Wow! I just realized that it has been 8 months since I last posted.  We bought a fixer-upper house last summer  and my attention has been focused on painting, repairing, buying appliances, flooring, cooktop and countertop.  When the new gas cooktop was installed, we found that the gas line buried in the concrete slab foundation had corroded and was leaking.  We had to have a new gas line run through the attic and down to the kitchen.     We finally have everything the way we want it and what did we do?  Decided we would prefer to live in Florida!  ..read more

   I was trolling the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore this morning and saw something I didn’t know existed – a blackside Singer 15-91!    I know that several Singer models received the blackside treatment on faceplate, slide plate, and needle plate from 1941 to 1953 but had only seen it on 128s, 66s, and 99s.  According to the Bluebook, the 15-91 was manufactured from 1933 to 1956 so the production was within the period of blackside machines, but in my 40 plus years of collecting vintage sewing machines, I have never seen a model 15 in blackside.  I thought ..read more

We are getting down to brass tacks now, runs to the landfill every couple of days disposing of things I held onto for years in case "I might need that some day".  We have sold everything anyone would buy and given away other items to individuals and thrift shops and now, it's off to the landfill with what's left.  I am going to post a classified ad today for the remainder of my collection and I am listing lots on eBay because they need to be gone in a week and I can't count on Etsy to accomplish that. UPDATE:  I got a phone call about an hour after posting the classified ad ..read more

I bought these presser feet on eBay years ago.  I believe they were listed as Viking quilting feet.  Since Kathie is a quilter and the price was right, I picked them up in case I later ran across a Viking that they would fit.  I never did and now it's time to bid them farewell but I really don't know what they are.  I have Googled images for "embroidery foot" and "quilting foot" with no positive results.  Can anyone help? Ed ..read more

   The clean-out continues.  Today, I dug out all my Singer "Top Hat" decorative stitch cams.  During my 45 years of collecting sewing machines, every time I saw a set of Singer attachments, I picked it up.  Also, many of the Singers I obtained came with attachments.  I was shocked at the number when I dug them out and arranged them in numerical order    Also, I was amazed that with all those cams, I only have one complete set.  Noticeably missing is the Zero cam that produces the standard zig zag stitch on machines that do not have zig zag built ..read more

    As I approach my 72nd birthday, Kathie and I find that it is time to rid ourselves of our 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, 3-story house and look for a home offering one level living.  We will list our home for sale tomorrow and have spent the last month "de-cluttering".  Because the next house will be smaller, we also must downsize our space-consuming hobbies.  Kathie will probably lose her longarm quilting machine and I have to find new homes for many of the machines, parts, tools, and manuals that I have been hoarding for the past 45 years.     To that end, I h ..read more

A few years ago, I was making lanyards to sell at craft shows that required a double stitch and I picked up this 1951 Singer 112W140 to cut my sewing time in half.  As it turned out, the double needles were not spaced correctly for my project, so I picked up an eBay lot of gauge sets (presser foot, throat plate, needle clamp, and feed dog) to fit onto my machine.  About that time, demand for my lanyards dried up and I no longer had a reason to change the spacing of the needles on my machine and never installed another gauge set. Here’s my problem:  When my auction lot arrived ..read more

Yesterday, I broke out a really nice 603E that I haven’t used in a long time.  I oiled it up and was running it in and it was humming along perfectly - no rattles, squeaks, or clicks.  At full speed, I moved the stitch width lever over to check out the zig zag without thinking to check whether a zig zag needle plate was installed - it wasn’t!  Not only did the needle break, the straight stitch needle plate also broke. Thinking that the 603 uses the same needle plate as many other slant needle Singers, I grabbed one from another machine sitting nearby. When I started u ..read more

The other day, a friend gifted me with a Bernette MO-234 Serger.  She said it had just quit working and was making a "funny noise".  I don’t have enough experience with overlockers to agree to work on one for someone but she had already bought a replacement and just gave it to me to play with. I put a few drops of oil here and there and threaded it up - it worked perfectly.   Then, I made four Christmas stockings for this Fall’s craft show and there was never a hiccup sewing through four layers of fabric and two layers of batting.  The machine will probably take its ..read more

A friend picked up a Singer Featherweight at an antique shop (first mistake).  The seller told her it had been recently serviced and was good to go. The first thing I noticed when I flipped on the power switch was that the light did not come on.  There was no light bulb in the socket. The presser foot installed was a gathering foot.  That is not what you want for straight stitching.  There was no straight stitch foot in the box of attachments. The installed needle had a burr on the point. The motor belt was too tight. There was thread caught in the bobbin case base ..read more