OurWorkbench

Dorothy

Dorothy, our only sewing professional, has recently retired from her job. She describes some of the things that she is doing with her time.

Hello!
Halloween is here already! Best statement about that is from A Quilter's Corner with "It is erie in Erie"...

I have done nothing with a treadle base other than references to Mr Singer's middle name "Merritt" (Thanks Janey!) which has lead to India where it seems they make machines branded with Merritt.

I have used the buttonholer! The buttonholer is a Greist #10 designed for Necchi SuperNova (high shank) machines. The SuperNova comes with a buttonholer cam that makes square buttonholes. You need to control the length of the hole, it is not automatic.

The button holer is being used on a machine it was not designed for, but Yes! It works! It is offset by at least 1/16" too far to the right & is not centered in the attachment. This is something that can be remedied by removal of material from the attachment to the bar. There is enough material.

I have attached photos of a button hole in the machine showing how "off center" it is. The other photo is of (top left) a single pass at setting 4. The lower right is a double pass. Started at width 4 and a second pass at width 2 which makes a very nice button hole.

Buttonholes were added to a shirt for me. Next is a shirt started a while back but stubbornness indicated I should wait for this set up to complete.

Then again - Men's shirt buttons are not sold like they used to be & I was stumped not wanting milky white or black buttons for a fabric brown moose on green back ground. Finally found brown buttons which will better suit. I can not find the green ones bought at Colorado Fabrics closing. Sigh.

May you have a Grand rest of the week! Talk on Saturday!

Dorothy






Leon

Leon, our member at large from Kansas, is anticipating the acquisition of a machine. Leon recounts a story going back into his distant past. He writes:

It always good to be nice to former friends (and sometimes girlfriends).

Way back in 1969 I dated a young girl. We have kept in touch over the years through many stages of life. She made me an offer on a Henry Stewart VS treadle. It has some provenance. She is the third owner of it after her parents. But here are her words.

"The house on River was built and owned by J.D. Shower and his wife. My dad befriended her when he moved to Independence in 1945. When she was no longer able to care for herself, her son came from somewhere out east and took her home with him. He did not want any of the furnishings so we "inherited" a lot of stuff. (Including the VSM l,f)

I saw that house they bought so long ago when I saw her in 1969 but had no interest in sewing machines so I had to wait nearly 53 years to hear about the machine.

Here are some pictures of the machine. I am so eager to go pick it up and be it's latest caretaker.








Leon adds the following possibly relevant story:

Fun story from ISMACS close to the right time anyway. Who knows?

https://ismacs.net/stuart/stuart.html

... to be continued