Sewing on and Serging forward

Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, we all make errors of judgement. With hindsight, I now realise that I made an error when I fitted a new motor to my Singer 99K. The motor should have gone onto my Singer 201K. Here is my reasoning, with the benefit of hindsight. Although my 99K was motor driven when I received it, the motor wiring was very dodgy so I removed it from the machine and replaced it with a hand crank. By the time the crank arrived the machine was working quietly following a thorough cleaning and oiling regime. With the crank installed their was a real improvement in the machine. But we can all do daft things. This was what I did. I fitted a new 0.45 watt YDK motor and pedal. What? That was just a replacement for the original motor that had seen better days. Whats wrong   with that, you may ask. Well, nothing really but it was not MY best option. Here's why. I had a hand cranked 99K, a hand cranked 201K and a new YDK motor and foot-pedal. My thoughts were to keep t...

Contrary to what Diane, my partner thinks, I am not a sewing machine collector. I do have two vintage Singers, a 99K Centennial edition from 1951 and a 201K dating back to 1940. I also have a Toyota Super Jeans 34, Toyota 3304 overlocker and Singer 14SH754 overlocker. All of these machines are "in use", meaning that they are not display only machines. All of them except for the Singer overlocker have been used in the past week! All have different strengths and weaknesses but I was beginning to feel that having two vintage machines, both hand cranked was more than a bit quirky. I definitely was trending towards putting an electric motor on one of them. The 99K would seem to be the ideal machine to remain hand cranked, being smaller and far more portable than the 201K, but as it originally had a Singer motor attached from new, I erred on the thought of replacing the crank on the 99K. For a little over £30 inc p & p I was able to obtain a brand new YDK  90w. 0.45 amp motor...

I seemed to be constantly busy during the last two weeks of April. I just seem to have been trying out new sewing projects, one after another. It began with making a tailor's ham, which then progressed to making a sleeve roll, then 10 rice filled pyramid pattern weights and a drawstring bag to keep the weights in. The ham was made on my Singer 99K, the sleeve roll. pattern weights and bag on my Singer 201K. Diane wanted me to make her a tool roll for some of her jewellery making tools. As I had recently taken apart an old leather skirt to re-used the leather, this seemed like a fitting project to make on my Singer 99K (using a leather needle). The roll was lined with felt that we got at the Gloucester Resource Centre. The most tricky project over the past couple of weeks was without a doubt the Office Party Bag from Debbie Shore. I chose to make this from some vinyl which I obtained through the Gloucester Resource Centre some weeks ago. As my first bag proje...

This is my newley acquired 1940, Singer 201K with hand crank which I collected on Saturday. It came complete with a bentwood case and two boxes of accessories (most of which are duplicated). The machine had been idle for almost 10 years, except for one sewing session in late 2016. It was surface clean other than old oil residue on the needle bar and presser foot bar, and in very good physical condition for a machine that is 77 years old! Inside was a little different. In parts, it was pretty mucky from old dried out and discoloured oil, a sure sign the machine had been idle for a long time. Everything was moving fairly freely but the stitches left a lot to be desired. Some investigation was needed, mainly as part of my normal clean down regime. Removing the faceplate revealed needle bar and presser foot mechanisms that were sorely in need of some TLC. Everything was working fine behind the faceplate, it was just covered in a fairly thick brown residue from old oil. An hour...

Adding lace, ribbon etc to a garment edge. To do this I centre the needle hole in the adjuster. Place the lace/ribbon into the first slot down on the right of the attachment, and the main fabric in the first slot down on the right. Ensure that the start of both fabrics is below or past the needle hole and lower the presser foot. I like to cross the fabrics, left over right, just a little when sewing. This helps to ensure that both the fabric and the lace/ribbon are sewn together. See the video below. More on the edge stitching attachment: Singer edge stitching attachment.

Looking like a weird set of ladders the Singer edge stitch attachment is one of the most versatile attachments I have, so I thought that I would share some of the ways it can be used. First, it is a very effective and almost faultless way to stitch at the edge of material. Remove the normal presser foot and attach the edge stitcher and you are good to go. I like to turn under 1/8-1/4" of fabric first, and either press or finger press a sharp edge in place. The video below details the full edge stitching process using the attachment. Singer edge stitching foot   More edge stitcher techniques: Singer 99: Adding lace, ribbon etc to a garment edge with the edge stitching attachment

This skill eluded me for a while. I could not find anything on Youtube or the internet, so I decided to make a short video myself once I mastered the technique, which is very simple. I was told that it not a good idea to hand crank my Singer 99 in the wrong direction and as mine has no reverse function locking the start and end of a seam was a bit of a puzzle. So for those of you mulling over a similar issue with your vintage straight stitch only, no reverse sewing machine, her is a short video on how I do it.