Gone Vintage

Last year when Grant & I were furniture shopping for our little apartment, we came across a lovely little table at a thrift store.  After it gave me a giant blood blister (I'm talking huge, stomach churning, have to sit down for 10 minutes so I don't throw up type of blood blister), we bought it for twenty dollars and took it home.

The table holds a sewing machine which, until yesterday, I was too intimidated by to even pull out.  (Part of that intimidation was from my lack of sewing knowledge... part of it was the blood blister...)  But I finally got it out and spent quite a while figuring out how it works.

 This is the extent of the instructions that came with the machine.... So the threading was easy, but that was it...

The machine I normally use is much more user friendly.  It has an automatic threader, the bobbin thread comes up on its own, everything is electronic and there are instructions printed all over the machine :)  Thus, I had some... shall we say...difficulties... figuring out how to do all those things on my own.  What can I say?  I've been spoiled!

This machine is a Singer, which for some reason makes me feel like its authentic vintage quality and that you should offer me hundreds of dollars because you want it... 

However, I looked up the approximate worth of this machine when we got it and it was disappointingly low.  (You can still offer my hundreds of dollars just for fun... if you want... my birthday is coming up soon...)

It has lots of dials that control various things like tension, buttonhole, etc.  They are really hard to turn which makes for some very sore fingers.  I just finished watching Lost and I kind of feel like John Locke when he has to turn that big wheel even though he has a seriously broken leg.  Except instead of having a broken leg I have baby fingers with no callouses.  And instead of a giant ship's wheel, I have a plastic wheel the size of a Pog... I think I need to get some of those rubber finger tip things. 

 Also, I'm really not sure this machine does anything besides a straight stitch.  Luckily, I have really never used anything but a straight stitch.  Honestly... I have no idea what you would use any other stitch for anyway...

I am also working on speed and control.  My newer machine allows me to go as slow as I darn well please.  Turtle speed.  Snail speed.  Glacial speed.   I need that.  This machine basically has two speeds: fast and turbo... Cheetah speed.  Rocket ship speed.  We'll see how that goes...

I probably shouldn't admit that it took me fifteen minutes to figure out how to put the darn presser foot down. I think at one point I convinced myself that old sewing machines didn't have that option, that instead you just had to learn how to feed the fabric through on your own... hah.  Then I turned my brain on and found the lever right behind the presser foot.  Thank you! Thank you! I'll be here all week!