Lastly, James brought a shirt that he saw and liked at a thrift store. It is a patchwork of pieces sewn together, much like a quilt might be. Made by Jos. A Bank, pictures of the shirt are shown below.
Dorothy
Dorothy talked a little bit about her work and a 4-day sewing symposium she is attending via Zoom, focused on sewing undergarments.
She mentioned a Duerkopp-Adler industrial machine head that she acquired some time ago. She said that she'd like to bring it to a meeting sometime, but it is both bulky and heavy and has not done so yet.
John
John has taken interest over the last month in a unique and interesting thing called a Cornely chain stitch embroidery machine. Janey found and watched a video, which then caught John's interest. It is a highly complicated piece of machinery, which is steered via a hand crank underneath the bed of the machine. The entire stitching mechanism (both above and below) rotates with the crank. They are sort of rare and very expensive when found. John brought a picture of one for others to see. If a real one should appear, he'll bring that.
It is very similar to a Singer114w103, which is an almost identical embroidery machine. There is also a more modern equivalent, a machine called an Axis.
Pictures, most of which are copyrighted, may be easily found on the internet. There are a couple of videos of its use, although the operator is less than expert. They are listed below. The first shows its use from the topside. The second shows the use of the hand crank, located beneath the machine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fhVYOXM7PY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjxBNtWynEI
Dianne
Dianne contributed some notes and a picture of a project she has been working on. She writes:
Today I've been playing with the underbraider attachment on a Singer 201K hand crank made in 1958. What fun! Works like a charm, using cotton twine intended for cooking, as in tying up a turkey or whatever. There's a whole ball of this string......and I'm thinking that simple designs done this way will make a cute baby quilt.
The string experiment on the underbraider seems to be successful. The string gets firmly sewn down, and a bit flattened. If you didn't know, you might not figure out it was string. I sewed six quick 5" blocks, not aiming for symmetry or perfection - 'primitive' style. In one block the string crosses over itself, which worked mostly OK. All starting and ending points were at the edges, not knowing how to effectively start or end within the block. Then these were sashed and made into a placemat. Free motion quilting followed, close to one side of each string piece, which should help stabilize the little blocks, as the string is only attached to the top fabric. The question is: how will this launder? To be determined sometime this week. I'll let you know.
Dianne
... to be continued