Sentimental Sewing
Right now, I’m up to me eyebrows in thread, rhinestones, fabric, trimmings and all sorts of other goodies to make an outrageously wonderful Halloween costume. Or maybe just a big hot mess. Who knows. I’ve been having a problem getting the thread tension right. We’re not talking a little off and the fabric is puckering. This is so loose that you can just pull the threads out by hand. My sister said, as she has said a couple of times a year for the past several years, “Just buy a new sewing machine.” I might do that. The main reason I haven’t already is mostly sentimentality. This was my mother’s sewing machine.
My mother received this portable sewing machine for her thirteenth birthday. It was used when my grandparents bought it for her. We’ve sewn so many things on it.
I’ll try to remember to pause for some photos so I can post the progress on my costume.
fojap 
A beautiful machine, and a beautiful reason to keep it. I hope you won’t get rid of the machine, even if you buy a new one for your daily sewing.
Thanks for stopping by.
I probably won’t entirely get rid of it. After putting up the post, I looked it up on the Singer Sewing Machine website and it seems to have been made in 1953, which means that although my grandparents bought it used it wasn’t very old. My mother always said she didn’t know how old it was. It must have been a popular model because I often see similar ones at antiques shows. When I’ve asked, they’ve often said they work. Whatever’s wrong with it can probably be fixed. They’re really great little machines.
I don’t sew very often, but my grandmother was a seamstress so I don’t hesitate to break out the sewing machine for a project. I don’t sew for the sake of sewing, but to get the ideas out of my head. 🙂
Fantastic!
Looking forward to what will come out of your sewing
Me too! Really, I’m wondering if my crazy idea will work and how much I can get done before Halloween. I’m planning on sewing led lights into the costume. Last night I was able to solder together a few leds and a microcontroller to see if I could program the lights. It worked, so we will now see.
Right now, I’m debating about whether or not to coat the mask in acrylic gesso or used the old fashioned animal glue kind you mix in a double boiler. The acrylic is easier because it can be used right out of the bottle, but the water based stuff can be worked into low relief surface decoration with pastiglia and sgraffito. With the lights it will be a combination of old tech and new tech!
This does sound really cool. I hope you carry it through to the end