Yeah, it's the sewing machine, and it's just been brought out, dusted down and plonked on a side table, ready to use. And you know what? I don't like it much.
I bought this about four years ago when my old Jones bit the dust. I loved my old Jones. My mum bought it for me after I got good results for my Higher exams, back in 1975, and it did me proud for 28 years and two new motors. Before that I had an old Singer treadle which my parents had bought me when I was eleven and showing signs of becoming a competent seamstress, but the Jones was my best machine. I remember my mum and I making a special trip to Patrick Thompsons in Edinburgh for it, in the days when fabrics and haberdashery occupied the prime selling space on the ground floor. The sales assistant couldn't at first belive we wanted a nearly top of the range machine for a 16 year old, but eventually we chose one...then my mum decided we'd just better pay the extra and buy the next one up, top of the range. It cost £135 back in 1975 plus £30 for the sewing cabinet, a bloomin' fortune then. Worth every penny.
Now I have this imposter. I just wanted something I could do the odd bit of sewing on because I had no time and nowhere to leave it set up permenantly anywhere, and we all know what a drag that is. It's a good enough machine and can do just about everything I need but...it's not my Jones. It feels lightweight and tacky compared to the great lumps of metal that machines were in the 70's. It threads up a different way. It's got a free arm, which Jones never had, but then again Jones used to fit into a proper sewing cabinet so I had this huge flat bed for sewing. I miss that. Now I have to sew with this perched up on a table. It's too high. It's just wrong.......
Better thoughts...this is the final result for the Guild Fibre Challenge. We swapped fibre with another spinner in the guild, and were supposed to feel challenged by spinning something out of our usual range fibres. This didn't quite work in my case as I recieved the sort of fibres that I do like spinning with, but never mind. This is from a drum carded batt of mixed silk roving, merino and a tiny bit of hand-dyed Shetland, for texture.
Singles...
And plyed. 280 yards from 50g of fibre, so light fingering weight I suppose.
Nice and bouncy, but with good drape from all that silk. Another beaded scarf?
3 comments:
I got a Bernina for my 21st birthday (1970) which cost a bit over £100, I'm not sure exactly by how much. I don't know where my mother got it, but I believe a Hire Purchase arrangement was involved. When I did the last piece of major sewing I did with it, a wedding dress for a friend, it was about 30 years old so I got it serviced, but apart from that it hasn't had any attention... apart from loving care. I can't really use it now because I'm too weak, but I don't think I could ever bear to part with it.
I got a New Home in 1980 cost £100, it had taken a year of nagging and insisting that sewing wasn't just a phase! I traded it in when it got a bit temperamental in 2000, I don't love my new machine at all and someday I will buy something new.
What are you sewing?
Your yarn is gorgeous, a beaded scarf will be gorgeous.
ohhh, that yarn is so pretty!
please show the beaded scarf if you make it...
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