The Vintage Vogue Search

In March of last year Pattern Junkie posted over at Sew Retro about the Vintage Vogue Pattern Search.

I always believed that Vogue had some magnificent archive of patterns, and just pulled gorgeous vintage patterns from it to be reissued. Well, apparently that is not the case at all. They DO NOT keep a pattern archive! Isn't that sad?!

When I heard about the pattern search I knew exactly which pattern needed to be reissued.

Vogue 4743, of course.

I submitted an email and I snail-mailed in a scan of the pattern also. A few weeks later I got the email that my pattern was chosen! How exciting!!

Well, just this morning I received another email that they will be available in the Summer catalog and online right now!

So here it is...

Vogue 8729 is now available to everyone!

The Singer 20U

Last night I was pulling the beautiful old Morse out of my cabinet and getting ready to take it to put it in storage and Michael asked what I was doing. I told him that it's out of timing and I break needles constantly. Rather than get it serviced again, I was going to go pick up one of my good old Singers and get it serviced. Because I trust the old Singers and I know they'll sew like the wind when they're in good shape.

He wanted to know if there was such thing as a high-end sewing machine. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a "high-end" home sewing machine anymore. The new ones are all plastic and I've just never been happy with them. And I have sewn on other brands besides Singer/Brother. Well, he just didn't believe me. He asked what they sew on for Project Runway, and what do professionals use. I told him about the industrial dressmaker machines. And he said well, why don't you have one of those? I explained that the closest I can get to one of those with my money, is the old all-metal machines. And he got curious. So we went on the Singer site and looked at all the industrial machines. We found that most machines were VERY specific. Some machines only do buttonholes, some only sew buttons on, and one does nothing but sew the binding on mattress edges! And then there was the Singer 20U...

It does exactly what I need a sewing machine to do; zigzag, straight stitch (which is a zero width zigzag) and back stitch. I never use all the pretty decorative stitches that most machines come with. And if I want a blind hem I'd much rather do it by hand. I'm really a nuts and bolts kind of sewist. I want buttons and levers, not a touch screen. The digital machines scare me like fire scares a cave woman.

The 20U is a perfect match for me. It's all cast iron and it can run for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. Singer has been making this machine for over 20 years and it's become an industry standard.

So, much to my surprise Michael jumped right on eBay and bought me a brand-spanking new Singer 20U-109, the latest and greatest model. And it comes with the Singer 300 stand with the big 3/4hp 550W servo moter, a goose neck lamp, and a thread stand! It's like the Hummer of sewing machines!

I couldn't believe he actually just bought me an industrial sewing machine right before my eyes! This man has already gotten me two beautiful vintage Singers and now he's just purches the Queen Mother of sewing machines? I was in total shock!

I'm completely obsessed with learning everything I can about this machine. And I've found that industrail machines are a whole different ball game. Instruction manuals, parts diagrams, and even service manuals are all available FOR FREE everywhere online. Regular consumer sewing machine manuals are at the cheapest a $10 digital pdf. So, of course, I already downloaded and printed the manual. I'll be reading every word of it this weekend.

I'm so completely estactic to be getting a brand new industrial sewing machine coming to my house for me to sew on! Michael Bacon is amazing!

"you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs"

In my never-ending quest for Easter figurines to put in my sugar panorama eggs, I have discovered a new source.

I was seriously considering it when I was looking for miniatures for my Halloween and Christmas Putz villiages, but I just couldn't bring myself to follow through with the destruction. Dollar Tree carries miniature snowglobes at each holiday. They're just under 3 inches tall and the figurines inside the globe look to be the perfect size! So, yesterday I gave in to my temptation and bought a few Easter globes.

I wasn't sure what would happen when I tried to harvest the figurine from it's globe, so I put the whole thing in a shallow tray and covered the glass with a paper towel before I smashed it with a hammer. The glass is super thin and it really only takes a tap to break it. The liquid inside is just a non-toxic glycerin solution. And it turns out that the base of the figurine is actually a rubber stopper that's used to plug the globe when it's filled.

So I smashed all the globes and cleaned up the figurines. They all have a nice high gloss finish and I think the rubber stopper will stay because it can sink into the icing and the little guy will sit at just the right height inside the eggs.

Of course I don't plan to make enough eggs to use all of these figurines. I'll probably only make 1 or 2 eggs this year. But I'll save the figurines for future Easters. It makes me feel better to know I have Easter acessories ready for making panorama eggs at any time. Am I a hoarder?

Two of the globes popped right out of the base cleanly, so I'll save them and use them for something else. Maybe I'll put an airplant in one or make a tiny little Easter basket.