66K in action!

 Reading through my lovely vintage 1954 Singer book inspired me to get sewing again! And I also wondered if I could get my 66K to sew - without having to wait to buy a hand crank next year. I gave her another quick clean, & a few drops of oil, studied the manual and threaded up a bobbin by winding the balance wheel. Buoyed by my success, I threaded her up and ta-dah! She sews! 

There is no backstitch, and the only adjustment is by winding the knob to the right of the Singer badge, this adjusts the stitch length. The longest stitch is really quite long, so I am using it as a basting stitch - much quicker & neater than basting by hand. 

I cut this dress out last summer & was not sure of the size  & fit - duh I should have written a note back then for my future self - now- to read! So I have compared it to one of my favourite basic summer dresses ( which is actually sitting in the to- do pile, because I want to put some darts in it to give it a more classic vintage shape).

I have been tacking pieces together, re cutting, measuring, & am now ready to do the actual sewing. Will sew it up on the Janome as I will give myself RSI sewing the whole thing in fine stitches turning the wheel on the singer…

I have decided to name my 66K Clara, having just finished reading this book about a remarkable rhinoceros named Clara. I have been trying to think of a suitable name, & Clara  just felt right.  

Can’t wait for Anne Bonny’s locker to open in Hawthorn next year, & buy a handcrank for her! 

Vintage singer sewing

 I spotted a vintage Singer Sewing book in the window of a  local op shop a few weeks back, but forgot to go & buy it the next day & of course it was gone! I had a look for a copy online, & found a review where someone said it was good because it had tips for an older model machine.

 This got me thinking - which years was the book published? And so with a bit of searching ( World of Books, always my go-to for vintage and out of print books, came  up trumps again!).  I managed to find a 1954 edition - the same year as my 201K! 

It is a gorgeous book and has a selection of colour plates that are just fabulous!

Drawing update for November

 Pink bottle brush from our garden a few weeks ago, the plant looked amazing, the most it has flowered for a while. The bees, wattle birds and New Hollands have been loving it!

Another house pic - trying some watercolours this time. Not great, will try again sketching the outlines in black first, then filling in with a paint wash.I’m sticking with the same house picture, having fun drawing the same picture & trying different colours, papers & mediums, makes it easy to compare each one.  

And a quick sketch from Ballan 2 weekends back. We went to the Spring/ Autumn festival, had some lovely scones from the CWA tea room & a friendly chat with some of the lovely locals who were surprised that we had travelled to the festival - even though it is only a 45 minute drive! 

 My H goes fishing at the res there regularly so had seen the posters for the event. I ducked into the op shop, and also finally got to visit Chrissie’s Timeless Treasures craft shop, where I bought a new fabric marking pencil that works really well! I seem to have misplaced my chalk marker pen in sorting out/ moving my sewing stuff from out in “ the shack” in the back yard, inside to the study. I’m sure it will turn up somewhere!

Anyway, the deal was that since I went to the op shop, my H got to go fishing after the festival. I sat in the car & did a quick pen & marker sketch of one of the gorgeous old buildings in Ballan. 

Life in reverse

 Making a vest/ corset style vest has been on my to-do list for a while. I made a green fine corduroy practice one ( not sure I have posted it yet!) then sewed a blue cord vest but forgot I had tweaked the size a bit ( and I had done such a good job of lining it & turning it out the right way!)  Lucky I had not made button holes when I tried it on & realised it was too big…

A couple of my favourite cos-tubers have sewn corset-style vests recently, including some that were reversible! I like the 2-for-one idea, & finally got this one sewn up over the last 2 weekends. I wore the purple side out today, & will try it with the floral side out later in the week ( although with this cold spell I might wait a few days!). Pretty happy with how it turned out!  

Will have to start on the next one now,will do buttons & button holes next time, which is what I did with the first green  one.

Sketching class

 I signed up for a Domestika  sketching class that I started a while back but have not gotten back to! I also signed up for the free “ sketching retreat” from  Teachable and then forgot about it until a few email reminders arrived! The course started on Wednesday, with about 10 X 30 minute videos posted each day for 3 days. They are available to watch & rewatch for free until Sunday night. I have watched a few, some fully & some skipping through.

I liked the “ Drawing a house with fine liners & coloured markers” tutorial. It comes with a printable house picture, so I downloaded & printed the house. I powered up my Kmart light box & traced the picture - but not with all the precise detail shown in the class. 

Next I drew the house freehand & tried a looser colour & sketching style, more in the style of   Albert Kiefer from the Domestika  class. I think this one is my favourite!

Number 3 was a super quick sketch, experimenting with some different colours. I love the difference that it makes adding in the fineliner detail on top of the marker colours, and of course the white posca pen adds a final “pop” of detail and depth. Details partly added in the first pic here, finished in the next one.

Drawing - with my sewing machine!

  I love my singer 201K, and my new 66K too! I have spent a bit of time over the weekend cleaning & oiling the 66, as well as reading up about care & repair of vintage machines. Scrolling through the videos on YouTube by Alex Askaroff - vintage machine guru! - I found a video demonstrating how to do free motion embroidery on the 201. I thought WOW I just have to try that!

The video shows how to lower the feed dogs( which I did not know how to do!), remove the presser foot, and then sew. 

I found the biggest embroidery hoop I had, some calico,& had a quick practice. 

 Tricky - you have to have the machine running fast, but move the fabric slowly. I played around with the tension & then decided to have a proper go. 

I had already printed out a couple of embroidery designs from “ Sew & Tell” - digital sewing magazine from print mag “ Peppermint”. I used my trusty carbon paper again, & traced 2 of the designs onto some calico.

This is the first one - blue wren. 

Rosella - finished, and in progress. Tricky but fun, have to concentrate & move slowly. 

For the final picture I drew a sewing machine outline, then added some decoration as I was sewing.

I will definitely be doing more of this! Great combination of my love for sewing/ creating/ drawing!

So many ideas - drawing/ colouring a picture first, then sewing over to show the outline; using lots of different coloured threads, stitching on coloured fabric…I think I have found my new favourite craft!

Wild and woolly weather!

 I don’t think I ever got around to posting my “ Little Dragon” scarf I finally finished earlier in the year. It was a ball of yarn  & accompanying pattern from the wonderful “ Stiches ‘n’ things” craft shop in Lakes Entrance. Bought & started a few years ago, but then put aside & buried in the knitting basket. But once I finished it I wore it a LOT though the cold weather this year.

 I LOVE the autumn colours, and the added design on the tail, & pattern throughout the scarf. Basically a boomerang scarf but way more fancy! I must remember to take a photo of it laid out flat to show off the pattern, but this is one photo I have of me actually wearing it - taken a couple of weeks ago when we went to have a look at the Coburg Lake overflowing after the rain. 

Meet the newest member of the family…

 …my sewing family that is!

I love sewing with my vintage Singer 201K, and have learnt a lot about vintage sewing machines from the fb group “ Vintage Sewing Machines Australia and New Zealand”. I often look on fb marketplace and dream about buying a vintage machine to repair myself, and maybe turning one into a hand cranked machine. 

Then on Sunday night, a vintage 66k was offered up in a local fb group. I sent a message to say I was interested, and collected it yesterday!

She is just sooo pretty! 1935 Lotus finish 66K, love the design, and she has a spoked wheel so all I need to buy is a crank handle. And get my H to design and build a timber box base!

Will keep you posted…

Pattern tracing

 I found a box of  carbon sheets at an op shop a while back, & for $1 figured it was worth buying in case it came in handy for something someday… I thought of it on the weekend when I wanted to trace a pattern, why did I never think of it before! Tracing a paper pattern was SOOOO easy using the carbon sheet! Will definitely be using this method from now on! 

Drawing a line

 I have been trying to get back into drawing again - not that I have done anything much lately! I occasionally watch some drawing videos on YouTube, and have been wanting to try drawing buildings. I found an amazing “ urban sketcher” online, and subscribed to her posts/ videos. Her name is Liz Steel, & she is a former architect turned full time artist/ blogger/ teacher. I love her style, and also her reviews of different sketching tools ( paints, pens, pencils etc.).

I have a set of watercolour pencils I have had for years, but had not heard of watercolour markers until recently. I bought a set of Monte Mart markers, but they are the first MM product I have been disappointed with! They are fine as regular markers, but I could not really get any result by adding water!

So I bought some Staedler markers from Officeworks - our local branch here in Coburg has put in a HUGE art section, sooo many lovely things…anyway, I need to play a bit more with the markers and try out different types of paper, but so far so good. I have not done much, just some little doodles to try them out. I was inspired by Liz Steel’s drawing of her tea cups, so tried playing with colours, and also drawing things on my desk!  I definitely need to play a bit more, but the colours & painterly effects are quite nice.

(nearly) invisible mending

I found a wool jumper at an op shop in the school hols, it was only $2 but had a couple of holes in it. I thought well for $2 it might be good to practice some mending. I have 2 lovely mending mushrooms, & had a small ball of flecky brown yarn so I had a go!

Trying the proper traditional weaving method. The darning mushroom makes it much easier!

Photos not in order  - this is the after & then the before! Pretty happy with my mending, except the jumper was too big for me, so I gave it to my eldest instead!

Op shop adventure time

Had a fun day out op shopping in Preston/Thornbury/Northcote today.

Love this wall of red and animal print.

Gorgeous shelves of colour in another store.

very tempted to buy this!

...and this, just because of the classic " Goodies" episode!

Craft book inspiration !

Looking through my photos I need to catch up on some blog posts!

I have added a few books to my craft library in the last couple of months. Apologies for the sideways photos!

The top 2 are op shop finds, they are actually little books of fabric transfers. Not sure how I will use them, I thought they might be useful for making some printed panels to use in a quilt; or use as drawing inspiration; or for making cards. Very cute/ funky designs!

Quilt design ideas, gift from my MIL. Really useful & had not thought about how simple shapes can be put together in so many different ways, changing the orientation/ size/ combination.

These 2 were op shop finds, I have been looking for  the Frankie book, I meant to buy it when it came out but did not get around to finding one. The pink book is patterns for dolls - I am still planning to make some new clothes for my beloved “ Crissie” doll I found a couple of years ago, I had thought I would never see her again - she was missing for a over 30 years! 

 2 gorgeous quilt books, top one from my MIL & Denyse Schmidt book from the op shop. There is a gorgeous hand sewn quilt in the top book I really want to make, it is a quilt as you go design with circles folded into squares. Thinking of making sashiko pieces to use in it, lots of hand sewing!!!

Vintage treasure

 I found a little sewing machine oil can a while ago, when searching through some of the shoe repair tools & old machines my Dad used to use. I would not have even known what it was, but luckily someone in the  Vintage Sewing machine fb group had posted a picture of a vintage oil can, so I recognised it! 

I worked on it on and off for weeks, mainly just rubbing lots of SMO ( sewing machine oil) into it. I also worked in some toothpaste with a toothbrush. I left the SMO soaking into the outside of the van for a week or so at a time. Super happy with how it looks now, and special to know that both my Dad and my Grandpa would have used this little can. 

This is what I started with -