A Christmas Shirt

Unfortunately I did not finish my shirt in time for last Sunday however I had a good time on that day.  I ended up catching up with a relative for lunch after I finished volunteering and we had a nice lunch together before I did some more shopping.  During the week following I managed to complete the shirt and it is shown below.

Other than the buttonholes I sewed the entire thing on the Vesta with seam finishing by the overlocker as I find that to be the most effective with garments like shirts that I wear a lot.

I cut a self facing 6cm wide with the sleeves and turned it up and top stitched, I'm quite happy with the results.

I chose light green buttons as they were the best match I could find.  The collar turned out much better than I expected it to, even though I try hard my collars are a little hit and miss.

The buttonholes were stitched on the Singer 306.  There is no buttonhole setting you have to manually adjust the width and direction but if you have the patience and nerves it makes a lovely buttonhole.

In other news I brought this lovely ring home from work today, I'm considering buying it as I really like it.  It is German, Sterling Silver and marcasite apparently.

A Vested Interest

The Vesta is finally finished.  It is nicely clean, although not perfect and it sews, which is good!  I do not have a leather belt to treadle it with but we fashioned a belt out of rope and it seems to work.  The stitch is decent and the machine even reverses!  Some more pictures from the process below.

The tension assembly in pieces before cleaning.

The tension assembly in pieces after cleaning.

The snake skin patterning was difficult to clean as I was paranoid about scratching the chrome.  I ended up coating them in oil and then carefully cleaning the grooves out with a machine needle, rather time consuming.

Back cover after cleaning.

Faceplate before cleaning.

When the back cover was removed, all the workings in that end of the machine could be seen, I could have spent forever watching them!

Under back cover.

Before I went to the extreme lengths of tidying off the Vesta's table I wanted to check the machine actually stitched, so here is a picture of it all threaded up and ready to go.  The thumbscrew holding the faceplate on is one borrowed from a tucking foot and the only one I could find that would thread into the required hole.

Not a very good photograph, I know!

The machine did indeed come with accessories, however I am not sure how many are original as there are no markings on any except for the ruffler which is labelled 'Singer' so is clearly not original!

Accessories and the piece of paper it came with.

I'm not sure what the piece at the top roght is off, I think maybe a ruffler again but I'm not sure, however the others are as follows:
Middle row (from L to R): Binding foot, two thumbscrews, the lower one is not original and does not fit the machine, the upper one is to secure the machine to the table and finally top foot is standard straight stitch foot and the bottom foot is a rolled hemmer.
Bottom row (from L to R): Hemming foot and Tucking foot

Next on the agenda is a Christmas shirt to wear on Sunday, I think I may be pushing it a little but who knows?

Vesta Sewing Machine

Just over a year ago  I (stupidly) bought a machine from a local scrapyard.  It came in a treadle table ("Where are you going to put THAT?" asked Mother) and the head is in very bad condition, cosmetically anyway.  I suspect someone tried to 'clean' it and stuffed up.  Badly.  There are no unharmed decals left on it, just a few shadows in a few places and there are actually scrub marks on the arm.  The pillar paint has been damaged by something and is very rough and a funny colour.  However the table itself was in fair condition and it was complete and I think it came with accessories, they are still in the table and I cannot easily access it to check as it is sandwiched in between two other tables.  The machine is a Vesta, a German made machine.  It has an oscillating shuttle and a very interesting thread holder, which was the whole reason I bought it, would you believe, $170 for a thread holder, mad I know.

Inscribed on the back plate

From the front, see the thread holder?

 As well as having no decals to speak of this machine is filthy, I think it's dirt and grease that has solidified.  Whatever it is, it is most difficult to remove.  Most of the time I just use some cheap(er) oil and some steel wool but that was not shifting anything.  On some of the mechanical parts that were not nicely chromed and on thumbscrew grips I used a brass brush and followed up with steel wool but I found that my best friend ever was an old sewing machine needle.  If I was careful I could scrape the dirt off and not scratch the surface,  This was particularly useful on the snakeskin patterning on the little cover plates.  And, by the way, I do have the faceplate I just do not have a screw to attach it.

Incredibly the machine is not seized although it is very dry, however the back shuttle cover plate and the handwheel absolutely refused to move.  Brute force removed both of them though, allowing me better access to clean.  I do not think that most of the screws in this machine have ever been removed and they are almost all impossibly tight so I have to clean everything without unscrewing it, which greatly limits my access.  Anyway here are a few photographs:

Cleaning around the feet using my machine needle.

From underneath before cleaning

Stitch length adjusts this part.  Before cleaning.

Shuttle area before cleaning.

Before cleaning.

Under the throat plate when it was first removed.

After the removal of both shuttle covers.

The shuttle area after extensive cleaning.

It is also the anniversary of the passing of one of my favourite singers today, John Lennon.  I was reading some quotes by him today, I never knew he had so many well known ones!

Brief Catching Up

I have finished my red dress and I wore it to the awards ceremony today.  I was still finishing it this morning though and I am not really very happy with the hem.  Hopefully I will have some photos of it completed tomorrow.

I also couldn't miss two important birthdays from today and yesterday!

Yesterday's birthday was Andy Williams and today's was Deanna Durbin, both favourites of mine.  Should be more coming tomorrow!