She's ready!

 Hello, everyone. 

Yesterday I put a light coat of shellac on her to seal the bare bits where un climate controlled storage had damaged the finish on her wood. After it dried, I went over it gently with 4-ought steel wool to degliss the surface a little. Then wiped the shellac dust off with a microfiber rag.

Today I got out the Howard Restor a Finish, which is apparently a penetrating oil, applied that, let it rest a few minutes, then wiped the excess off. Let it all dry for a little while. 

Then got out the Howard Feed n Wax, which says it's orange oil and beeswax, smoothed that on, not only the shellaced places, but also exteriors of drawers, drawer rails, and so on. I didn't mess with the surfaces that had been protected by the machine being in her cabinet over time.

Put in a new needle, put on the new belt, the only things lacking are filling a bobbin and learning to operate the treadle system.

The front view of the machine I am calling Isabel, with a spool of Aurifil thread waiting to load the bobbin.

I'm so excited! 

More on the sewing machine

 Hello, everyone.  I mentioned that the sewing machine needed another small repair. The opening where the belt passes up to the front (from the treadle to the wheel) had a small break at the edge of the wood. Possibly this was a result of riding down the road while folded down into its case? Anyway, it needed some help.

A view of the glueing.

It took two of us to maneuver the protective waxed paper and supportive shims into place.

We let it cure for a day. It's now reasonably repaired, we think. Only a few more things to do before I can start working with it!

As it's a whole new way of sewing, there will probably be some little things done before attempting to quilt an entire twin sized quilt! A pincushion? Maybe the piecing on the backing for that quilt? Working with the treadle is said to require some muscle training.

I can hardly wait!

Latest on the sewing machine

Hello, everyone. I did say there would be a progress report on our reconditioning/conservation efforts.

The heavy books stayed in place for days, giving the glue plenty of time to cure.

This is how it looked when the weights and waxed paper were removed. 

The glued area. The nylon scrubby worked very well to get the squished out glue bits off.

The most promising way I found to get accumulated dirt off of the finish. It's still going to need some new shellac for a sealant and maybe some finish restorer and then wax. But the Endust softened the old grime and the 0000 steel wool got it loose and the microfiber rag both rubs Endust in and picks up the loosened dirt at the end.

 Sadly, there is a broken spot at the pass through for the belt. Veneer is peeling, too, but the thing I am worrying about is how to repair the broken bit without impeding the passage of the belt. We are going to try glueing it with the aid of a small clamp, and maybe some shims.

It's possible that this break in the edge of the pass through is related to the fact that the old belt was broken when we got it. Who can know, it probably happened a long time ago. 

It's such an adventure learning how to care for the old machine! But I want to get her in working condition and do some quilting on her.

Progress report on the sewing machine

 Hello, everyone. We have moved to another step in rehabbing the Singer 66 we brought home. We have applied glue under the loose spots in the veneer.

This is the silver polish I tried with the access cover.

I found some multi surface glue that will work on glue, they say. It really isn't possible to do a test in an inconspicuous place as everyone recommends as there is only the one place with loose veneer. Right on top of the cover.

We got the Crystal Fix glue syringes, with short needle tips, and DH poured glue into the syringe. Then he very carefully sqirted the smelly glue up under the loose place in tge veneer. We closed out by wiping with a tissue and weighting it down.

The attentive reader will note that we placed waxed paper between the glue project and the volumes of history. We think that in a few days we will either have success or want to cry. The glue smells really permanent so there probably is no Plan B here, other than "learn to appreciate what you have." 

The next steps I think are to clean the side plate, which is decorated with a similar, leafy design as the access cover, to put the new treadle belt on (Thank you, Treadle Lady!) and replace the needle. There may be a need for a new rubber ring for the bobbin winder. It isn't pretty black like one would expect. 

And then I can assemble a quilt top, batting, and backing and see how she runs.

New stuff

 Hello, everyone.

As things go, one of the plastic legs on my keyboard broke. (I loved that keyboard!)

As y'all can see, the little plastic pin that holds the leg out gave out, and tape was required just to use the keyboard. (I used some of my sewing tape as it was not too wide for the job.)

Sigh. I loved the feel of the old keyboard, and I was used to the amber backlight that told me the keys were powered up even if nothing was going on elsewise. 

After reading about keyboards in the internet and hunting about for a mechanical keyboard to replace the broken one, I settled on a Logitech one at Best Buy. I had it delivered because it's a headache to deal with curbside pickup for small things. 

The new keyboard doesn't have the row of game oriented keys that were on the left edge of the old one--which I never used--and so it's an inch or two shorter across the front. As a bonus it also has a plug where the mouse can be attached and then a unified cable bundle carries the signals down to where the cable splits and each half goes into its own USB plug. I figure that it will keep down the amount of potential back-of-desk tangling that goes on.

The picture may not make it completely obvious, but the new keyboard has a white backlight thing going on. It came set so bright that I had to turn it down a couple of levels! Who wants a keyboard light so bright that they can practically read a paperback book by it?

A program note: sewing projects and embroidery projects are going on around here and I intend to describe them over the next few posts.

A little repair project

Hello, everyone.

Things have been a little bit busy. One reason is the subject of this post: a repair on a knit dress.

I love my Icebreaker merino-blend knit dress. Unfortunately, one day I tried to pick it up with a snaggy, sharp fingernail. Oops. A collection of very obvious holes appeared in the front bodice area.

I looked around on the internet and tried the one knit-holes repair I saw listed. It might have been all right for the back hem or someplace out of the way like that. This was to seam the edges together with the best match in an all natural thread that is around. It made glaringly obvious linear lumps on the front bodice.

So I got the seam ripper out and took the stitches away as well as possible. This was going to need a back patch, I decided, and baseball stitch. Or some reasonable facsimile of baseball stitch.

The back side of the patch, showing some basting stitches as well.

Got an old pair of pantyhose (washed) and cut a chunk out of one leg. This is the thin part of the knit, not the thick part near the waist. Basted it, two layers thick, onto the back of the dress fabric with some random thread. Put the reinforced area gently into an embroidery hoop and used the same (not quite matching) charcoal colored DMC floss to stitch the edges of the holes down and to each other as well as possible.

The front side of the patch.

After the patching stitches, the dress came out of the hoop for a while. I got out some new embroidery stabilizer: Stick n Stitch. This is a stick-on and dissolvable stabilizer. They claim you can run it through your ink jet printer but I really wasn't looking to make something that complex and heavy with stitches.

The traced daisy. I used a temporary marker pen.

Traced a daisy from the Dover Publishing floral designs book in the cabinet onto the soft (not paper) side of the stabilizer, pulled the paper backing off, and stuck the stabilizer down onto the knit. Put the hoop back on  carefully.


Stitched the daisy and a couple of leaves onto the fabric, using wool thread. (It may be tapestry thread, but the weight looked right.) I used a tapestry needle to do this, on the theory that if one uses a ball point needle to sew the knits, one should probably try to use a ball point needle to embroider them.

The threads of the flower.

Progress on the front side.









Stitches used: leaf stitch (?) for the leaves, with one strand of the Floralia. Stem stitch for the petals. Cross stitches scattered for the center of the flower. These last both in the Felicity's Garden thread.



Ready to soak:































After soaking and drip drying, the finished repair.

 The double layer of pantyhose knit seems to have worked out well for the patch behind the fabric. It has similar stretching characteristics, which matters on this kind of thing, and the dress is a thin knit so a thin patch was needed.

The Stick n Stitch worked reasonably well for a stabilizer and pattern transfer, but probably does a bit better with either a smaller needle or a crewel (sharp) needle to pierce the fuzzy stuff. I was careful not to tighten the thread tensions too much. And this dress being now even more delicate, will get hand washed from now on I think. But I love my Icebreaker tank dress. It's so comfortable and packable.