Adding to the collection...

There's something about an old sewing machine that just draws me. They tell a story... or I make one up lol. Each machine has it's own story to tell.

My Singer 600E Touch & Sew has a story... it was my grandmothers, she used it to make clothes for all 5 of her children as well as herself and many household projects all through the 1960's clear through the nineties until she was no longer able to sew.

I don't think I've mentioned this in a previous blog, but I also have a 1940's Sewmor Deluxe sewing machine. The model number slips my mind at the moment. My husband saw it at a customers house and they gave it to him. It is a beauty. It's blue and solid as a rock. It's electric and it only does two stitches. I'll have to post pictures after I get home, I just realized I've never mentioned it before. The story she tells... she was manufactured in Japan in the late 1940's, she's one of the first Sewmor models. I visualize her being owned by the mother in Mary Poppins... she shows very little sign of wear or use, yet the machine and cabinet are gorgeous. She may have used it a handful of times to hem up some new Women's Voting Rights sashes.

My sergers have a wonderful story. They were used in a high school for many many years, unfortunately the high school decided to do away with there Home Ec. program. I'm not even going to get into the importance of Home Ec and similar classes in middle and high school, that's a blog all unto itself.

And now the newest addition to my collection... a 1957 Singer 401A Slant-O-Matic. After a lot of research (aka a couple of good google searches lol) I've gathered that this machine is pretty well saught after, and is supposedly one of the best machines Singer manufactured "back in the day". The machine is not in great condition, though... it has been neglected. The cabinet looks to be falling apart (although structurally sound) with chunks of the wood missing. The machine itself needs some cleaning up and oiling, and the plug needs repair. Other than that it looks okay. One of my dad's neighbors was moving and he took it, apparently they were going to throw it away! Shame tsk tsk. My dad had no idea I was a bit of a collector, so he was shocked when he saw how thrilled I was to receive this treasure. Her story? My idea is that she was owned by a hippie mama and was used to make clothing and handbags for herself... and was never used to hem a thing lol.

I cherish all of my lovely machines, even my cheap-o Brother that I use for my regular day to day projects. And to think, I've paid a grand total of $85 for all 6 of my sewing machines :-).

Cutilize... My Mountain Girl... My New Baby

I got my business cards and magnets in yesterday. Yay!! I thought the background color was going to be pink, but it's more of a coral color. Oh well, it's still cute. To my friends reading (because I know you're out there :-) ) if you want me to mail you some cards to spread around and chat about my soon-to-come goodies let me know and I'll put some in an envelope and send them.

I've been working on my new idea. I'm calling it 'Cutilize'... no, not like 'Cut-ilize'... like 'Cute-ilize'. I thought about going with 'Cuteilize'... but that goes against the whole "i before e except after c". More and more things keep coming to mind. In addition to the new thing, I've decided to still do clothing. I just love it too much. I get too much personal satisfaction out of it. I am going to set aside a certain amount of time per week to work on my shop and custom orders. As for promoting.... it's going to be limited because that was a BIG time consuming task. I'm just going to try to list every day or two. The new thing, that'll be a ship-upon-payment type thing. The clothing... I'm going to try to do some ship-upon-payment things that are flexible on sizing.

I added some new pics to my flickr yesterday... check it out...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaytiebugs/

Here are a few shots of my new baby... I still haven't used it yet. Also, a few shots from my moms this past weekend. Her house is in such a beautiful area. Kaytlin loves riding too. The horse is old and she's the only one who rides it. These look better on Flickr, by the way.

My new toy

My grandmother gave me her 1960's Singer Touch & Sew 600E a while back, before she passed, but I never had any way to transport it to my house. I finally brought it home from my mothersh house yesterday and I'm so excited!!! I spent all night last night reading the manual front to back, examining all of the stuff that came with it.... 7-8 feet, 17 "special discs", and all kinds of doo-dads that I still can't figure out what they are.

I must say... we have it MADE these days. If we want to change stitches we simply turn a dial OR press a button OR slide a knob (or something similar.... one simple action). To change the stitch on this, you must select your stitch pattern, and select if you want to sew it to the left right or center, and select your stitch width, AND your stitch length, and some of them require you to adjust the tension. Holy moly!!! Well worth it though. I can't wait to use my new baby.

I'm particularly excited about two of the feet (if they actually do what they're supposed to). The hemmer foot and the binding foot. The hemmer foot, you just tuck the fabric through this little swirly thing and it continues the hem through the whole length of the fabric (no more folding, pinning, and pressing). The binding foot, it has this cone thing you slip either pre fold bias tape or tape you've made and there's a slit you put the fabric in.... voila no pinning, no being sure whether or not you're catching both sides, the foot does all the work for you... IF it works.

Okay, enough about my new baby. I'll post pics next time.

We had a nice memorial day. We went to my moms Saturday and came home yesterday evening. It was very peaceful and relaxing, but by yesterday afternoon I was VERY ready to get back to "the city" lol. My mom lives in the Georgia mountains. I don't see how people can stand living in the middle of nowhere. It seemed like everything was in slow motion. Everyone drives slow, days go by slow, service at the restaurant is slow, and even folks at the grocery store were walking slow.

Still working on my new idea. I've made a bit of it for myself and I'm really enjoying it. Some things still need work, some things I haven't even begun to try.... but that's because I'm still on a break. Hubby seems to be under the impression that I'll be going back to making kids clothes once I decide to start back. I really want to. I'm really passionate about it. I think I'm probably going to, but it's not going to be the same. I'll be paying myself FAIRLY. I've also got a few ideas up my sleeve for clothing. I ordered the supplies needed, they're on the way. I'm super excited. Again.... my hobby ADD is getting the best of me. At least it's just a spin on something I already have the stuff for versus a whole new hobby. I've got tons of hairbow stuff and I've made a grand total of one hairbow and bow flops to match. Wait, I have made a couple of button style clips but I'm referring to the stack of ribbon, dowels, etc. that's now collecting dust. I kinda knew that would happen though... I'm bad about that kinda thing.

Here's a pic of the sewing machine I got. This isn't mine though, I just want to go ahead and share it with you all though. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to use it!!!