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!