Category Archives: sewing

 

Okay ladies, bear with me… I’m fittin’ ta tell ya a story. Let me give you a little background first.

 

 A little while ago, a couple of my sweet sewing friends came to me and said they wanted a featherweight, but the didn’t know what to look for and could I help them. I sew on a featherweight and I guess that gave them confidence that I knew what I was doing. (even though I really didn’t, but I totally faked it!) (btw- I know these ladies are reading this, so there… I totally gave myself up. But I tend to “fake it til I make it” most of the time anyway.) So… I began the search for featherweights for them and in the process, I learned a lot about these machine. I even learned how to service them. Not because I am at all mechanically inclined, but I am definitely CHEAP and I couldn’t bring myself to pay 80 bucks to get it done. After I got machines for these two happy “customers”, I had a couple more ladies approach me about finding machines for them. So I was on the quest to find machines for them. I search the paper, Craigslist, ebay, and old ladies basements, you know…wherever I can in hopes of finding a good one. So this brings the back story up to speed. The search for more featherweights was on.

 

I am now going to divulge my top secret ebay, get a good deal on a featherweight, patten pending method for buying these things. Don’t be spreading this around and ruin my game, K! (drum roll…..)

I will search ebay under “vintage sewing machine”, because sometimes people don’t know it is a featherweight and will just list it as a vintage machine. If this is the case, it will not come up when people search for a “featherweight”. Because of this, they seem to sell for a lot less, because less people see these listings. (At least that is what I think.)

 

Anywho. The other day I opened up the ebay app and punched in “vintage sewing machine” and up popped a bad picture of a featherweight. The picture was awful. It was taken from far away, kinda grainy and didn’t show any detail and the description sucked. I broke every one of my rules of what to look for, but the auction was ending in like 4 minutes… and it was going off cheap. I got a little caught up in the “only 4 minutes left” hysteria and bid. I won it. Whoohoo. $150. That’s a deal for a FW. Even if I got it and it needed new parts, I think I would come out ok.

 

So fast forward to Tuesday. The mail lady came too my door and dropped the package off. (Odd because the mail lady and I kinda have this love/hate relationship and she usually would not bring something to my door…but that’s another story..) Ok- I digress. – I open the package and took it out of the box. (with that Christmas morning feeling of anticipation)I pull it out of the case and I see this FW with a BLACK SCROLL PLATE and BLACK FOOT and I’m like…”whaaat the hell”. I’ve never seen this before and my brain is racing. Did I just get dooped? Is this even a real featherweight? Are these some crazy replacement parts? Did somebody spray paint this black? What’s the deal?!?!

 

I immediately call by friend who has been on this featherweight adventure with me (weather she likes it or not) and question her. Have you ever seem a FW with a black face plate before? Is this real? What is this? She has never seen one, but she might recall reading something about it, MAYBE. She says she will call me back.

 

Okay- so now here I am looking at this thing all puzzled-like and she calls me back. “It’s liget, it’s liget!!” she is yelling at me. I have just unboxed some rare Blackside Featherweight. Holy crap! (Now I know how those people on Antiques Roadshow feel.)  You have to admit, it’s kinda an awesome thing. (My husband thinks I’m crazy and when retelling this story to my mom and sister, they looked at me with blank stares because they don’t get it. But I know you guys get it. You’re my sewing peeps…you.get.it)

 

so, here she is…..

Kinda awesome!

 

That’s my super long story. Thanks for listening. (I guess I shouldn’t rub it in by saying that is also in super great shape and sews beautiful stitches. That would be over the top, wouldn’t it!?)

 

Here is a link to some of the history on this machine.

 

 

 Okay- so not me personally, but my golf cart seat covers are.

 A while back I starting making pretty golf cart seat covers for my mom and her lady friends.

 They are pretty simple. Basically, they consist of batting sandwiched between two pieces of fabric and some elastic handles on each side which fit around the golf cart handles. Anyway- some ladies visiting here from Florida purchased some cart covers and took them back with them to their club in Miami. Long story short… the pro shop manager contacted me and placed an order. They sold well and he contacted me again this week to order more.

 Being the type that rarely says, “NO” to anything, I had to get some cart covers made, pronto. Because I already have way toooooo much going on in my life as is it, I had to get me an assistant.

This guy (my husband) stepped in for the day to help me “get r’ done”. After a quick rotary cutting lesson, he went to town. He cut, I sewed. It was a real bonding experience! When all was said and done, the cart covers were completed in half the time and he complained that his back hurt. (Haaaha…now he sees that is not all fun and games.) Good assistants are hard to find. I guess I got lucky.

Because you know I totally do this!!!! EVERY.DAY.

 

Thanks for emailing me this, Janet!

 

BTW – can anybody tell me what the heck “French chalk” is ?!?!