Sewing Machine Spirits

I have made it well known that I use mostly vintage sewing machines.  These machines have had other owners and therefore unknown stories.  There are days where I really believe that inanimate objects can have spirits in them.  This past Saturday, I was rolling along with making last minute projects for an upcoming art fair.  All day, my sturdy Singer 503 was getting the brunt of the work. 

Very suddenly in the early evening, it decided to go on strike!  I truly thought the thing was dying - the motor slowed to a crawl, it wouldn't wind a bobbin properly, the thread tension went haywire.  All the usual troubleshooting  - oil, new needle, re-thread (multiple times) - failed.  I called it quits for the night after spending an hour and a half trying to tinker with it.  I even switched foot pedals, without improvement.  The next day, I headed to my sewing room to make more stuff, and started with a test sew-off on the ailing 503.  The machine ran beautifully!  All was well again in Rags Paper Stitches land.  Those old machines don't seem to get that hot, but perhaps the motor temperature got above a critical point.

While I am going on about my 503, here are some neat pieces of Singer ephemera relating to the 503 and its close cousins, the 500, and the 400 series.  These items are from 1962 and 1963, when Singer was rolling out their built in zig-zag mechanism and the slant needle configuration.  Enjoy!

 A promotional booklet showcasing all the decorative sewing that could be done with a zig zag machine

 Introducing the Slant-O-Matics!

 Freebie give-away hand sewing needle packs advertising the 401.

Freebie mending kits touting the Slant-O-Matics as the "greatest sewing machine ever built."  I beg to differ with that, even some of Singer's earlier models, while not zig-zag, were far better.  I love the slant needle configuration, but the 400s and 500s are not as strong and robust as others (201 and 15-91...).  Not to mention the motors in mine sound downright awful.

Odds and Ends

A little while back (on October 2), I wrote about a postcard I have from a soldier at Camp Sherman.  I wasn't sure then if the card was sent before the deadly influenza outbreak influenza outbreak at the camp - I have confirmed that the outbreak began in September.  I have not yet tried to find more about the card's sender, I only have a partial name due to the wear on the edges of the card.  This is something I plan on investigating soon, so stay tuned for more details!

The past few days have been a bust as far as sewing or other creativity.  I am looking into making zipper flowers, as recently acquired a small stash of vintage metal zippers.  The zippers and a whole bunch of other sewing notions came out of this nifty little antiques show find, thanks to my mom:

This is the third diptych style sewing caddy that we have.  They are turning out great to have for keeping threads and embellishments together by project.  They still take up a bit of room when folded, measuring about 18 X 30 X 5."  I am envisioning creating a space for them somewhere to line them up like books on a shelf.  These sub-collections within collections are getting out of hand...

As Time Goes By

I am sitting here wondering what happened to last week, where did it go?  It just sort of flew by like a breeze... I seem to be having a lot of times like that.  One thing that I managed to accomplish is finishing the last dye session of the season.  I have more lovely greens, blues and purples now.  Of course, by finishing, I mean washing out all the fabrics and trims, drying and ironing them.  I will slowly go through all of the fabric I dyed this year, trimming and pricing them for next year's shows. 

I must get busy on one of the many works-in-progress in my sewing room so I may have something to post about on Thursday.

Another Vintage Sewing Machine

Here it is - a Singer 15-91:

The cabinet is in rough shape.  I've seen worse, but have a better one in need of a machine (not the same style though).  I have little interest in, and no time to embark on a furniture restoration project.  All the same, I'd rather not junk what could be a nice cabinet.  I am not a fan of repainting these, but in cases like this, it needs help.  I'd rather see someone restore it to its original varnish, not painting it in chalk paint!

The machine is in excellent condition cosmetically - the decals are just about perfect.  I have not tried to run it yet, I'll probably try it out next week when things slow down a bit.

Green with Envy

Running late again here, but with good reason: an epic end-of-the-season dye session in progress and a trip to an art fair that I have wanted to investigate.  So far, I have an enticing assortment of fabrics in greens and blues underway.  I only have pictures of the greens right now:

Yes, that is velvet that you see in the last image!  I am slowly adding more off-the-bolt specialty fabrics.  These will all end up in single color packs of small cuts of several different fabrics.  I am working towards making up packs that all contain the same size pieces of fabrics so that everything is more consistent.

The art fair that I attended was the Ohio Mart at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron, Ohio.  I came home inspired and with some lovely additions to my art collection.  The event is now on my list of venues to apply to in the near future.  I definitely want to go back to Stan Hywet again (not during the art fair) to visit the mansion and gardens.

So much has been happening in my world... I still need to discuss the book sale I went to last week (a whole room full of quilt books) and I have yet to introduce the latest addition to my vintage sewing machine collection.  Check back on Tuesday for all of that and more.

World War I Poppies - Finished!

Here it is, my own mixed collage interpretation of the World War I poppies:

Image and design copyright RPS

Here is a detail of the letter:

Image and design copyright RPS

The letter is actually a note on a postcard (copied onto fabric) that came with one of those wonderful scrapbooks that I found earlier this year.  There is no doubt that they came from a local family.  The postcard is a double length one:

The sender was apparently training at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio.  The card is postmarked August 22, 1918 to a resident of Quaker City, Ohio.  Judging from the message, it was before the devastating influenza outbreak that occurred that year.  I wonder if the sender made it through the epidemic, and if he ever made it overseas.  The message reads:
        "Hello Rodney - How is the pike job coming?  We had some try out on Liberty trucks like they            take through there last Friday.  We will be driving trucks in France within a month from today if          we get over all OK.  We have a dandy pair of driving gloves & we get a Norfolk overcoat at the          port of embarkation wherever that will be we don't know.  But we can get a few shots of good              French wine, ha ha.