I have been on eBay a bit the past few weeks. Instead of buying books or yarn, I have bought:
What? A Kenmore 148.13100, made for Sears by Soryu in 1974. This machine is quite similar to the Kenmore my mom had when I was a child learning to sew. My Brother is a nice machine, but this vintage one is a heavy metal machine (cue metal music.) Once I have finished oiling it back to life, I hope this will be my machine for heavy denim, leather, and quilting. So far the power and motor work but some of the settings and feed dogs are a bit frozen. All the vintage machine forums say to oil and to heat with a blow dryer to soften the old oil. These machines are nearly indestructible, so I welcome the opportunity to learn more troubleshooting and simple repair skills.
I also did this:
It's a child's sewing machine made for Montgomery Ward, maybe late 60s. It just arrived yesterday. The hand crank and electricity to motor work, but feed dogs are frozen. I might need to open it up to see if it has a belt (motor makes noise, but doesn't make machine move; hand crank does make needle go up and down.) Once I fix this baby, I will have a chain stitch machine that can be used safely (at lower speed) by my grandchildren. This is a nice machine--not a plastic toy. I found the right size needles on Etsy.
I did do some sewing this week, too. I finished some black ponte pants. Then I cut out a black batiste blouse and used my ruffler attachment for the neck and sleeve ruffles. Also finished my denim skort. Photos will be coming soon.
