I know several of you must be avid seamsters or seamstresses, so I thought it would be appropriate to share my recent sewing experience.
I learned how to do very basic sewing on my mom's old portable electric Singer. It was a simple machine - simple straight stiches with a reverse lever. That was about it. But it worked, and worked well enough. It disappeared at some point. I don't know if she sold it to buy food or simply decided she couldn't carry it along with four kids on a coast-to-coast Greyhound bus migration.
In any case, since then I've acquired similarly simple Singer sewing machines. One, a vintage treadle machine in a nice mahogany veneer cabinet, which more or less worked but is probably in dire need of mechanical adjusting/rebuilding. After playing with that for a while (and loaning it to my mom), I "upgraded" to an electric unit which fits in the same cabinet. That was a gear-driven model, made in Japan, apparently from a time when Singer outsourced some of its models to a Japanese manufacturer. It also works and seems strong, but also in need of mechanical attention (I think). Somewhere along the line I got another more traditional Singer electric unit, and that is what is now in the cabinet. I also acquired a recently manufactured Chinese clone of the old portable my mom used to have. I gave her one as a present but she somewhat perversely rejected it so I returned it to the store. Of course a month later she changed her mind, lol. But that's another story.
Anyway, recently I acquired a *new* Brother computerized sewing machine. It's quite fancy, with over a hundred stitches and also a character font. I was dubious about it at first, since it's a featherweight machine. But I finally got around to setting it up and did the first job: a repair of hems on a few bath towels that were unraveling. I used a zig-zag stich for the first time in my life and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was, as long as I followed the instructions.
The ease of use of such a modern machine kind of floors me. It does little things that make sewing much easier - from automatic bobbin setting to automatic needle threading, to automatically leaving the needle in the fabric when the sewing motion stops. I'll probably never investigate all the myriad stitches - many of them decorative and more appropriate for homey stuff you hand on the wall or girls' dresses. But I think it will be a valuable machine for mending, alterations, and perhaps also for turning some store-bought window curtains I bought years ago into something I can actually take out of storage, modify, and hang on the windows.
Oh, and it should also be good for sewing patches on things. When I get the walking foot attachment I might even try some mohair car upholstery for the classic cars...
For those who are interested, it's a Brother XR-9000, and here's a photo:
I learned how to do very basic sewing on my mom's old portable electric Singer. It was a simple machine - simple straight stiches with a reverse lever. That was about it. But it worked, and worked well enough. It disappeared at some point. I don't know if she sold it to buy food or simply decided she couldn't carry it along with four kids on a coast-to-coast Greyhound bus migration.
In any case, since then I've acquired similarly simple Singer sewing machines. One, a vintage treadle machine in a nice mahogany veneer cabinet, which more or less worked but is probably in dire need of mechanical adjusting/rebuilding. After playing with that for a while (and loaning it to my mom), I "upgraded" to an electric unit which fits in the same cabinet. That was a gear-driven model, made in Japan, apparently from a time when Singer outsourced some of its models to a Japanese manufacturer. It also works and seems strong, but also in need of mechanical attention (I think). Somewhere along the line I got another more traditional Singer electric unit, and that is what is now in the cabinet. I also acquired a recently manufactured Chinese clone of the old portable my mom used to have. I gave her one as a present but she somewhat perversely rejected it so I returned it to the store. Of course a month later she changed her mind, lol. But that's another story.
Anyway, recently I acquired a *new* Brother computerized sewing machine. It's quite fancy, with over a hundred stitches and also a character font. I was dubious about it at first, since it's a featherweight machine. But I finally got around to setting it up and did the first job: a repair of hems on a few bath towels that were unraveling. I used a zig-zag stich for the first time in my life and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was, as long as I followed the instructions.
The ease of use of such a modern machine kind of floors me. It does little things that make sewing much easier - from automatic bobbin setting to automatic needle threading, to automatically leaving the needle in the fabric when the sewing motion stops. I'll probably never investigate all the myriad stitches - many of them decorative and more appropriate for homey stuff you hand on the wall or girls' dresses. But I think it will be a valuable machine for mending, alterations, and perhaps also for turning some store-bought window curtains I bought years ago into something I can actually take out of storage, modify, and hang on the windows.
Oh, and it should also be good for sewing patches on things. When I get the walking foot attachment I might even try some mohair car upholstery for the classic cars...
For those who are interested, it's a Brother XR-9000, and here's a photo:
