Update on friends SM

Don't know how far down in FL you are. Do you know there's a wonderful quilt show in Hattiesburg MS this weekend? Polly

A well-known sewing book author was telling me about some of the stuff she's seen in her classes. One woman's machine wasn't stitching right, so Author gave it a quick cleaning. Owner was most upset that Author had removed the felt under the feed dogs and not replaced it with a new felt.

And then there was the mystery of the magically unthreading needle. When Author looked at the machine, the side of the needle was worn through from years of stitching. New needle offered a miraculous cure for the problem.

Kay

It strikes me as very strange that our home ec teachers forced us to learn so many useless things yet she never even suggested that SMs should be cleaned and the needle changed. It could be that she didn't know either. I love the 'felt under the feed dogs'. Lord have mercy! Polly

"Kay Lancaster"

I took the handwheel off a friends Harris hand crank that had belonged to her mother... The reason IT wasn't winding too smoothly was the long hair and thread wound round it. My friend remembered sewing with that thread when she had long hair back in the late 70's!

When I got my mum's old 66K, I hauled a load of fluff out of that and gave it some oil and a new needles. It sews so sweetly now! Mum said, when I asked when she had last changed the needle, 'But I sewed very carefully! I hardly ever broke a needle!'

My friend had told me that she didn't think the "felt" needed removing from under the needle. She also sewed carefully so she didn't break needles and did not need to put a new one in. Also, asked what I meant when I talked about different size needles. I gave her a correct size needle for what she usually sews/mends, and an extra. Goodness! Barbara in FL

I wonder if she uses diesel in her gasoline-powered car, too. And laundry detergent in her dishwasher....

I wasn't allowed to take home ec -- the good Sisters filled up my high school schedule with Latin, world history, chemistry, physics, etc. So I was self-taught, with help from family and neighbors. Somewhere along the way, I picked up the habit of giving a machine a basic cleaning when I first sit down to a machine for the day. Takes maybe 2 minutes, counting the time it takes to kick the vacuum cleaner back under the sewing table.

I don't do well with cleaning after I'm done sewing -- I usually quit when I'm tired or frustrated or have to do something else just then, but I can manage it as a "first thing" task.

I also don't remember where I picked up the fact that new needles stitch better, but it was sometime in early childhood -- I think my aunt may have insisted on a new needle because I was having problems with buttonholes. Now when I do something like stitch a batch of shirts, I'll sew a shirt to the point of needing buttonholes, put in a new needle, do the buttonholes, sew the next shirt to the point of needing buttonholes, put in a new needle...

I exercise the more colorful portions of my vocabulary much less frequently because of those two things, I'm convinced.

Kay

My Catholic all girls school had given up teaching home ec by the time I was in high school. I could have used it in a variety of areas. There was just no room left for it in the rigorous college prep curriculum.

Somehow I grew up sewing without ever learning that there was any home care one could or should give to a sewing machine. I have since learned how mistaken I was.

--Betsy

In Home Ec, we learned how to mend runs in nylon stockings. Has anybody actually ever done that? We learned how to change a flat tire. Heck. I'm too little to heave the spare out of the trunk. We learned how to change the bed linens for a hospital patient weighing 300 lbs or more. I can also debone a turkey. 'They say' nothing sews like a Bernina. Not quite. Nothing sews like a clean Bernina with a sharp new needle. A friend of Mr Esther's came through my sewing room recently when I was plowing through a mile of quilt binding. He said, "How I love to hear a fine machine running that happy." Ah. Yes. Polly

"Betsy" Somehow I grew up sewing without ever learning that there was any home

I did that yesterday. My 9 yo son helped. He loves any chance to try to work on a car. I had to jump on the end of the long wrench to loosen the nuts. Unfortunately a new tire was required, but I was lucky that the others were new enough that I only needed one.

I would cook turkey more often if I didn't hate this job so much.

I have been feeling guilty that since I got the Elna at Salvation Army, I have been consistently been choosing it over the Bernina.

--Betsy

Nay, Betsy. Enjoy having two good friends. Polly

"Betsy" I have been feeling guilty that since I got the Elna at Salvation Army,

That's what I thought!

My Elna's are tiddlers: Lotuses, all three. There are times I want a little machine, rather than lugging the Bernina or the Husqvarnas with me.

Yup. Or at least dancing tights. But I learned that back when I was 6 or 7.

I got sent to my grandma's to learn to cook when I was 8 -- mom went back to work and I took over making supper after school.

That's ok... you should still know if you drive. I've caught "pros" improperly tightening lug nuts, which can result in a catastrophic failure. And then there are the volunteer male helpers, many of which know less than I do about cars.

Don't know about the weight, but I've certainly changed a lot of bedding (and given bed baths) to bedfast people. Learned that one young, too.

And that one I leave to DH. He actually likes turkey. If he wants to debone it, he's welcome to do so.

Doesn't sound like I missed much by not having a sewing class in high school.

Kay

An even better development could have been ....... searching online for a replacement felt pad! Wonder what its part number might be?

LOL!

Alex

Never took home ec, I was in a College Prep course group. BUT: I was also a boy scout and had to lean how to darn socks. Got pretty good at it. I still have my darning egg around here somewhere....

Alex, in memory land.

Dad always used a piece of mom's wax fruit, usually the apple or the orange. They always looked bad after a while.

We used a burned out lightbulb. Now, I have a nice little collection of wooden eggs and other shapes for darning socks -- which I do only on the very expensive athletic socks.

You actually darn socks??? Bwahahahahahahaha..choke...coff