Singer Sewing Machine 1951

I stopped by a garage sale today and found a little dream come true. It isn't a featherweight or a treadle machine like my great grandma had, but it is a vintage Singer Sewing machine, and it works great! It was made in 1951. I have not discovered how much this machine is really worth, but I'm thankful to the lady who charged my only $30!

My son brought me two squares of fabric and had me sew him a pillow to see if the machine could do anything. He didn't believe that anything this old could work. What he doesn't know is that there are many Singer machines that are much older that still work. I imagine that many of you actually sewed on a machine just like this when you were a girl.
There is a little emblem on the front of the machine that says this is an anniversary edition: "A Century of Sewing Service 1851 - 1951." It also says it was made in Canada.

Some day I would like to sew a dress on a treadle machine, even if I never get to own one. I would enjoy that connection to the past. It seemed like such a wonderful invention. I really like things that don't require electricity.

Tea-cupa Story

The theme for the first week of Gracious Hospital-i-tea's Blog-a-thon is to tell the story of a favorite tea cup. I shared about my favorite thistle tea cup a few weeks back, but this is another favorite of mine.

I didn't grow up in a family that used tea cups. I don't think that we even owned a tea cup and saucer. We usually had the basics, but there was rarely money for extras. Sometimes I remember drinking some peppermint tea from a heavy mug. Sometimes grandma made some sun tea when the weather got hot, but other then that, there just wasn't much tea around.

When I read about tea parties and saw pictures of beautiful tea cups, I really longed to own one, but it was long after I graduated from college before I owned my first tea cup. This tea cup wasn't my first one, but it was my first beloved tea cup. When I saw it at an estate sale, I snatched it up quickly, and hoped they wouldn't charge too much because it was just what I wanted. It was similar to my dream of what the perfect English tea cup would look like, covered with flowers inside and out, including pink roses. I really was thrilled to own such a pretty cup. I just love that it is beautiful on the inside too. It reminds me of how God wants us to be, not only pretty on the outside, but pretty on the inside too, because He makes it so.


I was curious today if I might learn some more about this tea cup. The bottom the cup says it is made by Roslyn Fine Bone China, Made in England. The pattern is Black Velvet, number 8555. I don't know anything about the woman who once owned it. I'm guessing that because it is in such good condition, that it sat many years in a china closet, too pretty to use. I wondered if it might have been a gift from an English relative, or a souvenir from her world travels. I won't ever know the answers to these questions but I wondered if I might find out something about the company that made this tea cup.

I went searching on the web and learned that Roslyn Fine Bone China was made at Park Place Works, Longton, England from 1946 to 1963,. Previously the Roslyn company was called Reid and Co. and they made fine china from 1913 to 1946. I learned that my cup was made sometime between 1950 and 1955, when they put the name of the pattern in a banner. The pottery factory is now a museum. You can see some examples of other Roslyn works here.

When guests come for tea at my house, this is often the tea cup that I let them use, because maybe they too have never held a pretty English tea cup in their hands before. Maybe when they hold this pretty cup in their hands and share friendship they will know more clearly just how precious and beautiful they are to me and to God.

Sew Crafty Friday - Quilts, Bags and a Skirt

You would think that from the looks of my blog that all I can think about now is wildflowers, but that isn't true. It is winter here and not gardening weather, so I do have time to work inside. I have been doing some sewing over the last few weeks.

I bought a second hand jean skirt last summer. It fit really nicely in the store, but when I washed it, the waist band shrank several inches. I was amazed. Nothing else shrank on it. I tried to give it to a couple friends, but it didn't work. Then I got the idea of using it to make bags. It was a nice rich color, didn't look worn out and had lots of cute details. I cut the skirt in two and started to sew. It was great fun! I had never made something like this before. I had just the fabric for linings. The first bag has been come my regular "purse."

I sewed the bottom closed, adding a couple pleats to make it more full inside, and I squared off the corners. I laid the bag on my lining fabric, and cut around the outside using the jean bag as a pattern. Then I sewed together with pleats in the bottom and squared off corners. I put it inside the jean bag, and then hand sewed in the lining, so it started just below the waist band, with a blind stitch. It turned out lovely. Then I made a handle, and belt, and sewed in giant snaps to hold it closed. Those giant snaps are really fun to sew in an use. I think this purse would best be made out of a small size of jean skirt, or the purse might be too wide.

The second bag was made out the bottom section of the skirt. I sewed the slit closed and trimmed it to a size I thought would work good for a large tote bag. I made reversible handles out of the denim and lining fabric. I cut the lining fabric to be exactly the same size as the bag. I gave them both deeply squared off corners. I sewed two big pockets one side and a one bigger pocket with a divider in the other side. It turned out great. I have used the bag several times now, and love it's solid sturdiness, and yet feminine fabric details. I'm going to make some more of these when I find another skirt needing a new life.

I sewed two big pockets one side and a one bigger pocket with a divider in the other side. It turned out great. I have used the bag several times now, and love it's solid sturdiness, and yet feminine fabric details. I'm going to make some more of these when I find another skirt needing a new life.

Several years ago I made my son a quilt for his bed. I gave my daughter the pretty bedspread I used in college. But then decided I should start a quilt for her too. I had been eying a quilt pattern in a book that looked interesting, so I let her choose the colors. It uses strips of fabric sewn together, then sliced up to make strips of little squares. It sounded easy enough, but I had never worked with such tiny squares before. I soon got confused as to which strips went where. I made a couple mistakes, got discouraged, and put the project away. Sadly this project has languished way too long. It has been begging to be finished, but I wasn't sure I could do it. I had put a lot of money into the fabric, so I really couldn't abandon the project forever. And Emily Rose still doesn't have her own quilt yet.

I have now worked on this several evenings. I have figured out my mistake, and corrected it. I have all the smaller pieces into the larger sized blocks. And next I can start working on putting the strips of squares in between the blocks. Somehow I have come up short three of the large blocks. I have no idea where they are. But I am going to press on with the 9 blocks I have and figure out how to make it still work for a twin bed with extra borders. I think I have enough fabric to do that. If I ever get it finished, I'll be sure to share it with you.

I have pulled out another quilt that needs to be finished. It is made of quilter's flannel and is the perfect to color to put in our family room. (The room I gave a brown wall last summer.) This is a bear paw type quilt. Thankfully I got the squares pretty far along before I gave up. I stopped working on this because the machine I had didn't make consistent 1/4 inch seams. The blocks didn't come together as good as they should, but I am going to figure out some way to make it happen. I have a better machine now. I worked on this a little while last night while my husband read stories to us all. Yes, everyone gathered in my sewing area for story time, instead of up on the couches. One kid was drawing and one kid was coloring.

The final thing I'll write about is a skirt I made. I found the partially made skirt at an estate sale, complete with lots of extra fabric. The fabric is a wool of high quality. I am wondering if it might even be Pendleton wool.) The six panels of the skirt were cut and sewn together, except for near the top of the skirt. It appeared that the original seamstress fell into problems. It appeared that it might have been too small for her and she was trying to take out the seams to make it fit better, but it wasn't going to work. It was never completed. I took it home for almost nothing. (Everything we bought there, including a cat carrier, a set of sheets and some books and things for the kids came to a total of $2!) It didn't take me long at all to sew up the seams. The waist band was missing, so I had to create one myself, but that wasn't hard. I hemmed up the skirt so it is like a long walking skirt from the turn of the century. I have worn it to church twice with black button up boots. It isn't a modern style, but I like it very much. It feels classic and feminine to wear. And there is enough fabric left that I think I could make a skirt for my daughter, and maybe a vest for my son. If I can find time with all the other projects I'm working on.

You can see what other people are making by going to Shereen's blog. You could even make a post on your blog and share your creativity too.

Garage Sale Quilt Find

On Friday morning we went out to garage sales. We don't do this all the time, but it seems that in the spring, there can be some especially nice ones. I've always wanted to find a quilt at a garage sale. I have friends who have found wonderful ones for almost nothing. Well, this Friday was my turn.

I found a lovely hand pieced quilt top for $1. I couldn't believe it! It was carefully hand pieced, hand appliquéd, and hand embroidered. It had some small browns stains throughout, but I had a feeling that an Oxy - clean soak would take most if not all the dots away. I didn't think to do a before photo. What you see above is what it looked like after it came out of the wash machine, while it was drying on the couch. The quilt was much improved. The white was whiter, no colors were running, and the dots were almost all gone. It needs some ironing, but that will come next.


In this close up you can see a couple of the darkest dots up to the right of the right antenna of the butterfly. They are there, but they aren't strongly noticeable.

My plans are to find a backing for it, layer in come cotton batting, bind and tie it. I would love to hand quilt it, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be finished until I was too old to use it.

If anyone has a good idea of something else to try to completely remove the brown dots, without harming the fabric, let me know