2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

basketcase

Pip - forgot to say thank you for the offer of the address, but I'm in Scotland.  Currently on lockdown, of course.  DS is quite high risk - collapsed lungs and Type 1 diabetic - so he set up working from home at the beginning of March and was actually told to start working from home over a week ago.  Not sure taking sewing machines for a run counts as either exercise or essential shopping!

PipneyJane

basketcase said:

Thanks for the recommendations, Polly, Dolly and Pip (sounds like a 70s rock band ).

I looked at the Brothers but was worried that the programmes bit would make them too complicated and vulnerable to breaking down. (I'm a bit of a Luddite and would actually prefer an older model!)  The John Lewis sounds like it's more in my price range and basic is definitely good enough.  Decisions, decisions.  Aaargh! 

Mine is most certainly not computerised but it is 30 years old.  How much are you willing to spend?  L1dl regularly have basic Singer models on sale for <£100 in their Aisle of Surprise (probably every 3 months).  I see you are in Scotland - I know there's a sewing centre in the high street in Dunfirmline, but I've not been in there to look at machines.  Anyway, it's something to save up for, while we wait for the Great Shutdown to finish.  I saw your post about self isolating and your DS's condition.  I hope he stays safe.

- Pip

basketcase

Hi Pip

Obviously as little as possible for reasonable quality - this is MSE, after all!  I was thinking £100-200 (max). I thought that should get me something decent, but I'd no idea what classed as decent!

I'm a bit(!) further North in Grampian.  ISTR reading about a sewing machine shop in Aberdeen that gets good reviews from customers.  Of course, at the moment I can't get there.  Not that there's a rush, but it'd be nice to have another set of things to do.

Ooh Singers!  My mother had a Singer, which I learned on.  One of the old treadles where the machine folded under a lid and it became a table.  She got rid of it because it was old fashioned and got an electric one so I could do needlework homework.  I loathed needlework with a passion. 

I think, being strongly left-handed, the machine felt back-to-front.  At any rate, electric machines scared the bejeebers out of me for years.  Even in my 30s I hand sewed a top with a matching circular skirt (for a wedding I was going to), rather than set up the machine.  I'm much better than that now.  But I suppose I should add 'non-threatening' to its list of attributes!

PollyWollyDoodle

I learned to sew on my (grand)mother's hand-cranked Frister & Rossman.  I still have it and won't part with it!  Although I hadn't done much sewing for several years, it was still what I felt comfortable with.  I hadn't used an electric machine until I got the John Lewis one mentioned above a few years ago.  It didn't take me long to get the hang of it - just sew slowly!

Laura_Elsewhere

Once you can go out again, you could do a lot worse than get an old Singer, foot-treadle or hand-cranked table-top one. 

Mine was made in 1902, and only sews in a straight line - but has an attachment so I can do buttonholes. I have used it for everything... my Mum used an identical model (hers lives in a cupboard and is brought out and put on a able to use, hand-cranked; mine is a treadle, but I mostly use it hand-cranked) to make my sister's "full meringue" wedding dress in silk, lace and satin! I've made several ballgowns for friends on mine. Between us, she and i have made curtains, we've replaced the seriously heavy-duty canvas on Grandaddy's pre-war folding wood-framed camp-bed (!), I've made silk undies in delicate slippery crepe-de-Chîne and silks... 

We had all three old Singers (we have Gran's, we have her mother's one, and we have my one)  professionally serviced once, at the end of the 1990s when the Singer shop was doing an offer, but otherwise we've never needed to have them serviced as they are so simple to look after yourself. And in half a century, the only costs have been one replacement tension-spring on mine last year, and a little bottle of machine-oil. 

They won't sew stretch fabrics and won't do zig-zag or decorative embroidery, but I've never actually needed to. I have always had access to borrowing a friend's modern electric if necessary, and on occasion I've sewn things for friends on their machines, I'm perfectly able to use them - but my old Singer does everything I need it to do... 

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Once you can go out again, you could do a lot worse than get an old Singer, foot-treadle or hand-cranked table-top one. 

Mine was made in 1902, and only sews in a straight line - but has an attachment so I can do buttonholes. I have used it for everything... my Mum used an identical model (hers lives in a cupboard and is brought out and put on a able to use, hand-cranked; mine is a treadle, but I mostly use it hand-cranked) to make my sister's "full meringue" wedding dress in silk, lace and satin! I've made several ballgowns for friends on mine. Between us, she and i have made curtains, we've replaced the seriously heavy-duty canvas on Grandaddy's pre-war folding wood-framed camp-bed (!), I've made silk undies in delicate slippery crepe-de-Chîne and silks... 

We had all three old Singers (we have Gran's, we have her mother's one, and we have my one)  professionally serviced once, at the end of the 1990s when the Singer shop was doing an offer, but otherwise we've never needed to have them serviced as they are so simple to look after yourself. And in half a century, the only costs have been one replacement tension-spring on mine last year, and a little bottle of machine-oil. 

They won't sew stretch fabrics and won't do zig-zag or decorative embroidery, but I've never actually needed to. I have always had access to borrowing a friend's modern electric if necessary, and on occasion I've sewn things for friends on their machines, I'm perfectly able to use them - but my old Singer does everything I need it to do... 

The bit I've highlighted in bold reminds me that my mum used her old treadle Singer sewing machine to sew together the canvas tent we used when I was a child, as well as to sew the seats/seat-backs of multiple camp chairs.  (I remember seeing the machine in the garage, but I have no memory of what happened to it.)

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

Yes, they really are amazing machines! So versatile, from delicate wisps of silk to heavy canvas! 

My "lockdown challenge" to myself is to locate and organise and catalogue all my needlework supplies. I have literally got more haberdashery than our local Hobbycraft does, and I think about four large boxes of fabric, and I mean big cardboard boxes, the sort of thing you have to edge through a doorway. And two cupboards of yarn. And the rest... I want to know what I have, how much, and where. 

And I can weigh my yarn at last and when I have the total weight, it can go on a diet and see how much weight it can lose this year  

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

Yes, they really are amazing machines! So versatile, from delicate wisps of silk to heavy canvas! 

My "lockdown challenge" to myself is to locate and organise and catalogue all my needlework supplies. I have literally got more haberdashery than our local Hobbycraft does, and I think about four large boxes of fabric, and I mean big cardboard boxes, the sort of thing you have to edge through a doorway. And two cupboards of yarn. And the rest... I want to know what I have, how much, and where. 

And I can weigh my yarn at last and when I have the total weight, it can go on a diet and see how much weight it can lose this year  

I'm just glad I got my machine serviced when I did!   Not that I have anything scheduled to sew, beyond repairing some seams, but at least it is in good order and now has a case.  I don't have a lockdown challenge yet, beyond the 20-Challenges-in-2020 that I signed up for at the start of the year.  Hmmm......

Are you going to log all your yarn on Ravelry?

- Pip  

thriftwizard

I do a lot of my sewing on a Jones treadle from 1909, & love it! I do own a modern computerised Pfaff too but much prefer the treadle for any straight-stitch stuff.

I've always believed "Sky-pilot" to be Naval slang for a chaplain; it's as opposed to the sea-pilot, who literally holds your life in his (or her) hands on the approach to port. You can join the dots there! Half my family have been in the Senior Service, including 2 Sky-pilots.

catherinekate

I'm still here, trying to do two full time jobs (mine is managing key worker roles but non-NHS) and full time toddler management between me and my partner. It's hard to complain about the Government taking all of our childcare provision away because lives are at stake, etc, but that doesn't mean that this is at all easy. Consequently I haven't seen the bottom of my mending basket for a bit although I have sneakily done some knitting when on conference calls . . .

Anyway I am glad that I have enough clothes in the next two sizes for my toddler (bought second hand in January). When this is all over I might borrow a sewing machine, but I too am scared of them and would also much rather sew by hand than risk threading it up. I still feel that my old Textiles teacher might appear and tell me off for doing it wrong again!

Good to "see" you are all OK and Laura_Elsewhere I hope your family continue to recover