As you all know I’ve been busy making lots of stuff for my up and coming craft fair and one thing I’ve been using a lot is my sewing machine to run up lots of paper garlands. Well it’s a very very old machine (older than me) and the speed on it has always been temperamental in that it either zooms away manically or marches on with a steady pace – there seems to be very little control over this with the foot pedal anymore.
This isn’t so bad when sewing fabrics, but when sewing paper it always good to get a steady slow speed and over the past few weeks I’ve found this totally impossible and the thread has got tangled on too many occasions. It’s been a bit frustrating.
So I put out a call on Freecycle to see if anyone had a modern simple machine stashed away in a cupboard somewhere that needed a loving home and new work to do. A lovely couple got in touch saying they might have the perfect solution – a small Singer machine that was donated to them a while back that they had never used. I went round to pick it up yesterday and it is so small and dinky and incredibly light – which is such a contrast to my bulky heavy Frister & Rossman.
Isn’t it dinky!!! They didn’t know whether it worked and it also didn’t come with instructions, but I said I would take it and figure it out with the help of the internet. So that’s what I’ve been doing today as it’s totally different from my machine and took me hours to find how to thread it.
I went through lots of tangled thread moments, but eventually found a site that explained how to thread the machine properly, although the diagrams were tiny and I’m still not sure I’ve got it right. But whatever I did worked and I can now sew with it without getting tangled thread.
The tension isn’t perfect yet and it needs a good clean, but once it’s polished up, I’m sure it will run really smoothly. One of the best things about it is the regulated speed – this is controlled by a switch rather than the amount of pressure you put on the foot pedal. So you can set it to off, or tortoise, or hare. Off means you can work the machine manually by hand, tortoise means it goes at a steady slow pace and hare races along at quite a fast pace – this is absolutely perfect for my needs!
I can’t wait to start sewing with it… but I’ve got an appointment with a large slice of freshly baked banana bread and a cup of coffee right now and then I’m off to bash some silver with a hammer and make some earwires for some earrings I made earlier this week… busy busy busy!
yay for freecycle! I’ve met so many wonderfull folk through it. Living in a city it’s heartwarming to find such generous folk all around us.
I love freecycle!
Double yay for Freecycle. My chair in knitting headquarters came from a lovely lady in Dundee and she even gave me a book to read while sitting down!
Did you know that there is a sewing machine repair man in Carmyllie, near me? He might be worth checking out for your older machine….
I’d never heard of Freecycle – but I looked it up and found a New Zealand group – and now I’m a member. What a great way to pass things on.
I’m glad I’ve been of use and helped you find out about such a great way of recycling!