It's that time of the year......

I've been sewing in the garage again testing sewing machines that Jake has been fixing up.  I love that as I 'have' to help my husband and this is a great excuse to sew LOL!!  We put the cars out in the driveway for the summer and the garage has turned into a sewing machine workshop!  Here is my worktable and Jake's in the back.  I also had an ironing station set up.  It was nice and cool in the garage and we had the door open enjoying the outdoors and the neighbours who waved or stopped to chat.  Ah summer!

The first machine I tested was a Singer 127 handcrank machine that is going to Haiti.  This machine has some heritage marks and wear on it, but still sews a beautiful stitch.  I worked on a delectable mountain border for my Oh Canada table topper (that didn't get finished on time for Canada Day, but it will be for next year :-).

 Just check out the stitch quality of this machine....

Left is the top stitching and on
     the right is the bobbin stitch. This is why I love the dedicated straight stitch machines...no dog leg stitches, but nice and straight :-).




In between, I polished up all these sewing machine benches that had accumulated in my sewing room.  They fit under tables so nicely that I didn't realize I had 15 of them.  Most of these have gone on to other homes now.

The next machine I got to try was a Singer 28 handcrank.  It is 3/4 the size of the above machine. This one is also destined for Haiti.  It sews very nicely too and I sewed a lot of mountains with that machine. 

 Doesn't she have lovely decals?

 The cool thing is that it is made in Great Britain, but marked in French...wonder if it was originally sold in Quebec?

 

This lovely machine is a Singer model 115 with the Gold wing decals.  It is a unique machine and has a full rotary hook which makes it a very smooth machine.  

 It also sews a very nice stitch:

 Aren't the decals stunning on this machine?

 This is the endplate!   They really knew how to make things beautiful in the early 1900's :-).  Wasn't it William Morris that said, "Never have anything in your house that isn't useful or beautiful?"  No plain old white sewing machine for me LOL.

 Next up was a Singer 201 which is destined for a treadle cabinet.  I used a hand crank attachment to try it out. This is also a rotary machine with a drop in bobbin and sews very smoothly and quietly.

 Another lovely stitch! (Click on the photo for a closer view)

 Last, but not least, was a lovely two tone Singer 301.  These are the big sisters (or brothers :-) of the Featherweights and have the same bobbin system.  They are aluminum machines making them quite light weight and have a carry handle on top so they are very portable. 

Have I mentioned lately that I love the old machines? :-)