J Miller

SEWMOR 404 Case Repair and recover

When our SEWMOR 404 arrived I was totally bummed by the condition it and it’s case was in. The GW text said the case was cracked and so I expected it to need repair. But I didn’t expect it to arrive literally in pieces.


It didn’t take too long to do the actual repair of the case. This one was complete and just needed new glue and some more nails. But it sat on my table for quite a while until I had some ambition and initiative strike me out of the blue.

I decided that this box was going to be different. The box from Caroline was black on the bottom with an off white saddle, so I recovered the bottom black.
My HOTHER box was always black so I made it black. Originally it had two cord trims around the top, one on each side of the handle. I didn’t put them in as it was a lot of work and I didn’t have a tool to compress the cord and fabric into the groves in the wood.

I decided to put the single cord trim in the SEWMOR case. I had to improvise the tool and it didn’t turn out as good as I wanted. But it looks OK I guess.
I also chose a different color scheme for the case. It was originally covered with paper having a brown alligator print. So I chose to recover it with a black bottom, and black on the ends of the top with a maroon red saddle. This was the hardest box to cover for some reason. It fought us from the start.

But we got it done and now here it is:

Oh, but after getting the fabric glued to the top I was going to put the cord on when I caught Fiona red pawed stealing it.

I guess she thought it was a fun toy because she played with it for quite a bit.


Here is my SEWMOR back in her case:


Front view:


End view:


Unfortunately the camera flash makes the maroon look red and the black look grey. The color is really maroon and black.

Now there’s one more part.
Here is the original metal case latch.

Notice the chip in the paint on the edge of the machine. That was done by the metal latch. I don’t particularly like that so I replaced it with another window screen latch.

This one is a bit smaller than the one I told you about in my other thread.

I found a source of these at ACE Hardware. Many different sizes in both plastic and metal. This plastic one was just the right size without any cutting so I bought it.
Actually the truth is, I was going to buy the metal one, but my wife said, no I want the plastic one. Sigh …………… It works is all I can say.

For the time being I’m done with cases. Now to finish my treadle cabinet.

Joe

cabbagepatchkid

I would never have recognized it as the same machine from the first pic!!! How about a tute on how you did the case? I have many, many ugly cases that could do with a make over like that. You did a wonderful job.

ETA: Fiona is beautiful

Candace

Looks great!

J Miller

Cathy, Fiona agrees with you .
Here is a thread I just recently did about case repairs: { http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...r-t199606.html }


Candace,

Thanks,


Joe

js3830

That is really awesome. Great job to be proud of. Sandy

barny

Golly Joe, you are really good! That case and machine looks like new. Hard to believe something that looked so bad looks so good now. I don't know why people who own stuff will let it go without any care, do you? Barny

vintagemotif

Joe, You did a beautiful job on that case and machine. You should be proud of that transformation since it looks like a totally different machine and case. Nicely done!

J Miller

Thanks, but now I must sew with it. Think I'll make me another whacky bag .

Joe

Caroline S

Impressed with your work as usual. In my "old days" I had a boyfriend had a hot rod with the same red and black colors.

I also have a couple of sewing machines that came from GW with "exploded" cases. Those cases were not designed to have a forty pound sewing machine bounce around in them. The last of my canning should be done tomorrow and perhaps I can refocus on the case repair project. I found some heavy shelf liner at Wally World that may work OK as case covering.

BTW I did some research on the Tolex fabric and may consider purchasing some. Yes, it is spendy, but is 54 to 60 inches wide. I am thinking that that 1 yard may cover 3 cases. I calculated the square inches of the case top and bottom and converted to = yardage.

J Miller

Caroline,

You are soooooo right about the machines bouncing around inside the cases. But even having the machine well packed didn't help this one. I think the bottom was in bad shape before they shipped it.

I've had an idea for the inside of the case top. I think I'm going to recover that with adds from JoAnns and Hancock fabrics. That should be fairly easy to do. And we got a lot of those adds floating around.

My wife did the yardage calculations when we first decided to do the machines too. She says you might get three cases out of a 60" yard, but it will be a tight squeeze. So far the original material we bought has covered three bottoms, one complete top and the ends of the second top. I screwed up cutting the last bottom and wasted the piece. I don't think we have enough for another case. But I haven't layed it out to measure it.

Here's another pic of the 404 case with a red fish on it to show the actual color of the maroon fabric. I was playing around with the little fleece fish and just put it there. It just stayed so I took a pic of it. The fleece fish is red red so you can see the difference.
I also used natural light with no flash this time.


Joe