OurWorkbench

I think I opened last month's post saying that cold weather and snow were coming. But I was wrong. Most unusually, Denver hasn't had measurable snow. We are breaking records going back to early 1900s. Next record is in the 1880s. Ski resorts are struggling and we really need the moisture.

With it being thanksgiving and early Christmas season, we have just a little less than usual from our members, still with several things of interest to present. We'll start with Courtney, from northern Colorado.


Courtney

Courtney has been working on a quilt which will be displayed at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden, Colorado, at the foot of the mountains just west of Denver. He emailed us with the following:

Dear All,

I have attached a picture of the quilt for the RMQM show. I am really excited because it is a juried show.

Courtney



Janey had a question about the original fabric. Courtney sent another picture of the back which includes a larger piece of the original fabric.

I have enclosed a picture of the original fabric which includes one of my helpers. Unfortunately, I could only get the length of one repeat (about 31 inches) as what I have of the original fabric is not wide enough to get the other repeat.




Still later in the month Courtney sent a few more thoughts and pictures, which he shares:

Dear All,
Connie and I are going to be in California for Thanksgiving so I quickly put the following together. Hope everyone has a great holiday.

Here is my monthly report:

This month I did finish my Christmas quilt. It actually came out quite well. I was going through my old scraps and decided I had enough to start on another quilt. Except for the borders I have the top of this new quilt done. I have attached pictures of both.

I was digging through some old tools and found a little flat wrench that was about 2.5 mm thick. I started playing around and found I could use it as a timing gauge (see Picture of Wrench and clip). I loosen the hook so it will turn freely. I set the needle bar at its lowest position then put the wrench at the top of the needle bar. I hold it in place with a mini binder clip (see Wrench held by clip). I then remove the gauge (wrench) and gently move the needle bar up until it just touches the upper arm of the machine (see Clip at top). This raises the needle bar 2.5 mm up from its lowest position. Leaving the needle bar alone I can then set the point of the hook directly behind the needle and tighten it. This seems to work well on my little Elna Lotus as well as an old Singer 66. I think it will work for any machine that uses a modern class 15 needle.

My only acquisition this month has been a little 1956 Singer 99 which was given to me. It seems to be in pretty good condition but really needs some lubrication. It was in a drop cabinet and so the back of the machine is quite dirty while the front is quite nice. I hate drop cabinets because this always seems to happen. When I get a chance, I am going to try and make a lightweight base to make the machine reasonably portable.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Courtney




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Thanh

Thanh and Lara are traveling this Thanksgiving and he shares a little about what he has done:

Hope everyone is doing well. Lara and I are also out of town in MA for a couple of weeks visiting family. Not sure if I can make the call but here's my short update:

This past month I was able to work on my Morse Fotomatic 4300 that I purchased on online estate auction in September. It was in pretty good shape and didn't need much cleaning and oiling to get running smoothly.
The Morse 4300 was made by Toyota in the 1950's and reminds me a lot of the vintage cars from that era. Straight and zig zag stitch sews wonderfully but I have yet to try the button hole or blind hem stitches.
Along with the Morse, the lot came with a box of vintage patterns and about a dozen patterns drafted by the previous owner. I've transitioned to using a projector to cut pattern pieces. So I'll spend some time sorting through and scanning some of these patterns for future projects.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving,

Best

Thanh



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Leon

Leon, our member at large from Kansas, sends us some notes and pictures of his recent activities:

Things have been busy in KS. Key leaders are changing at work and my 5 month old grandson is twisting my fingers up.

I got a great treadle base for a Wilcox and Gibbs. 1857 patent for the wheel stop to keep the wheel from going the wrong way. rubber ball circled and arrowed in the picture. Loved the detail in the foot control. I will make a top and pair it with my W and G chain stitcher. Oh Janey and Ramses the cat want to see a full side.











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In a second subsequent email Leon wrote:

Just for fun is a dashboard Fleetwood (Brother re-badge probably) complete with fins on the top. Can it say "50s" any louder? I haven't even touched it yet. Just dragged it home. I can see using it as a hand crank at some events.








James

We're sending special best wishes to James, who sounds like he has had a difficult Thanksgiving this year. He writes:

I have not done much sewing related stuff since the last meeting. There were some machines I wanted to bid on but with travel and my Dad's funeral going on just before Thanksgiving I did not get much done.

We took my mother's Singer 301 with table and accessories to my brother down to Texas where we had Thanksgiving with him and his wife. I brought my English hand crank Willcox and Gibbs for her to try out. We tried it out on some dish drying cloths. We found out that if you pull on the fabric at stitch length 12 it will create loops. I switched it to 16 length and it holds firm. I guess that dish drying fabric is just a bit too stretchy at length 12. My prior sewing with the Willcox and Gibbs were all on regular quilting fabric.

She was nervous about it being a chain stitch instead of lock stitch. I got to see her sewing machines including her Mother's Singer 500 and a featherweight she picked up at a good price at an estate sale. She makes occasional quilts for the Linus Project which collects quilts and blankets for children in need such as hospitals and shelters.

James

In Closing

We will post here again next month for the first meeting of the 2022 new year. Until then, everyone have happy holidays and a safe and prosperous new year! Thank you for reading.

bkay

Thanks for sharing.

bk

cwillis

Dear Leon,

Great find for the W&G treadle. I do most of my piecing on my W&G treadle. Much better control than anything else. Do you need a ball for the treadle stop? I have several and would be glad to send a couple if you like. They are not black like the originals but multicolored. bought a whole bunch a couple of years ago. They work great. Could also supply you with a ferrule if you want to attach the treadle belt the way W&G did. They always did things differently that most other sewing machine companies but I am impressed with their engineering, especially for the time.

Courtney

leonf

Courtney, check for a private message. Thanks
L

OurWorkbench

Many of you may have heard about the terrible fire we had here recently. The first significant snow of the season was unusually delayed until late December. The winds that sometimes precede the arrival of a cold front produced 100+ mile per hour winds. What would have been an isolated fire swept burning embers from house to house in a residential neighborhood between Denver and Boulder. Heavy snow and single degree temperatures immediately followed the fire, leaving the smoldering ashes of peoples homes blanketed under several inches. Had the snow come one day sooner, there might have been a different outcome.

We are fortunate to report that we have heard of no one in our group being affected by it, although a current count of 991 homes were a total loss. Please offer thoughts and prayers to our fellow Coloradans and be a little more grateful for what you have.

That said, in our first posting of the new year, we have offerings from several of our members. Courtney was the first to send his report in anticipation of a busy Christmas with family, so we'll start there.

Courtney
Courtney used his good woodworking skills and a lot of cleverness to make a nice treadle:

I am writing this shortly before Christmas because I have a bit of time now. Sewing machine stuff started this month when some good friends were cleaning out an old shed and came across an 1880s treadle and top for a Singer model 12 sewing machine. They said the first thing that popped into their minds was "we can give it to Courtney!" The Irons are in great shape but the top needs work. A couple of weeks later I ran across a YouTube video from the Featherweight Shop demonstrating their new Treadle Kit for using a Featherweight in a treadle. That reminded me, a couple of months ago, that I had seen another YouTube in which a fellow had adapted a Featherweight to a treadle. So, I looked around and watched it again. The Featherweight Shop kit was very simple, elegant, but rather expensive. The other was rather complicated and required ordering a couple of pulleys and a couple of bearings from Amazon.

I got to thinking (always a dangerous thing!) About 5 or 6 years ago I saw someone on eBay selling a Featherweight hand crank. It attached to the stop motion screw on the end of the machine. At the time, I went to the shop and tried to come up with a simple equivalent. My design was quite simple just a piece of wood with a handle on one end and a 1/2 inch hole on the other. To hold it in place I used a (1/2-20-1) bolt from Ace hardware (1/2 inch, 20 threads per inch, 1 inch long) which cost $1.50. It seemed to work just fine except just like the eBay crank it was one stitch per backwards turn. It would take forever to sew a simple seam.

At the same time that I made the crank, I made a treadle adapter. I cut a 2-3/4 inch circle from 3/4 inch thick MDF (because it was what I had on hand). Again, I drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the center. I laid the stop motion washer on top of the hole and drew around it. I then drove in a small finishing nail so that it would contact one of the ears on the stop motion washer (see picture #1 which shows the crank and treadle adapter). Finally, I put in a 1/4 inch groove around the outside of the circle. To attach it to a Featherweight, I would remove the stop motion screw and the motor belt and replace it with my adapter with the pin on the inside so it would contact the stop motion washer. I would hold it in place with the 1-inch long 1/2 inch diameter fine pitched screw.

I dug around the basement and found my old crank and treadle adapters. My plan was to use the 1880's treadle I was given. I got everything set up and tried it out. It worked, but not great. It was hard to keep the treadle going and in the correct direction. The treadle drive wheel was rather light and a bit smaller than a normal treadle. When it was used with a model 12, the large heavy balance wheel on the sewing machine would give it enough momentum to keep going but a featherweight only has a small aluminum wheel which could not provide enough momentum. I was a bit disappointed. But thinking back this is probably why I had not pursued it any further.

After a bit of thought I remembered that my Willcox and Gibbs sewing machines have a rather small balance wheel and that the W&G treadles have a drive wheel which is weighted on the outside to produce enough momentum to keep the treadle going. So, I pulled out the anti-reverse ball in a W&G treadle and tried the Featherweight with my adapter. It worked great! (see picture #2 which shows the Featherweight on the W&G treadle with the adapter attached. I colored the adapter black to match the Featherweight.) I was able to easily sew a simple 4-patch. I didn't have a Singer treadle with a full-sized drive wheel around, but I still had a Kenwood (NSMC) treadle I had purchased a couple of months ago. It too has a drive wheel which is weighted a bit on the outer rim. It also worked well. After the Christmas chaos I plan on trying out a full-sized Singer treadle but for now at least I know that I can get a Featherweight to work well on a couple of treadles.

I made my adapter using a router and mdf because that is all I have. I can dream however of an adapter made of hard maple or oak carefully made on a lathe. I think it would be quite attractive as well as simple to set up and use.

Courtney






James
James sent notes and pictures of some of the things he has been working on:

Since the last posting I picked up what I believe is a late 1920s Willcox and Gibbs treadle table. The head is in great shape and the treadle action is nice and smooth. It came with a single drawer that is not attached with an original tucker. It also came with a metal base for the motor version of the Willcox and Gibbs.

I pieced together a table topper for my sister as a Christmas present using it and bound and quilted it using my 1907 Singer 28 hand crank. I am getting better at sewing but I did make some mistakes with the binding and should start using safety pins to make sure the corners of the blocks match up better.

For Christmas I received a 3 yard quilt pattern book and leather belt for my hand crank along with the Treadle Lady "Treadle Sewing Machines - Clean and use an Iron Lady" book.

James







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Cheryl & Chris
Cheryl and Chris sent us a little bit about what they've been working on, a beautiful custom sewing machine case that Chris made:

Chris made a nice box and cover for a Singer 15.




Thanh
Thanh and his wife were traveling over the Christmas holiday, but sent us these notes about his activities upon returning:

Happy New Year! Wishing everyone a prosperous and joyous 2022.

I missed December's meeting because I was visiting family in Massachusetts. After two years, it was just nice to be with them in person instead of over zoom.

While back east, I had the chance to visit my sister in New Hampshire who does some professional sewing, mainly for industrial applications. While she uses a 1945 Singer 241, she hasn't caught the vintage/antique sewing machine bug like the rest of us, which was lucky for me because she gave me a bag of industrial pressure feet that she doesn't need for her work. They're high shank and will work great on all my Necchis.

She also gave me a box of old binding and hemming attachments from various companies: G. Braf, State Sewing Supply, Suisei, Meltzer and Summit Station Manufacturing. I'm sure Janey can identify these just by this photo:

My only acquisition this month is a Kenmore 1040. I've been eyeing these models as another portable machine to go along with my Featherweight. While the FW does a much nicer stitch, the Kenmore has zigzag, blind hem, stretch stitch and button hole stitcher. This one didn't come with the rose case, is missing the flip up bed, and needed some work but the price was right at $10.

That about sums up the past month for me. Looking forward to catching up at the next get together

Thanh









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Leon

Leon, our member at large from Kansas and apparently also experiencing snow, sent the following notes:

Friday my son and grandson and I made a short road trip to look at a 6 thread chainstitcher. Hmmm. It turns out I had purchased a hand crank from the same seller so I knew he would have other treasures. I haven't messed with any besides the Singer, and it isn't very free, but it will punch all three of its needles (so far) through a paper towel. As we arrived I was thinking, "This will be a day to send to Denver." They guy makes vinyl covers and upholstery for boats. I knew my son would like to see his shop. The kid was drooling worse than the 5 month old.

Anyway for your viewing pleasure, a 1938 Model 52, a Necchi V Vittoria (vs machine) circa 1925. New Home portable complete with deadly wiring (vs) and a Sears Minnesota A(vs). No motors for the Singer, or the Necchi. I am wondering if the Necchi may take Singer parts. hmmm

So for your viewing pleasure. In order:










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