I cut my new stash into 180 6 inch squares so far. DD says the scraps would be overwhelming to Wilbur and Walter but DGD, Miss G. can have cut squares. I'm thinking of sending her 9 at a time... She has a little Spartan for piecing. Thrift stores some times have really good deals on fabric if you aren't too picky.

What kind of fabric is "batiks"?
Very pretty colors.

Joe

Joe - it's a dye pattern/technique. Originally it was made using wax to limit the fabric exposed to the dye (or at least how much dye can affect treated portions of the fabric.) Most that you find these days are actually printed to look like a real batik.

I used to do batik on silk - a friend of mine and I made scarves/wall hangings (1988) we stretched the silk on a frame. Then we had a tool to put the bees wax in and used it to 'draw' designs on the silk or we just painted the wax on the silk. Then we dyed the fabric some light color. Then we used the wax to cover the light color where we wanted to keep the color. Then we dyed the fabric again - we kept going until we used black. Kind of expensive but a whole lot of fun - we had little kids and that was a challenge. The kids loved to play in the wax... I should see if I can find the tool again some time. We tried all different kinds of things. Somewhere I ran across one - we played with an old sheet to see what it would do before we did it on silk - never did take all the wax out of it - didn't like it... Some stuff plays out and some not so much. One day my friend's dad who was a professional artist came over and made the most beautiful scarf for her mom. He made a comment I will never forget. He said, "Who needs talent, you can get expert at just about anything if you practice long enough." HHMM So many of us quit just short of getting good.

pinkCastleDH, Miriam,

Thanks for the explanation.

Joe

OH! I forgot - the last step is to get the wax out of the fabric. Hot iron. In our case we were using some real good dye so we took our silk to the local high school where they did some dry cleaning classes and took the wax out for free. We told them to wait until they were ready to change out the chemical. Then the teacher wanted the kids to do batik, too. I think they shut down the program before we got to do it with a bunch of kids. It was a fun thing. Expensive though. There are other methods. http://www.dharmatrading.com/ good place for stuff like that. I think there are other resist methods - probably better dyes. We were using high end stuff. My friend's mother funded us just a bit. I wish I had some of it around. Makes some nice scarves.

Nancy, it is 5-737-346. It was purchased new on Oct 11, 1957 in Palatine, Il. It came with a lot of paperwork on it but it has an owners manual for a 230 and a manual that is for models 332-260. I guess they may not have one specific for the 229. (?) Do you have a good source for a size wheel for the Pfaff?

I meant to say, STITCH wheel

Steve,

I found a chart I made years ago of working space measurements. They are all home machines except the 31-20.

MACHINE.......... NEEDLE TO ARM
MODEL...............MEASUREMENT
Singers
31-20 10 ½”

403 etc 7 1/8”
15-90 etc 6 7/8”
201 8”
66 8”
306 etc 7 7/8”
301 7 ¼”
99 6 ¼”
128 6 3/8”
221 5 1/16”


Other Mfg
White Rotary 8 1/8”

MW URR284 7 3/8”

Wheeler & Wilson 8 7 3/8”

Mizkaki, love the material I know what you mean by stash. I have stashes everywhere.

Everyone please stay safe from the coming storm. We are supposed to get snow from this one.