Thursday, December 17, 2009

VTT- Aunt Sally's Sewing Machine

Happy Vintage Thingys Thursday!!! 

Great googly moogly!  Christmas is next week already!!!  Are you ready?  I'm not but I'm not in a panic.  Bill and I have our list made and can knock out shopping in one, maybe two afternoons.

I have been sewing a few things on the latest addition to my sewing machine collection.  Some of you remember my trip this past summer to my Great Grand Parents' Home Place.  Well, this sewing machine was part of what I brought home. 


She belonged to my Great Great Aunt Sally Walker Mitchell.  Aunt Sally was my [Grand]Mama's Daddy's Sister.  Never met her and know little about her.  That makes me sad.  But having her machine I can simply imagine her using it.

Mom had the machine on her back porch, covered with junk (not junque.)  Her outdoor Mr. Kitty used it as a hiding place. 

No one can remember who nor when she was last used.  I swear I remember Mom using her way back in the late 60's/early 70's.  Mom insists that I am making that up.  I stand firm in my belief that she did use her for a few stitches way back when.

At any rate, after years of neglect and abuse she is mine now.  I cleaned her up, dusted her off, oiled her and replaced her broken treadle wheel pulley.  The original was made of leather.  Those are available but I decided to try rubber screen spline in the same width as the leather I was replacing.  The nice guy at the local hardware store wasn't sure it would work but by Golly! - it do!

She still needs her wood cabinet to be refinished.  Her drawers were full of buttons, bobbins,



doodads and

 (a copper pipe?  seriously? and rabies tags from 1947 and 1948!  Wonder what sort of pet?)


the original attachments box and the owner's manual.  Thank goodness too. 
It really helped me set her up.
 Why didn't aunt Sally fill out the Certificate of Warranty???????  wahhhhh, sob, wipes a tear......











She stitches beautifully and only uses Becky-Power.  I am in sewing nirvana!  The gentle whirring is so calming.

Before you go please check out the thread just before this one and see what a fabulous Secret Santa I have!


Now scoot- go to Suzanne/ColoradoLady's blog and check out the other vintage goodies! Thank you Suzanne for continuing to bring us together every week.

Be sure to stop back next week to see our Christmas Trees.   Yes, trees - plural.

12 comments:

  1. Hey Becky...it's been a while!!!
    Thanks for sharing your precious machine.
    Happy Holidays to you and your family!
    Living it up at Lakewood,
    Cindy

    ReplyDelete
  2. very nice machine, I tried to acquire a machine like this from a friend, and when he said $200.00 I said "it can rust in your building". I have a 1964 Singer Spartan that I got for $15.00 and it runs almost better than my new Brother machine. The old ones are good, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful machine and with baubles! Lucky girl.

    Have a wonderful Christmas.

    P.S. If you want to give it a 5 minute spiff up (literally 5 minutes!) you wipe it down with some Howard's Restor-A-Finish (available at hardware stores). A super quick fix and depending on the condition, you might not need to refinished at all. At very least it will condition the wood until you have time to redo it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the look of old sewing machines. It's great that you were able to fix it and use it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. If I said I love it 100 times, that would still not be enough. Years ago I let my Singer treadle machine go...and I've regretted it ever since. There is something about the soft movement and steady sewing on an older machine that a newer one doesn't have. I'm so happy for you that you have something so wonderful and so loved. Happy VTT..have a lovely weekend..
    p.s. Love all those buttons in the drawers..

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a beauty. I love these machines and want one so bad...Love yours and it is great it is at your house now. Have a great VTT!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great post! And it's so wonderful that the original owner's manual was still with the old machine. I remember that my grandmother had one much like this one, and I always hoped she'd pass it on to me. Unfortunately, I don't have any idea what happened to that old machine - just know I don't have it. So nice that you've held on to the one in your family.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a gorgeous machine! And I love that you have the paperwork and the doo-dads and such from it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I remember my mom used to store her needles in a little wooden cylinder JUST LIKE THAT!!!

    Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  10. You are so lucky! What a wonderful family heirloom-a sewing machine and an unconverted treadle at that! I'm very impressed at your getting it set up-can't wait to see what you sew up!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow! What a treasure .......and it still works! You are so smart using the rubber spline! And can you believe the drawers were still filled with those goodies? I want to see something you've made on it now! I have my grandmother's old treadle machine but I can't get it to work. Boo boo. Have a Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
  12. So cool and glad you have it; I've got one and love it.
    All the goodies would be wonderful in art quilts, you GO!

    ReplyDelete

Do tell! Whatcha thinkin?