Crafty Photo Scavenger Hunt: January

If you’re new to the Scavenger Hunt then please visit Kirst’s blog to see how this all began.  Rachel over at The Awesome Lady is acting as guest host again this month, so if you somehow came here first then please do go and visit her blog to see who else is taking part!  I decided to go with a black and white theme this month…

Inspiration

This month seems to have been more about sewing than bookbinding, I’ve certainly spent a lot of time talking about sewing haven’t I?

Something I Made

My first adventure in quilting.  Who cares that it’s only a miniature one for bears?

Motifs: Animal

Very handily I happened to order quite a few papers which feature animal motifs recently, this is my current favourite.

Outdoors

Fungus of some description (I’m not good with fungi!) on a tree stump.  The stump was brought into my garden for decorative purposes and has now sprouted this fungus all over it, I’m now not entirely sure if I should keep it or throw it out…

Details

A close up of a gorgeous panel on my Singer sewing machine.  They really don’t make ’em like this any more.

Rachel over at The Awesome Lady is guest-hosting again for February so please do pop along to her blog in a day or so to find out what topics we’ll be playing with next month.

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Name that foot…

So, this is a bit of a follow-on from my resolved to sew post of a couple days ago.  I was as good as my word and on Thursday evening my mother and I sat down and played with both the Singer machine and the Brother machine until we had them threaded and working.  All good.

However, the Singer machine came with a selection of different feet and although we know what some of them do, others are a real mystery.  Can you help?

Foot #1

This seems to be the normal bog-standard foot.  It’s certainly the one I was using all day yesterday!

Foot #2

Absolutely no clue what this does.

Foot #3

Another mystery.  It’s got numbers on it so it’s adjustable… but adjustable to do what?

Foot #4

My mother says this one is for turning the fabric over to make a hem, is that right?

Foot #5

Something similar to #4 perhaps?

Foot #6

For gathering/ruching fabric?

Foot #7

Saved the best for last.  What on earth does this one do?!

 

So, if you can help identify my feet (gosh that sounds strange) then I would love to hear from you.  In the meantime I’m ploughing on with the normal foot on the Singer machine, and a normal foot on the Brother machine (and I’ll be posting an update on my progress next week).

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Project 365 – Day 20

I spent all day doing my first proper machine sewing, so I thought this close-up was an apt choice for today.

20th January 2012 – “Up close and personal”

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Singer for a sixpence

Not quite a sixpence, but I couldn’t resist the pun on the old nursery rhyme!  I usually do all my sewing by hand, but as I’ve got a quilting project I want to attempt I’ve been keeping an eye out for a sewing machine over the past few months.

I have to admit that I didn’t have much luck.  I trawled car boot sales, but didn’t find anything that met my criteria (vintage, pretty, and not too expensive).  My mother was the one who finally found the perfect machine at a car boot sale I didn’t go to (typical, eh?).

Isn’t it gorgeous?

There’s a plaque bearing the serial number on the front, and having checked on the Singer website it appears that this machine was made in 1951.  I can’t find a model number on it anywhere but I’m hoping that Singer (who I’ve e-mailed) will be able to tell me.

It’s in excellent condition, with the lightbulb on the back still intact,

and the little compartment in the wooden base still has all the different attachments/feet in it

It’s a beautiful machine, and at £25 an absolute bargain!  I haven’t a clue how to use it yet, that’s on my list of things to do over the winter (with lots of help from my mother, who’s a whizz with machines).  I do hope that I learn quickly though as I’m itching to try out some new projects 🙂

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