Dorothy
Last month, Dorothy was considering work with some very stretchy fabric. Janey suggested a product called "PerfectSew" as a possible method of stiffening the fabric. Dorothy responded:
Thank you Janey!
The PerfectSew worked well enough that a lovely edging was made without fabric distortion. I did Not take a photo of the actual edge- I thought I did, but no.
I did attach the woven stitch sampling to get the one I chose ( on right). The knit sample shows different with a smaller loop and more distance between. I think it looks good.
I will have a full report for Jan. Thanks again for the PerfectSew idea!
Dorothy
Hello
Dec is over and it went fast! May the new year be a good one!
Hem stitching has come up in some conversations and it is puzzling me. Hem stitching is a form of cut & drawn work, with information so far indicating "It is excellent for hems". (Source a Butterick sewing book from 1921). There are illustrations of hem stitch & drawn work but no definitive definition, must be lots of assumed knowledge of the day. Confusion really comes in with modern machine "Hemstitch" done with a wing needle and program which is not drawn work, even if delightfully pretty.
I did decorative stitching on the knit garment. It was really helped by the Perfect Sew Janey suggested. Not perfect (compared to the Necchi stitch guide) but has the interest wanted! Variation from the stitch guide is most likely due to needing a good under carriage oiling. Another thing to get to as the lift mechanism wedges and requires extra effort to lift. Sigh.
I look forward to Saturday!
Dorothy
Courtney
Courtney has had a busy time. He shares this, as well as a little about his Christmas:
My sewing machine adventures have been quite interesting for the past couple of months. In my November report I mentioned that I had been given three sewing machines at a recent Science Fiction Convention, a Kenmore from the late 1960s, a Willcox and Gibbs from about 1885, and a transverse shuttle machine in great shape that resembled a Singer model 12.
I got the Willcox and Gibbs cleaned up and adjusted so now it sews. It is kind of interesting in that it is not the automatic model but an original glass tension model. I haven't had time to work on the Kenmore but I don't think it will cause much of a problem to get running. It's the transverse shuttle machine that has taken up most of my time. After Janey and John put the notes up on Victorian Sweatshop, Olaf from Norway commented on the picture and identified the machine as a Stoewer machine and said that he could tell me the date of manufacture if I could provide him with the serial number. I quickly responded and he said the machine was made in 1904. He also sent directions on how to wind a bobbin. I now had a name I could search for online. Although the Stoewer Company was the second oldest sewing machine company in Germany, I had trouble finding much about my machine. I did find some very old Stoewer literature online, but the major difficulty was that is was in an old German script. I don't read German but I do have a quilting buddy, Jill, who was a German major in college and has spent some time in Germany. We met for coffee and crepes. She had some difficulty with the old script, but I was able to get nearly all my questions answered. There was one small part on threading the bobbin she was unsure about, so she sent it to a friend in Switzerland to confirm her translation. Wow, this machine has sure given me a feeling for how small the world has become and how international!
While we were still at the little restaurant, Jill pulled out her grandmother's sewing machine. It was a little model 20. It has a very interesting story that I hope to tell you next month. The talk with Jill about her grandmother's Singer model 20 got me thinking that I had a couple of girl's machines in the basement. One of the machines was a Singer Sewhandy from the 50s. a newer model 20. It was not in nearly as nice a condition as Jill's grandmother's machine although it was probably 10 to 20 years younger. Many of the moving parts had gotten rusty, particularly the tension mechanism. I got out the Evaporust, cleaned and adjusted the machine. It now sews okay but I think I still need to do some tension work. The other machine was an old motorized Betsy Ross that had a bad motor and the machine itself was frozen tight. However, the Betsy Ross had no rust, so I sprayed some WD40 on all the moving parts and let it set for some time on top of the furnace. The combination of heat and WD40 did the trick and as soon as it started to move, I oiled it up. Both machines were missing the knob for the hand crank. Fortunately, I had purchased a gross of little red knobs on eBay several years ago so both machines now have little red knobs. Although the Singer needs a bit more work the Betsy Ross is sewing very well. (The four-patch pillow in the picture was done on the Stoewer hand crank.)
Santa Claus was nice to me this year. I have been a good boy all year, I promise. My big present was a folding Gorilla Cart. Now I will be able to wheel around 3 machines at once instead of having to carry each one individually.) The picture shows the rest of my stash in the bottom of the Gorilla Cart. The stash includes a moda layer cake, a fat quarter bundle, and some bulldog fabric! I also got a stitch guide for setting the width of seams and a couple of the antique sewing machine trading cards, one Singer and one New Home. I got a slew of quilting books for inspiration. Connie gave me a reprint of how to use attachments with old Singer model 27 machines. We still have the #27 machine her grandmother sewed Connie's wedding dress on. (Connie's grandmother inherited the machine from her grandmother, so it originally was Connie's great great grandmother's machine!) Finally, a good friend gave me a 1929 copy of the White Schools of Costume Design Handbook. With the following note attached:
Quote:
"I remember my mom first teaching me to sew on a White sewing machine. Most likely this White Handbook came with it. I thought you might like to have it. Note that true to the time that she would have gotten it she signed her name as Mrs. Harry Olson and not as Sylvia Olson.
When I was about 13 she bought the Singer Featherweight which is part of my collection of four machines. I will never catch up with you. Ha! Carol"
(PS Carol is now 85)
Hope everyone else had a great Holiday Season. Best Wishes,
Courtney
In Closing
May the new year bring good fortune to everyone! We will post here again next month to share the activities of our members. Thank you for reading.