Singer 201K

Quite some time ago I bought a lovely Singer 201 from work.  However with study I never got around to cleaning it.  On Sunday I was bored and decided to get it out and play with it.  Every time I get this machine out I sit and look at it for a bit because it is just so beautiful and sleek.  This time was no different and afterwards I set in to cleaning it thoroughly.  There is no rust on it, excepting the hand wheel but a lot of caked on oil and dust.  This I set about removing, before oiling it and trying to set it up.  I started under the bed of the machine, because I always do.

Packed in its crate with its motor, as it has been for a year.

Under the bobbin area

Gear cover, to remove, remove circled screws.

Bobbin gear cover, to remove, remove circled screws.

Lovely metal gears.

Once I had finished under the bed I did the rest of the machine, starting with under the faceplate and moving through to the bobbin area and finally all the 'cosmetic' work, which isn't necessary for the efficient functioning of the machine but I like to know it's all shiny.

Under the faceplate, before cleaning

Bobbin and needle area, before cleaning

Hook, after the removal of the bobbin case.

Clean bobbin area

After some cosmetic work 

At the moment I have it mounted in the Singer 206's table, running off the industrial motor as its own motor needs a lot of work.  I am very pleased with it, it is very quiet and stitches very neatly.

Reassembling the Singer 206 Motor

As you may remember back in December 2013 (here)  I took the Singer 206 industrial motor apart in order to replace the bearings.  It sat around in pieces for a year (just over actually) before we got around to removing the bearings and replacing them.  I wish we hadn't put it off so long as it only took 2 days to do!

First we removed the outer, easier, bearing using a gear puller and then we removed the shaft, this left us with one bearing lodged inside the casting and held in with a circlip.  We ran a screwdriver behind the circlip and then we had all three bearings out.  It cost us $35 to buy replacement bearings but I figured it was cheaper than buying another 206.  Below are images:

First bearing removed, second still on shaft

Arrow pints to the circlip holding the bearing in

Using the gear puller to remove the end of the motor and the second bearing

The shaft of the motor, without the casing.

When it came to reassembling the motor and attaching the wires, I was glad I had taken so many photos before but I still could never quite find the right photograph!  While we were doing electrical work on it, we decided to shorten the power lead, so as to cut off a damaged bit.  This resulted in having to rewire the switch on the table.

Switch inside

Despite our concerns the motor now works fine and is MUCH quieter than it was before.  We are considering putting rubber washers on the bolts that hold it on to the table though as the table is hollow and acts as an amplifier.

In other news, I have been quite busy and managed to miss Tallulah Bankhead's birthday, however I thought I would still post a couple of pictures of her.  I love many of her quotes as they make me laugh.

When I stop being so lazy I should have a nice post about the beautiful 201K I acquired a while ago.

Red Scissor Shirt

I have had this red material with scissors on it for quite a while, probably about 6 months.  It was always earmarked for a 3/4 length sleeve shirt.  After we got the Singer 206 back up and running I decided I would make this shirt up on it.  I used my usual shirt pattern, Butterick 6085 in a size 10 with adjustments and no darts.  Below are pictures.

After the collar insertion

Seam finishing using the overlocker

The bottom hem

Topstitching

The scissor buttons

From the front.

Instead of spending forever trying to figure out how to make a buttonhole for scissor shaped buttons, I fastened the shirt with press-studs and stitched the scissors on top.  The sleeves have a slit in them and above each slit I stitched another scissor button.  While the weather is probably not quite right for this shirt yet, when it is, I'll have it ready!

Today is also the birthday of an actress from a film I rather like.  The actress is Donna Reed and the film is It's A Wonderful Life, which was lent to me by a friend, much to my pleasure.

The Finished Butterick B5281

After many hours badgering my sister, I finally have a finished picture of the red dress, Butterick B5281.  It is a lovely dress but I am not sure it is very flattering on my body shape and the photo makes me look like I have very long arms and very short legs.  I also take hideous photos as I am very self-conscious and it is probably just as well I've cropped my head out!  Anyhow without further ado, see below for the true horror  look.

It looks better if I stand up straight too!

I hope to have more scintillating posts soon!

Curtains

My Grandmother wanted new curtains in the laundry and kitchen.  Blockout in the laundry but anything in the kitchen.  After four hours trailing through shops to get material and curtain tape (we had a wait of over an hour just to get served for seven metres of curtain tape, which transpired to be the wrong stuff anyway) I made a start on the laundry curtains.  The laundry curtains were made on the Necchi Supernova Ultra mark 2 and it did a very good job.  Because of the blockout I couldn't use pins and I ended up 'pinning' everything with masking tape, which can just be ripped off around the stitches.  The finished laundry curtains are shown below.

I sewed the kitchen curtains at Grandmas and took the Singer 306 up there.  Despite the material being crepe like the machine behaved very well and other than the final hem (which has gone very awry) they are finished.  Hopefully I'll finish the hem soon and we can hang them next time we go up there.

Measuring the material on the lounge floor

Pattern matching with a little help from the dog

Makeshift sewing set up in the lounge, the iron was diagonally opposite.

In other news I have just returned from watching Night At The Museum - Secret Of The Tomb at the movies for the second time.  I love the film and must buy it on DVD eventually.

Night Fun

Believe it or not I quite like making night dresses.  I'm not sure why as I do not make frilly fancy nighties, just plain simple A-line sorts.  When I cannot think of what to make someone I often settle for a nightdress.  This is exactly what happened when my Nanna's birthday came around.  Nanna is a little shorter than I, so I shortened the pattern accordingly.  The material is some lightweight stuff that I picked up at work, before I actually worked there.  I use bias binding on the neckline and armholes for a neater finish.

Completed dress

Close up of binding on armholes

I ended up using the Vesta again for this and was very pleased with the results, I am starting to get the hang of steering and treadling at the same time!

River Trip

We have had some very hot weather here over the past week.  Fortunately a cool change came in yesterday and today was much nicer.  Today I was invited to go on a fishing trip for the morning.  I wasn't going to fish but to just hang around.  We had a great time and I took lots of photographs, some of which are shown below.

At one stage I noticed this little grey thing running along and closer inspection revealed it to be a crab, it was extremely small and was indeed running sideways.

As the fishing was winding up, the two of us not fishing (there were four in all, two fishing, two not) started to wander along the waterline and the surrounding rocks.  I found little snails clinging to the rocks which were tidally submerged and the other person found little purple flowers growing in the sand between the dry rocks.

Finally, as we were leaving, a pelican (dubbed 'Percival') swam by.

A great start to the new year!