I even applied household bleach and did it come out clean! Here it is with the repainted body in the base:

Singer 99 repainted with hammered finish in gold

This looks so nice I almost don't want to paint it but I can see this wood wasn't meant as a final finish so black paint will give it a great end result. See the lid behind it in the photo above? That's how the original looks and it's not in bad shape so now I have to decide how badly I want to strip all of it off. Please tell me it will be worth the effort!

As for actually sewing, I came across this pattern at a garage sale:

and I think I might just have to make this groovy dress. My sisters and I wore these little numbers in the 60's and here we are, now in our 60's and they are back in style. It really would be cute but I have to decide if I would also look cute wearing it or if it would look like I just dragged it out of the back of my closet. It's a fine line so I think I'll have to consult with my fashionista daughter, Kelly, who can dress others to perfection so will be able to suggest the right fabric, too. When did this reversal of roles happen? Well, I'm glad I have a fashion consultant in the family.

Serger Success!

Most of us with sergers know a fair amount of grief: threading, tension, switching back and forth between stitches, etc. For that reason, there are some of us who have dedicated sergers and I think I have just joined their ranks.

Looking for a serger that would make a coverstitch hem, I came upon a Pfaff 4872 that fit the bill:

Pfaff Coverlock 4872

It came without a manual and an assortment of parts that appeared not to belong to this machine. The free manuals were only in black and white but so much was color coded that I didn't make much progress. There is a very nice online video to demonstrate threading but things really didn't work too well until I managed to buy an original manual from someone parting out a kaput Pfaff 4874. Now I could see all of the color coding and was getting close but still...then I found out there were tiny thread guides at the back of the machine where thread needed to be engaged and then under the handle but remember to put the handle down when serging. Whew! It finally gave a decent stitch but what about the coveted coverstitch hem? Nope. I walked away. For several days. It might have been weeks.

Feeling like I needed to check in one more time (or maybe I was just feeling hopeful) I sat down to the Pfaff 4872 and tried one more time. It did it. It DID IT! IT DID IT! I threaded it up with the pink thread I needed to hem a shirt with, put in a sample of the knit, and it still worked. Jubulation! I sat down today and actually hemmed the shirt that I stenciled at my daughters, planning to wear it in only a month at a craft show:

It made a beautiful hem with 2 even rows of stitches on the top and the zig zag locking stitch on the underside. I even tackled the sleeve hems and without a freearm it was only a bit tricky. I am one happy girl.

On to the little Simplicity Easylock SL800:

I've replaced both knives and learned quite a bit about sergers by working on this one. After breaking the third retractable stitch finger I have vowed not to even try the other stitches because this little baby can make a rolled hem like no other:

I hope you can see the perfect edge on this tablecloth. It was circular and I can see there were problems while sewing the bias edge so I'll have to watch that but it's quite good. So here's my conclusion about all these sergers: I'll keep the Pfaff 4872 set up for coverhem, the Simplicity SL800 set up for rolled hems, and the Huskylock 1000L for everything else because it has proven to be the most convertible and reliable so far. All of these sergers have not even totaled the cost of one new serger and they do not take up a huge amount of space so I'm content to have my little herd of dedicated sergers. For now. There's always something lurking in the shadows calling my name "Karen, here's a machine that can..."