Janome Overlocker My Lock 234

I finally got to clean the Janome overlocker yesterday.  It was rather fluffy as overlockers tend to be.  I ended up taking the base off to get it clean and reach all the oiling points.

To get the base off, remove screws circled in red.

As can be seen from the above photograph there was a bit of cleaning to be done!  Once I had dealt with the bottom and oiled everything I took the top and side off.  I didn't do screw diagrams for these but it is simple, there is one screw holding the lhs on and two holding the top on, the top screws are under the handle.  There is an oiling point on the top of most overlockers and it feeds into a clever wick system.  I had an overlocker seize on me once and that was the problem, the wick was dry.  When you take the top off you can see the felt and wick system.

The tension is interesting on this at the moment and in the 10 minutes I had left to play with it I didn't get very far, with any luck I will manage better next time.  It does have a sharp blade though which is good.  From the front below:

I have some nice photos of water droplets from the most recent rain which will hopefully comprise the next post.

Some Photographs

Four to be precise.  I was sick on the weekend and didn't get to work early enough to work on machines.  I was rather annoyed actually as I had a new overlocker to work on.  With any luck I will get to that on Wednesday.  I'm rather busy with studies at the moment which doesn't help!  Anyhow, below are four photos, two I took a couple of months back and two I took last night, if you look very closely you can see the moon peeking out from behind the branches in number four.

Singer Stylist 437

Just a week ago I got a new machine at work.  For some reason it comes with an instruction manual for a Singer 427 but it is actually a Stylist 437.  It is actually rather a nice machine in a pleasing tan colour and comes with a cover, which is always nice!

 I have to say though, once I started taking it apart I decided I didn't want one, which is nice!  It is a belt drive connecting top and bottom and has two sets of plastic gears.  Amazingly both sets of gears look all right, for now at least, but they are just an accident waiting to happen.  We replaced a plastic gear on one of our machines once, cost us $20, almost more than the machine was worth and the machine never felt the same afterwards.  Below are pictures of the gears.

One thing I do like about this era of Singer machines is the hook area.  They are rather easy to take apart and oil.  This one had some minor fur-balls and needed a good oiling, it was slightly seized when I first started on it.

 There is very little under the top cover, apart from the blindstitch cam anyway.  It is also a free-arm machine and still has the flat-bed with it.  No accessories though.

 It does, however, have one of those dangerous pedals on it so I could yet not be selling it.

On Wednesday I got another machine in.  This one is a Globe overlocker.  I am not the world's greatest fan of overlockers, the only thing they seem to do remarkably well is not cooperate!  Unfortunately this one has the wrong pedal and I don't have one that will plug into it, so it looks like it is in for a long stay!

 And finally, a machine I sold recently was a very brightly coloured Brother.  I would definitely not like to own one of these but I love the bright red!

I do have some pictures lined up to post here and an Elna as well.

Rose Pinafore Dress

The completed rose pinafore.  From the front.

The dress has 4 darts in the front and a centre front seam.  There are gathers just under the bust.

From the back.

I tried to match the print across the zip and I hand-stitched the zip in place so that the focus is entirely on the print.

The bodice is lined but the skirt isn't.

I've also made my poor long-suffering overlocker a cover.

And I've washed some material.

I'm intending to make a  skirt out of the tartan.

My friend B wants a shirt out of this for Christmas.  As B is approximately a size 14-16 and all my patterns are in sizes 8-12 this is going to be interesting!