No Seriously.

Last weekend we moved into our new rental, a pretty little house on the better side of town that has room for me to bring Millie home.  At long last that beautiful machine is home.  Friday I took a short break from unpacking to give her some cosmetic love.  Quick bath and dry with a coat of Turtle Wax and we have awesome.

So encouraged by this I spent a few hours after work last night cleaning and oiling many of the moving parts and found out though extremely dirty she's a great looking machine! At about 11:30 last night we gave her a try.  Not exactly a success, but she sews now its time to figure out how to work the different controls and get the stitch regulator unfrozen.  So after that let down (yeah I was hoping she'd be easier then Sparky) off to bed as we are planning on moving more things today.

At about 5am the Hubby and I were awakened by our cat Nori howling. This is not exactly a normal occurrence but usually means he is hunting paper. Yes Nori steals paper (bills, letters, homework) and kills it.  After several months of not hearing the hunting howl my husband jumped up and hurried to find out what the cat was doing.

The awesome hunter in his natural state!

Well Nori had found my restoration kit and had stolen the bag of cosmetic cotton rounds and was standing over his kill howling for acknowledgement!  After laughing and taking away the rounds and going back to bed we were again awoken by the howling of the wild Nori!  This time he had gone back into the kit and stole another bag this one a ziplock with my scrubbies in it.  Guess its time to put the kit under lock and key! Silly Kitty,those are for sewing machines!

WOOT!

Ok my beautiful machine is running, now only to bring her home and make the adjustments to it so that it will run.  I am having a problem where there normal 66 class bobbins aren't fitting but will have to figure that and the needle thing (cause thats not fitting either). YAY it works!

Slowly

So not too much has been going on with the old 66. Having the beautiful machine in storage makes it very difficult to work on, except for what pieces I can pull off and carry home. So this weekend my 13 year old daughter and I went shopping for machine pull and steel wool. After our mini shopping spree we stopped by to visit the old gal. While we were there we tried to try the belt in the drawer. Of course it was way too small. So after a lot of research we ordered a belt from Amazon and are now impatiently waiting for it to arrive

Feet

So now the hunt for a plain old rear attaching foot is in full swing. The early Singer 66's were definitely odd balls according to my research.  Of course being an odd ball myself, I truly feel a kinship to this old lady.  Being different does have its perks, however finding a rear attaching foot for a sewing machine isn't one.  After days of searching online I have found two, one in iffy condition with spots of rust on eBay and a second which is a set of four feet, three of which I cant see myself using, but its a decent price, but still more then I want to spend. So now its time to start searching local antique stores!

I am beautiful

Tonight I finally got back to storage and started going through the drawers of the treadle table to see if there is a presser foot for the 66.  My fear was realized when I discovered she is indeed a 66-1 with the rear attaching presser feet and there is only one foot in the box that fits this machine.

Of course the one foot was not one I really plan on using with this machine, but its nice they had ONE in the box. I will have to sort out the button hole foot.

Although these are common, people seem to really love this machine. Each and every time I have had her out  and am working on something, someone has to stop and comment.  I love to hear about how these people who have stopped have grandmothers or mothers who have had the same or similar machines.  I think in the past week and a half I've had this machine it has brought smiles to so many people, not just me.  I think its time to name this beauty. Any suggestions?

Organizing.

Well, now that I have cleaned and polished the parts I brought home from storage, its now time to start working on organizing my sewing area and perhaps, just perhaps be able to find enough room for the 66 to come home.  I have been searching high and low for different storage and organization ideas but first you must understand my sewing area(s).  We live in a small apartment on the second floor. My quilting rack/sewing table/storage area is tucked in under the eaves in the tiny livingroom. And on the other side of the room is my beautiful sewing armoire and ironing board.

The day we bought it.

So I have been searching all over the web for fabric storage solutions and have come across several interesting suggestions I do plan on employing. One of the most neatest ones I had to do was to use comic book backing boards to wrap the fabric around and then store on shelves. OK the wrapping of the fabric works even if the boards are a little less firm then I had hoped. But for $12 for 100 they fit the budget and don't detract from my fabric money.

Metal Polish

Ok so today after two days of waiting for it, my Maas Metal Polish came in the mail from Amazon. So tonight My husband Neil and son David piled into the car and headed off to storage with supplies.

Pulled off most of the detachable shiny stuff. And ran home to start scrubbing.

And so it begins

I have always loved the classical style of the older sewing machine. The rounded corners and sleek lines. To me this is what a sewing machine should look like.  Until we started to antique with my in-laws I believed I was stuck with today's plastic machines.  Once we started going to the antique shops we started finding the old machines, some in OK shape and some... well, not in OK shape, but all above my price range.  My wonderful in-laws continued to look at machines, but not knowing what I wanted or how much I wanted to spend. The dream of an older machine continued. Until this weekend.  My husband found some wonderful antique malls in PA. At a small antique mall, in the back, we found a beautiful Singer treadle, in my price range (cheap).

And so it begins