I always wonder about this virtual sewing club of ours and how, no doubt, we have so many more things in common than just sewing.
Do you like collecting vintage sewing supplies? Do you thrift for clothes as well? Collect other vintage goodies? Knit? Read? Camp? Biking? Gardening? What passions do you have other than fabric, needle and thread? What is the other lover in your life that temptingly teases you away from your sewing machine?
I am a little obsessed with anything old, building a collection, and hunting down treasures. I figured I’d share a few of my sewing related stuff that I've gathered over the past several months.
Most recently, this adorable little Betsy Ross sewing machine:
It comes with its own cover case in faux red snakeskin! I won this at an auction on Friday night, where there were also several other sewing machines in the collection. I was happy to get this little guy. Some of the others were too far out of my league, including TWO Vintage Singer Featherweights in near about perfect condition...like new, in cases and with the books. They sold for $375 and $355. The other gem was a very, very cool early Singer industrial machine. It sold for $25!
Betsy joins this child’s sewing machine that I got several months ago:
It comes with its own cover case in faux red snakeskin! I won this at an auction on Friday night, where there were also several other sewing machines in the collection. I was happy to get this little guy. Some of the others were too far out of my league, including TWO Vintage Singer Featherweights in near about perfect condition...like new, in cases and with the books. They sold for $375 and $355. The other gem was a very, very cool early Singer industrial machine. It sold for $25!
Betsy joins this child’s sewing machine that I got several months ago:
Now I have to find a third to make it an official collection! Can you just imagine the little girls that were so happy to have their own machines? Can you imagine the tiny patchwork masterpieces and designer doll clothes made from scraps? I know I would have loved something like this when I was a little person. But then, I learned at the age of 11 on my mother's Bernina. Doesn't get much better than that!
Whenever I’m out and about, I cannot resist a tomato pincushion.
I have a garden variety of them in all shapes and sizes.
And vintage needle folders. Aren't the graphics just beautiful?
A while back, I found this Singer hemming do-hicky. I’m not exactly sure how it works, but it gets filled with chalk and then you do something with it to mark a hemline. I wonder if it's a very functional piece?
And patterns and buttons? Oh, the patterns and buttons...
So, I just wonder, sewing buddies, what else are you crazy about? Do you love vintage sewing supplies? Do you collect anything in particular? What are the other pastimes and interests that make your heart go
pitter-pat?
How kewl are these things you've found! I have a few older sewing machines but I've inherited them from family members.
ReplyDeleteHow cool is that sewing machine! I love it! I love sewing but also love cooking- hence my blog name- feasts and fabrics. With so many interesting things to do in the world how can we limit ourselves to just one?!
ReplyDeleteSuch cute machines and I love your needle folders, how fun. You have such a good eye for things.
ReplyDeleteLynne I'm a lover of all things sewing, but I have a special affinity for machines and patterns (vintage or new).
ReplyDeleteI have noticed that many sewers also have cats. My cat is my fashion consultant.
ReplyDeleteI love vintage notions - but am trying to restrain myself. I could easily become a hoarder. Those machines are lovely and the pin cushions - I think those are my favorite. g
ReplyDeleteps - I knit with a passion and am getting ready to start doing some design work.
I love collecting sewing books, and of course fabric. Otherwise I love, of all things, study. I'm on a gap year this year. I also love old houses.
ReplyDeleteI collect a few vintage notions, particularly wooden spools, old buttons, and vintage embroidery threads. Whenever I go into an antique store I look around for haberdashery, and sometimes find you need to ask. There will be a little collection hidden somewhere. Love a vintage pattern too.
ReplyDeleteThe skirt marker is supposed to be set at the level you want to hem your skirt. Then use the bulb to puff a bit of chalk onto the skirt as you turn round past it. Meant to make it easier to do on your own, and helps to get a balanced level to the hem no matter where it sits on the waist.
ReplyDeleteSandy in the UK
The Sewing Susan ladies are so beautiful! I love vintage thread--it's great for basting, and it always comes on those lovely wooden spools that just plain feel good in your hands. I imagine my great great uncles in their tailoring business working with lovely all their lovely wool.
ReplyDeleteI'm a cooking nerd. I read cookbooks at an alarming rate, and I make obscure things that most people wouldn't bother to do (like mustard and kimchi) because I adore being in the kitchen.
I have all of my Grandmother's knit and crochet pattern books from the 1930s through the 1970s and I love to looks at them and remember all the items she made for us. I also have many of her sewing notions, her button box(es), threads and ribbons. When I was 13 I wanted a sewing machine and my parents told me to save my money. I think I had 10$ in quarters, when my Grandfather called me and told me to meet him at the Singer store downtown, I came home with a Singer treadle machine, complete with all parts. It cost 14$ and the gave me the extra money. I sewed on that machine until I got my Singer zig-zag on my 16th birthday. The machine is my favorite treasure! I recognize that hem marker, we used them in Home Ec. classes in the 1960s.
ReplyDeleteWell I dont sew you know! But i Knit!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love cute stitch markers....
and I love project bags to carry my knits in progress in!~
I have a vintage Vogue sewing book (same one Gertie used when starting her blog) and my girlfriend found a Vogue Pattern Book from 1948 that she gave to me!! its a start one more Vogue sewing book and I will have a collection too!LOL I just love looking at the styles and thinking of the women who sewed them up and feeling the connection with them.
ReplyDeleteI have or had one of those hem markers! You put the garment on, a dress obviously, and then held the squeeze bulb in your hand and puffed chalk powder around the hemline as you turn. Hope that makes sense!! lol I don't know where mine is....it may be in the dark recesses of a closet but I always thought that was such a cool sewing tool.
ReplyDeleteI have a passion for tidiness, and so I'm not really a collector. I appreciate the vintage finds and enjoy seeing other's collections. :-)
ReplyDeleteThat hemming thingamajig looks like medical equipment ;-)
ReplyDeleteAs long as the rubber bulb is OK with no cracks it should work great for marking your own hems. They had not improved this for decades....I use one all the time with my clients. What a cool haul!
ReplyDelete