A new/old friend

I'm getting to that pattern I've had half-cut-out for several months, I promise. New sewing will appear on this blog soon, I declare! (I also feel the need for some new summer skirts, so those will most definitely be featured.)

The title of this post, however, refers to a purchase I recently made. An old sewing machine from a semi-local Goodwill which I believe dates back to at least the 1940s. It's a Free-Westinghouse ALC, and though it doesn't have a bobbin (yet!) it does have an electric foot-pedal.

From The Year 2050

Look at that gorgeous golden shine! It's a pretty exciting thing to me, a simple machine that I can learn all about (I even found a free manual on the internet, so I can know how not to fiddle around with things!) and has the vintage aesthetic that I love. It just looks so pretty.

Though I can't sew with it yet, as it has no bobbin, I'm quite excited with the prospect of doing so. It probably will never become my primary machine, but I think that sewing a proper vintage project on a proper vintage machine is something quite fascinating.

From The Year 2050

On the final page of the manual is advice for every machine of every era, though is still quite amusing to me:

Use Good Oil!
Use Good Needles!
Use Good Thread!

(The descriptions of these things, however, just boil down to "don't be cheap.")

PS - I just joined up at My Sewing Circle - a kind of Ravelry for sewers. I'm starting to push in the vintage patterns and all my projects. I'm looking forward to it kind of shaping up and coming together (it's still pretty beta at this point) and having a site that I can manage all of my sewing on, like I do with my knitting on Ravelry. Feel free to join up if it interests you, but feel free not to if you want to wait until it's more of a finished project.