In the Meantime

As usual, there are so many sewing machines and just too little time! I've acquire some very nice ones, sold a few, fixed a few more since my last post but it's craft fair season! I do not have time for machines, just sew, sew, sew. Tomorrow is our final day for being in a craft fair so I took some of the comments from the last fair to heart and have made a few changes.

The baby booties attracted some nice attention but it was the little cuties herself who stole the show:

Kelly & Evelyn at the Blaine show

Yes, that's my granddaughter Evelyn, with her mom who got many offers but apparently she is not for sale. Hoping she could model some of the booties brought about the comment of her too-big feet. I don't think her feel are too big but I made only the smaller sizes: 3-6 months and 6-9 months. People wanted to buy them but they were just too small. In the two weeks between craft fairs I have made a dozen pair of booties in sizes 9-12 months and 12-18 months. They are much easier to make when you aren't struggling to turn them right side out so there's no objection from me! It's always fun to match up fabrics with patterns:

Booties for sale

When not sewing up a storm, I managed to pick up a Bernina Record 830 for a song. As usual, when they say it's still available, I do not hesitate but go right over (before they change their mind or get a better offer). It came with a wonderful set of accessories but no extension table or carrying case. During the testing phase I found out the foot control was wacky and this model would need a much more expensive replacement for $75. Ouch! Maybe there was an alternative? I Googled "Bernina 830 foot control rewire" and found a YouTube video. I had a nice new electronic foot control so I opened both up, switched wires paying attention to the colors and instructions, put it all back together, and it worked. It continues to surprise me since the whole process is pretty simple but the inside of an electronic foot control is anything but simple.It's my plan to continue to learn about circuits from LinkedIn Learning and my son-in-law so I'm saving the complex problems for later. Here's the Bernina Record 830:

Bernina Record 830 with accessory box (full!)

The garage continues to get cleared out with another treadle going to a new home to a maple tree farmer, a Singer 15-90 going to a young father who wanted to make gear (his wife had a new computerized sewing machine he wasn't allowed to use),  and a few sets of treadle irons and cabinets without machines were let go very cheap. So there is a plan and we should get one car back in the garage after the craft fair is over. No new machines! Especially in cabinets! Then I spy a Singer 301 in a table. Oh no, not a black 301. Yes, it's still available if I can get there in the next two hours. You bet.

It's an estate sale so they do not know anything about sewing machines. It's missing the power cord and the foot control has the button missing but it comes in a decent table with the cradle so it is mine. It is also Halloween and I need to get home to relieve my poor husband. That means since he answered the door while I was gone I get to answer the door during dinner. Oh well, that's a price I'm willing to pay.

Right next to the front door is a Singer 12 treadle that I've been working on rather unsuccessfully. Someone has shown some interest in it so I'm motivated to get it working smoothly. For this one I check Treadleon for how to clean and adjust a treadle and then Youtube videos for threading a model 12. I finally put a brand new leather belt on it, shortened it twice, adjust the pitman rod to shorten it, and she runs! I keep treadling to work out any of the kinks and find she's really fast, loud, but fast. I'll try it again this weekend but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Singer 12 treadle

Singer 12 treadle with new belt

The cabinet is in good shape and a coating of Howard's Feed & Wax really make it look good. I have to keep wiping it down to get the excess off but by now it's practically glowing.

 

 

Singer 12 in treadle cabinet: she glows!

Team Spirit

Minnesota seems unique to me in their adoration of their sports teams even when they under-perform. I'm from Chicago where there have been great teams and years for the Bears, Bulls, Blackhawks, White Socks, and Cubs: there was something to be proud of. Alas, Minnesota continues to be disappointed with the Vikings and even the Twins give reason for angst. But, If I'm to market my hot mitts to a wide variety of people I must include sports and their teams so I'm busy making them out of fabric that has Twins and Vikings logos on them.

After adding over a hundred hot mitts in a variety of colors, I checked my stock of sports teams to find no Twins, four Vikings, many Packers, a few Timberwolves, Wild, and Gophers. I had to get busy and sew up some Vikings since we would still be in football season during the craft sales, and since there are diehard fans I even had to buy more Twins fabric:

Left: newer logos waiting for binding, Right: traditional

Just to be generic enough to include many teams, I had some fabric with NFL teams so I added some football fabric to make these:

NFL on white with footballs on black for inside and binding

They sew together so nicely but since I've made hundreds I've got the process down pretty good. This is the second year of using the Bernina 217 industrial sewing machine and I really like her. It's all set up for the heavy layers for the hot mitts and I'm not certain enough of my skills to try and adjust it for two layers of cotton.Besides, don't I have at least one other sewing machine I can use for light weight sewing? I think so.

With my first craft fair only 10 days away, I need to get going on baby booties and cobbler aprons. I got distracted by all those sewing machines from the River Rats TOGA but for now I need to ignore them and get cutting and sewing!

Bin with many of the new hot mitts

TOGA TOGA!

It was another River Rats TOGA last weekend and it did not disappoint: hand crank sewing machines, treadles, even some electrics, but all about our passion for sewing. On my way into town I stopped off at Cindy Peter's house where her family was busy making deals in hopes of getting her vast inventory of sewing machines and parts cleaned out. Cindy was the founder of the River Rats and instrumental inTreadle-On, so her passing last winter was a huge loss for our community. Some of my friends were there and we consulted each other on identification of parts and the necessity of it. I loaded up my trunk with two Berninas, a Jones Meccaro, and a Husqvarna CB-N along with a large bag with foot controls with cords and many miscellaneous parts. On to the TOGA!

After unloading my raffle contributions and checking out the tables, I bought tickets for the raffle which helps defray the cost for the TOGA. One of my main tasks was to get my little Pfaff hand crank working so I tracked down Cathy Nelson who helped me last year with a German transverse shuttle sewing machine and she did her magic again. I didn't know which needle would work and she has a nifty chart and inventory of needles to figure it out plus she showed me how to set and time the needle. I worked with Bob who assisted in threading the boat shuttle and we were off and running. Speaking of running, this was the first year for hand crank races and was it fun. With nine contestants there were three heats

From 2 of the heats

In the final contest we had a very close race when there was a mechanical problem (see top photo below) but it was very close:

Middle photo shows start of the final, top photo when something went wrong, and our winner at the end

I think this is going to be a regular event but next time we will have those who have been training for the whole year. There were other events like sewing machine cleaning, chenille quilting, block exchanges, much selling of our own extras, and that included fabric in a separate room. Yes, I bought more fabric. Once I had a chance to think about what I got at Cindy's estate sale I decided I needed to go back so I made a final haul. This time I got new foot controls, bags and bags of low shank presser feet, a Pfaff 130 without a motor, needle plates, bobbins, accessory boxes empty and full, and even some Singer flat cams and Elna cams. All packed into my car and I headed back to the TOGA and geared up for the raffle.

The raffle has some of the more prized items with individual "bags" where you can "up" your chances by feeding more tickets into a bag of something you really want. What did I want the most? A quilt kit that wasn't finished but oh-so-nice. The raffle started with Mea and Diane calling out names for the bagged items first and, tada, I got the quilt kit! On my way back to my seat I was told it was found with Cindy's things so that made it extra special:

 A dozen of the 16 blocks were completed

As my name was called I kept choosing items until I could no longer fit anything else into my vehicle. I finished up and made my way home, hoping to travel while it was still daylight, but the raffle took so long I ended up traveling right through downtown St. Paul after sunset. When I got home I had to bring everything inside, write up receipts for my purchases, and check everything out:

Inside the trunk of my car (no Jeep this time)

4 were from Cindy's, the others from the raffle

Cindy's estate sale

and the raffle: too many tickets this year?

Confession here: I was secretly glad my husband was up north hunting so I had a chance to check everything out slowly and put it all away over the next 24 hours. He's always supportive but this was overwhelming! I checked out the sewing machines, those purchased and those as part of the raffle, and will continue to have fun getting them up and running, sorted the presser feet, tested the foot controls, and ran my hands over the fabric purchased. I'll have more to say in future blog posts but for now it's goodbye to another River Rats TOGA. It's always great fun to share your passion with those who are just a bit crazier than you!

Authentic Hand Cranks

The past few years I've been interested in hand crank sewing machines, my interest piqued because of the Treadle-On group and specifically, the River Rats TOGA I've been attending. When you see them in action and try one out for yourself, it's a bit hard to resist. They are generally old, beautiful, and somewhat smaller than a standard sewing machine. Up until this time I've converted a few 3/4 sized Singers into hand cranks with an after market crank:

Singer 99 with after-market handcrank added

They are not as nice but affordable and gives you a taste of this type of sewing. Then I bought a nice German hand crank and got a better one:

German hand crank in fancy wood case

The action is smooth, precise, and perfect for piecing blocks when quilting. Just in case you are not a quilter and ask "What is piecing?" as I once did, it's where you are sewing together the pieces cut out to make the whole of a block (and the blocks sewn together to make the top of the quilt, etc.). The more precise in cutting and sewing, the better your pieces fit together, look better, and you have fewer problems, at least with your quilting project. After using the German machine I had an opportunity to buy a Harris from Joe, something I wrote about in Three of a Kind. The Harris is a fairly small hand crank sewing machine and I've found it works well on the ironing board. As I cut, press, and pin with a cutting mat on my ironing board, there's room for the Harris on one end for sewing and then back to pressing. That's how I sew those block-of-the-month patterns where each block is done only once with precise directions. No multiple layers or cuts so setting it up on the ironing board works good for me.

Beloved Harris in wood case

At First Quilters last Saturday I had a request for a hand crank sewing machine so I brought an after market crank and a a Singer 99 for demonstration. As fascinating as something like that is, it's still a very heavy sewing machine, not great for travel as the woman who was interested was thinking about. When someone has a request, I start looking and the next day a child's sewing machine was for sale, a Singer model 40 hand crank:

Singer model #40 hand crank

The owner told me how much she used it as a little girl with all boys in her family: this was something all her own. Missing a needle and the case was pretty cracked up, I worked on it until she was purring again. Needles? I found some round shank industrial shorts that worked and were just lying around, waiting for the right sewing machine. The case could be taped up with colored Duck tape for a passable cover when traveling. The only hitch I can see is that it's a chain stitcher, not a lock stitch. With a chain stitch you only need a spool of thread for the top, no bobbin, but unless you secure the thread at the end it can be easily pulled out, a plus for mistakes but a minus for longevity. My research on chain stitching tells me it's more flexible and less likely to break that a lock-stitch but I'm going to have to try this one out.

Chainstitch front

Chainstitch back

With a taped up carrying case, it looks more like a child's play doctor kit:

Singer model #40 carrying case (tape on bottom side)

Even though it's a toy sewing machine, something I scoff at, this one might just be okay!

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

Comfort

It appears I have worked myself into a state of exhaustion so I took nearly a week off from work, suffered from flu-like symptoms, visited the doctor twice, and still have intestinal distress. What's a girl to do? I think it's time to pamper myself a bit. Here's some of my favorite things:

• Visit my grandkids: who doesn't brighten up to see they little faces?
• Rest and read in the bell tower in my backyard: I'm a librarian, enough said.
• Relax with some knitting while watching favorite TV shows, preferably something funny.
• Sewing: either a new project to finish up an old one
• Sewing machines: fix up an old one, clean up a dirty machine, discover new features

The above list is pretty much in priority order but weather, time of year, commitments, all of this is subject to change. Even though I think I'm on the mend, no one wants to risk catching this and with either rain or bugs on the scene, I'm inside the house working on sewing machines. I know, I suffer so.

Viking 6360

Here is my latest sewing machine model that I fear I will have to put back on a shelf. This Viking series are wonderful when they are working and I have one in perfect condition. I have disposed of several that I thought I could fix in my early days of sewing machine repair and now I'm so much more savvy. There's now another one on my worktable so I guess I'm just not that savvy. Ellie brought it over and my first response was "No way, problem machine for sure" but you know it's quite difficult to just toss a sewing machine without at least looking at it. Dials would not turn, there were faint cracks on the cam gear, poorly replaced take up lever, and the back cover was broken. Time to walk away! So here's how I (almost) fixed this problem sewing machine.

1. Heat and sewing machine oil: this combination got things moving again. The next day I had to start all over again. Who is the stubborn one here?

2. Compare to working model: even when they were not exactly the same, they were similar enough.

Model 2000 in a beautiful green

The cam shifter showed it should be clicking into each selected stitch but mine was swooshing between selection. Without a firm "click" it never actually engaged. Without positive contact it would only stitch in the needle left position and backwards.

Here's the location of the problem but difficult to photograph

3. Heat and oil.

This went on daily for a few weeks (or maybe it only seemed that long) until the stitch selector dial would move but the indicator did not.

Dial stuck on the purple/green choice

 Oh oh, this is bad news. But I persisted, replacing the poor take up lever:

Take up lever with a weld?

Old lever on top, replacement on bottom

and fixing the back plate. When will I quit? I just found the applications for fall craft fairs and realize I have to get sewing again instead of playing with sewing machines. That's still something on my "happy" list so I pack up the Viking 6360 in hopes for either inspiration one day or cleaning out when my good sense reigns again.

Old Friends

To say this has been a busy summer would be an understatement but here we are, partway through August and I'm wondering where the summer went. I never get enough time to sew or work on sewing machines let alone enjoy our marvelous weather in Minnesota during these months. But this year I had a very good reason to be busy because I have been taking care of my aunt in Iowa. The adventure began last spring when a series of events indicated my aunt was having some dementia and making poor decisions. That lead to a visit from a social worker who was an angel with so much help and resources for us to call upon. A doctor's visit, a hospital stay, recuperation and evaluation in a nursing home indicated her dementia was quite advanced. She could no longer live alone at home, the lovely home her husband built for them 58 years ago. She was only in the nursing home for three months when she passed away peacefully.

Gone are the plans to make up last quilt blocks she started for a flower garden quilt into a lap quilt, but I have been going through her craft dresser and found patterns and supplies for some of her favorite contributions to the church craft bazaar. Iron-on transfers for flour sack dishtowels, yarn for plastic canvas coasters and bookmarks, remnants from crewel kits (what do you do with the leftovers when you are done?) as well as neat stacks for fabrics, less than half a drawerful, for future quilts. She was pretty organized but I suspect she had not been able to sew for the last five years due to her dementia. The ability to judge spacial arrangement and distance can be affected and for her that was true. This keeps you from driving, too, since you cannot always tell where you are on the road.

This is a final tribute to my aunt Marcella who taught me that even a quiet life can be meaningful, contain joy in little accomplishments, and it's always right to love your family with a fierce love that doesn't give up.

Karen and Marcella, May 14, 2019