ThayerRags

Power was out city-wide first thing this morning, and we were one of very few shops that were open and doing business. I rolled my Singer 29K70 treadle over to the display window where the best sunlight was coming in, and sewed an embroidered patch onto a motorcycle vest, while nearby my wife pinned some T-shirts for alterations. Once I was done, I rolled my machine out of the way, and set my Singer 201K4 handcrank machine up on a small table up in front of the window for my wife’s job. She sewed additional pockets onto T-shirts with the HC. Her customer likes adding additional pockets to his T-shirts, by sacrificing the sleeves.


Two of our out-of-town customers dropped in to buy fabric, and other than having to carry a bolt to the window to make sure we had navy blue instead of black, fabric cutting went on as usual since they were both cash sales. The barber next door was in his shop, but he had told us years ago that he doesn’t even keep a pair of scissors around anymore since the vacuum clippers became popular, so I don’t think he ever turned his open sign around. He went home after an hour or so. The 24-hour fitness center on the other side of us had a few clients stop by, but they couldn’t get in through the electronic key system, so they quickly jumped back into their cars and left. (The cold north wind was sharp, and they were dressed to sweat.)


Everyone’s power came back on around 10:30, so things returned to normal at that point. We don’t get to test our “preparedness” for power outages much, so we are pleased with how things went this morning. We found out that we can still operate our little shop without electricity for a short time, thanks to our vintage people-powered sewing machines! And my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed the event. It was a nice little break from the normal.


CD in Oklahoma

soman2

CD,

I have it all covered also, electric, treadle and hand crank, but I also added thread & thimbles just in case.lol

Rodney

Ponchatoula,La.

Tartan

​Good for you! The only problem I can see would be paying the bill. So few people carry cash now.

Kooklabell

Isn't it wonderful to return to quieter times when the power goes out. We don't have a generator, figured I've made it to 60 without one, why get one now. We sit on our porch during summer outages and light up a lantern and read. Its so dark and quiet.... until all our neighbors turn on their generators LOL

I just enjoy "making do" with what I have at hand. Of course, I wouldn't want to do it for a week - our out house isn't functional anymore

Cecilia S.

Thayer, Marvelous!

Only one problem... how did you make your coffee? You can't sew without coffee, can you?

Um, can you?

ThayerRags

Having thread and needle ready is always a good idea Rodney. We’ve got a bunch of them. I don’t use them much, but my wife sure does. A modest share of her alterations include hand-sewing. It’s one of the reasons that she usually has a 2-week backlog, especially this month with Prom coming up.


We can’t process credit cards without cell-phone service Tartan, and our cell phones weren’t working after the power had been out for an hour or so. I don’t think that all of the local cell towers were included in the outage, so it must have been over-usage that locked things up. Everyone was probably trying to call someone else to see if they had power.


I’m the same age Kooklabell, and I’ve never been able to talk myself into buying a generator yet either. That surprises some people when they find out that I worked out on the line for power companies for 28 years. Even now that I’m not doing that anymore, I figure I have enough problems dealing with an outage, without having to deal with making a generator run too. When we get an outage that lasts for a long time, we pull all of the quilts out of storage and “mummify” our freezer, then just cool our jets until the power comes back on.


I snuck a pot of coffee on at about 4:30 this morning while the power was back on for a while at the house Cecilia, so I had my morning coffee before going to the shop. I can make coffee at home without power too, when I need to. We don’t have drinks at the shop much anyway. We have a “Please no food or drink in the shop” policy, so it wouldn’t be right for us to have our Sippy-cups setting around when customers can’t. We run a dry shop, I guess you’d say. LOL!


CD in Oklahoma

nanna-up-north

It's a good thing that you and your wife are the only employees. Today's teens don't know how to make change without the cash register telling them how much to give back. Well, maybe there are some teens that can do it but I've not been able to find any lately.

tropit

We're off the grid at our home and have minimal solar power. In the spring, summer and fall, the solar works fine, but on cloudy, rainy days, or deep into winter, we lose our power occasionally. When that happens, out come the oil lamps and the hand crank sewing machine and we cozy up by the woodstove. Personally, I love it! When I get tired of playing, "Pioneer Woman," I ask the DH to turn on the Jennie.

We are planning to build a commercial building this summer in our little town. I'm certainly hoping that we can use solar power for the building. We'll have to have a Jennie, I'm sure, but I love the thought of not having PGE bills, or ugly wires in front of our pretty new storefront. That's just my humble opinion.

~Cindy

GEMRM

Our power was out during the day today due to the rain/ice/snow storm passing through - we were down at the woodstove, with soup on for lunch, kettle boiling for tea and kept busy with non electrical pastimes -I read my book-DH played his music on the laptop until the battery ran down......
And then the power came back on!

manicmike

When our power goes off, there's the gas stove and french press