Roued

So I fixed the Singer. Or in other words I took it all apart and cleaned it and gave it some proper sewing machine oil. Actually I took everything apart including the motor. Ups! So now I know how an old sewing machine motors looks inside. That was a little bit of a panic. However, it all turned out alright. I somehow managed to put it back together again. Fancy that, me the sewing machine mechanic! It even sounded ok and didn’t blow up or catch fire when I turned it on again. However, it wasn’t strong enough to actually sew. So I thought I had ruined the motor.

I decided to take the machine to the nice guy at the sewing centre to have a look. He said the motor was ok it was just the belt that was tired and wonky. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any new ones he could sell me so he suggested I went home and dipped the belt in boiling water for a couple of seconds to shrink it a bit. It worked. I now have a fully functional Singer sewing machine. While cleaning it up I realised that the horrible red inside of the bottom case was rotten. I took it out and hubby fitted a new bottom (he’s a regular craftsman, my hubby). Then I painted it my favorite colour (teal) of which I of course had a tin standing around (don’t you always). It looks and smells much better now.

Finally, I tested the machine this weekend sewing a roll-up pouch for hubby’s paint brushes (he’s also an artist – so talented this guy I married). It worked perfectly, but as my mother pointed out it can only sew straight stitches. However, she was wrong when she assumed that this meant that I couldn’t use it for anything. Before I was sewing straight stitches by hand so this is a great improvement.

I bought the trunk at the wonderful Winchester car-boot sale. It was just calling out to me and I knew exactly where it could go and what it could be used for.

The only problem with it was that it was that the paper inside, lovely as it was, was dirty and falling of. So I set about to add some new wall paper. The shelf of the trunk also had a very flimsy bottom which I ripped out. Hubby fashioned a new bottom out of ply-wood. It was hard work and took a whole Saturday. I think the finished result is wonderful though.

I just used some standard wall paper from Laura Ashley (cheapest I could find because they had a sale on), a sachet of Wickes wall paper paste that you mix with water and a tube of super glue I had lying around (don’t you always). I used the super glue on the trunk around difficult bits, on nails and along the edge before putting the wall paper on. It was impressive to see how well the wall paper stuck to the wood of the trunk, but the super glue was useful on those difficult spots.

It is now situated where I imagined is would go and I filled it with all my yarn (which is in spite of hubby’s protests not a lot). I use the shelf for the yarn I am working on and other sewing bits and pieces.