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.

Sewing Machine Spotting

It's deer hunting season here in Minnesota and I just had to accept it when I moved here and embrace it when I married a hunter/fisherman a decade ago. While he was going to be out in the cold I decided to visit my friend in Arizona. Knowing I had missed our vacation a few years ago due to his kidney stones, my husband gave me gift cards for Delta last Christmas just so I could visit Cathy this year. We got it all arranged and I took off in six degree weather in Minneapolis on Tuesday and flew into seventy degree weather a few hours later. It was heaven!

Left is Arizona temp of 70 and right is 6 degrees as I left Minnesota

Among the usual pool time, favorite pizza and ice cream shops, we took in Scottsdale's Canal Convergence water and light festival. Great fun to see how water is important to the desert and making it fun with lights and music. We also went to the Scottsdale Museum of the West for a Barry Goldwater exhibit of his photography. Before we got to his terrific display we took in the work of Maynard Dixon. As we wandered around I found this line drawing:

Maynard Dixon's sister at the sewing machine

Leave it to a true sewist to find a sewing machine everywhere they go! All in all, it was a wonderful get-away with sun, extra sleep, great conversation, and love of a dear friend.

Coming back to 38 degrees wasn't as hard as I thought but the question came up about getting both cars back into the garage since snow is coming. Before I left I got the summer furniture up in the garage attic with the help of a daughter but now we have the returned the snow blower to it's rightful spot and need to get the sewing machine cabinets out of the way. While I was gone I got an email about the Singer 27 in a drawing room cabinet:

Singer 27 in drawing room cabinet

and the calls have been coming in for the rest of them! How great is that? Here's the garage on Sunday at noon:

Waiting for their buyers this afternoon

Tom and Freeman both came at the same time but it was a fruitful session with two collectors/sellers. Now the Singer 12 in the house is gone and the Singer 27 is in a new home. While checking everything out Freeman asked about the Singer 301 cabinet and then it was gone, too. Three machines in one hour! I nearly cried because now there's only two left, one empty cabinet, and hopes of getting the cars inside before the snow. Here's how the garage looks now, waiting for the Bernina 730 to be sold tomorrow:

After three more gone

Good to have a warm vacation and rest, good to be home again, too. Now, what's my next project? I think I'm making legging for a seven year old granddaughter!

Final Cabinet Fix-Up

As we head into fall and the coming cold weather, I feel the pressure of getting the cabinet models sold and out of the garage. This means some need to have a face-lift so they can be sold and I worked on a few of them this weekend. One was a Bernina Record 730 that came in a very nice cabinet with drawers and even a pull-up thread rack. When open it looks good but the top was a mess when closed up with a big black ink stain and poor surface. I masked it with tape and plastic bags and stripped off the finish. That poor ink stain remained but it did shrink and lighten. Mahogany stain followed by two coats of polyurethane and it looks so much better:

Cabinet for Bernina 730 with refinished top

Now that was a quick fix but here's one that was long in the making but had a fairly quick finish. This Brother sewing machine below is one of my favorites with a compact cabinet and chair, in excellent finished shape but...no chair seat. I bought the wood and foam but just lacked the tools to cut the wood to size. It ended up in my kitchen for several years and I finally said "ENOUGH" and moved it to the garage. Yesterday I visited my daughter to get a grandbaby fix and brought along the chair and wood for my son-in-law to  cut for me. Eric has a great set-up in his garage and really knows what he's doing but it all goes into storage during the winter so I had to get this done now. He cut the wood perfectly and I brought it home to complete in steps:

Cabinet with Brother sewing machine looks good..

...and then you see there is no seat!

With wood cut and foam in place it's getting ready

Foam covered with a layer of batting

Fabric pulled up and stapled onto plywood in place

No sew corners, just folded

Thin wood with notched corners screwed together. Metal brackets keep it from sliding.

Seat and cushion ready for use.

It fits nice but I wish I had matched the fabric better to the machine colors but sometimes the buyer doesn't care or has their own ideas in mind and would have changed it no matter what I would have done.

Number three in the cabinet fix-up was a compact cabinet that came to me in pretty ugly form:

Green paint inside treadle-stripped out base

Inside of the door

Opened up it's clean and smooth

Green interior? It looked like someone got sick in there but the exterior wasn't too bad with just the top surface stripped and in rough shape. So with lots of sanding and cleaning up, I finally gave the interior a face lift with white paint. The cabinet got stained and polyurethane to end up like a decent cabinet:

Closed with top sanded clean and smooth

Ready for the finishing products

Opened up with inside painted

Final assembly with inside finished, door back on.

 The sewing machine itself is a well used Singer 66 that needed some attention. Because this was originally a treadle cabinet that has been stripped of the treadle mechanism, when they added the electric motor and cords it didn't really fit well. The motor block was sitting on the top surface behind the motor but I figured I could change that to under the top surface between the holes for what would have been the treadle belt. I had to extend the electrical cords so they would reach but that wasn't too difficult. Finding a set of cords and knee control that would fit into the cabinet was more difficult but I had one and got it all into place.

Bottom of the sewing machine head showing motor block placement

It's never going to be a beautiful sewing machine or cabinet but it's good in a semi-rustic way and will have many years of use left in it. It came to me pretty ugly but is leaving looking a bit rustic but not rough. I call that a win-win.

Modest little cabinet with a Singer 66 hidden inside

Blonds Have More Fun

My blond haired daughter claims she does have more fun keeping her hair blond but this post is about mid-century modern blond wood/finish tables/desks/cabinets and my adventure in refinishing them. A few years back I totally stripped and refinished one of the Hollywood model cabinets but was not totally satisfied with the end product. In the past they used a type of white-wash paint with a hard finish over it and when you remove the finish the layer of white wash doesn't come off too easy. If it is left on it lends an odd finish that isn't exactly blond but not exactly a clear wood finish either. When I came across two cabinets with that same type of finish that needed some restoration, I really didn't know what to do so I went to the experts: Woodcrafters of Minnesota. They recommended a milk paint finish in a golden yellow color along with a polyurethane finish.

General Finishes: polyurethane and milk paint

Things never go as planned, do they? The first time I tried to apply the milk paint and wipe off I chose three small drawer fronts and they turned out pretty good. From there I went to the table top leaves of a different cabinet and it was terrible. Quickly wiping it off with a damp cloth got it back to where I started but what was I to do next? I came up with the idea of wiping the surface with a damp rag first and then applying the milk paint. It worked! On both table tops it worked well but when I got to the leaves they again resisted a decent finish. What worked in the end was to apply the milk paint with a damp rag and that was fairly successful:

Before: flaking finish

During: stripping process

After: New finish

Due to the colder weather it took longer for the first coats of polyurethane to dry and more coats than usual (5 total) but the end results were worth it:

Never perfect but quite good with a smooth surface so conducive to sewing. Which sewing machine to put in each cabinet?It seems I'm going to have to put a Pfaff 130 in the larger cabinet since no other machine fits. Singer's didn't fit, Brother's didn't fit, clones didn't fit but the Pfaff 130 was just right. Goldilocks sure needed a nap by the time the right one was found.

For the Brother cabinet, it seems I'm going to have to put a Brother back in it but I have three to choose from:

Brother Super Select-o-Matic in blue and cream

Classic Brother Select-O-Matic in teal

Another version of the Brother Select-O-Matic in pink and teal

Since these two blonds are about the last of the electric machines still in the garage, I need to get things in order and get them listed. I'm down to three treadles and two electrics left along with the huge mangle and the last industrial. Soon and very soon all will be set to rights: this last week saw one happy customer buying three cabinets! I almost kissed her when she came back to pick up a treadle and said she wanted to buy a machine for her sister-in-law. Does she have any other relatives or friends who sew because have I got a deal for her!

Brother cabinet

Top and drawers refinished: looks better in person!

Summer Sun-Time

We really appreciate our summers here in the cold north, especially with longer daylight and wonderful sunsets. It's a little more difficult to stay inside to sew or work on sewing machines but on milder days I work in the garage getting some of those cabinets in shape and ready for someone else to enjoy. Beside being very excited about some motor switching on an industrial sewing machine, I've had the chance to pick up a Bernina Sport 802 that came in a very old compact cabinet that just wasn't right:

Metal flanges where hinges should be

The old hinges were removed and the substitute metal pieces were screwed in to hold the machine aloft. It was pretty weird so I took the Bernina out, to be sold as a portable like it is, and took the compact cabinet back to its original glory:

Compact cabinet now with an Elna SU62

I had the perfect machine to go in it, an Elna SU62, a very well worn machine that someone was going to toss as written in earlier post Cabinets Again. The Elna came in a table with a mounted foot control with a motor block, one of those outlets that has markings for a motor plug and a light plug. That was not what the Elna used so it seemed a shame to keep it in the wrong table. Voila! It is now in the compact cabinet with a fun chair that fits up into it snuggly. I found some fabric that complimented the light blue top on the Elna and covered the seat after adding more padding. The cabinet cleaned up rather nice with Howard's Feed & Wax so she is ready for her new home.

Elna SU62 in its new home

Compact cabinet with recovered seat on chair

While perusing the thrift stores I found a pink sewing machine that sorely tempted me but it was in a big ol' cabinet and I just couldn't face another one so here's what I did. I promised myself I could buy it at 40% off, on Senior Day, if it was still there in four days. It was not there on Senior Day so I could walk away with a clear conscience, that is until I found another cabinet. That's right, I found one without a sewing machine but with a sharp edged opening of a Kenmore. Taking a photo and heading home, I was glad I didn't have the right vehicle with me so I could think about this one. Of course, I have a Kenmore that has needed a table or cabinet but this one exceeded my list of requirements:

Kenmore cabinet

Good lines, solid wood, excellent condition...would the Kenmore 158-161 fit? My husband went back with me on Member Discount day and I hauled in that very heavy all metal sewing machine to find out if it would fit. Perfect! At 25% off it was a deal.

Once again, I cleaned up the desk (table with drawers?) with Howard's Feed & Wax only to find it had been refinished along the way. Doesn't it look great with the Kenmore model 61? That is one very nice machine, similar to one of my first Kenmore's that was frozen but I got working again, an early career victory that got me hooked on sewing machine restoration. They are quite heavy though, so I suggest a cabinet, not a portable case.

Kenmore 158-161

Kenmore 61 in new cabinet/desk/table

Of course, I've been sewing, too, making up tote bags for sergers with rope enclosed in those handles:

Wide nylon webbing with rope sewn in

Finished bag with serger tucked inside

The mangle got into the act with pressing the fabrics so very flat and smooth; there's a definite learning curve in learning how to best use this large rolling iron! When we had a cool night over the weekend we actually had a fire in our portable fire kettle:

New patio, new fire kettle

Enjoying those Minnesota sunsets and hope you are getting outside, too.