Mrs Singer has a test drive!

I thought it was high time that this dear lady could show me what she was made of and so yesterday I put her through her paces. I thought you might like to see how she got on.

Being 'a lady of  a certain age' (and I include myself in this category) she commanded a certain amount of respect and so accordingly she was carefully lifted onto the work table and placed in postion. It was then that I noticed she was carrying a little extra weight, but thats to be expected, as I say, for 'a lady of a certain age.'

So with great trepidation and excitement I sat in my chair, plugged her in and then turned to consult my manual. Now this, I think, is a useful piece of information for all those of you that have bought or are thinking of buying an older sewing machine (mine's about 45 years old) there is a useful little website called sewingonline.co.uk  where you can download a manual for the make and model of your machine no matter what it's age. That's where I got mine from.





Singer 317 manual - prized possession



So after winding on a bobbin and threading her up successfully we made a start, grabbing the nearest scrap, she produced this.

Not bad, I hear your cry, a good example of what she can do on the straight stitch and zig zag, quite impressed with the satin stitch actually.  But then I knew she was ready for some fun, she threw off her presser foot with gay abandon and quivered with excitement as I reached for the embroidery foot (sorry this has suddenly turned into a Mills and Boon novel)

Shall we.....?

Ready......?

Let's go......!

These are the results of her efforts. Using a variegated coloured thread produced some nice effects.

Lets have a closer look.......

Things were going so well and so I asked if she fancied trying a little raw edge? "Oh I thought you'd never ask!" she gasped......

Good girl!

At this point, I decided to take off the embroidery foot and proceeded to stitch without it. My stitching went very loopy but I worked out this was because I had forgotten to push down the presser lever (you should do this even if the foot isn't attached) and also because I wasn't going fast enough. As soon as I rectified these, the results were better.

So on the whole I'm very pleased with her first outing and can see many an occasion when I will be in need of her help. Yes she's a little clunky and heavy but she's solid and sews like a dream and that's what counts.

I'd love to hear if any of you have reliable 'ladies of a certain age' that help you out with your sewing.
Have a good weekend.