Tale of two Singers

I'm very much a Bernina person but I have two wonderful Singers. The big guy is a 1938 Singer 201-2 my Mom got when she combined a birthday, Christmas and graduation from Junior High in 1942. This was a very gently used machine and came in a very handsome Queen Anne style cabinet. It's still in the very handsome cabinet.  I'm happy to have it grace my upstairs hallway and I do bring it out when I want a very quiet wonderful straight stitch. Since this is the machine I learned to sew on I fell like I'm sewing with a good friend.

The Featherweight 221 dates to 1946 and came from a very good deal on Ebay. It's in pretty good shape (although the people who had it did not baby it as much as we did the 201-2) and I might at some point want to restore it to perfect. Not sure though. Thanks to Mike at the Quilt Patch in VA it runs beautifully!

One of the cool things is they both have the nice scrolly faceplate so they really look like siblings!

And they take the same attachments and feet! I just love the two machines when I feeling truly vintage!

Day Dress

This is the day dress I did for the Tim Gunn Sewalong on Patternreview.com. He suggests a day dress and when I got this fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics I knew that’s what it had to be! I think this fabric really has a Tommy Bahama feel to it.

It was the Bernina My Label basic dress pattern but, of course, I had to change some things. I put pockets on the front because I always wished dresses had pockets! Hey, I made it so I can do whatever I want with it! I put the slits in the front as opposed to the one in the back and added a placket neckline. I finally mastered doing plackets so now I want to use them more often!

Black dress pants for the Tim Gunn Sewalong

These are my completed black pants. I used the Bernina My Label flared pants but narrowed the leg. I also omitted the back pockets as I didn’t see any reason for them. The back is much smoother this way. I used a classic fly front and belt loops. The fabric was a black on black stripe silk suiting fabric I got in a Michael’s Fabric bundle a while back. This is how they look in the front:

 And this is the back:

Gotta love those My Label patterns!

Bernina Design Skin and the curious bird....

Bernina has arranged with Design Skins to make skins for the Activa series and the Artista 635. I happen to have an Activa 220 which is my travel and class machine. I thought it would be fun to design a skin and Bailey would be with in spirit. Needless to say when she was it she was really curious about the machine! But then, she's an Amazon parrot so curiosity is her nature.

 

Design Skins are a company in Germany. They got the first one wrong - it had a dark brown background. I emailed them and in just a few hours they answered back saying it was being redone and I would recieve it shortly. I'm so impressed I think I might need a skin for my laptop cover! Now that's customer service!

White shirt for Tim Gunn Sewalong

This is my interpretation of the white shirt. I used the Bernina My Label tailored shirt pattern and using David Coffin’s book and DVD I flat felled the seams and did the placket the way he instructed. It’s much more professional than the one that came with the pattern. The fabric came from G Street Fabric and is a white on white stripe.

I could not resist using the embroidery on my Bernina Artista 165E to do a monogram on the cuff. When I originally got that machine I didn’t realize how much I would use the embroidery but it’s great for things like this.

In the name of organization

I've always found a bulletin board is a great thing to have in a sewing room. I like to keep it above the sewing table so I have a place for pattern pieces, drawings, ideas and samples. For years I had a plain one from an office store but I decided I wanted one more like a "work of art".

I was looking for a frame not necessarily in great shape for the frame. I would have done the "shabby chic" approach but I found a solid wood one in great shape at a thrift shop in Urbana, VA. They also had a slightly beat up cork board. Total sale was $12.

The frame had an off-white inner boarder but that was remedied with some colorful ribbon from Joann Fabric. I covered the board with some Project Runway quilt fabric with a sewing motif. Some spray adhesive took care of attaching that. I added a ruler to the bottom edge and found these very cool push pins from Push Pins and Fabric Cork Boards. So very useful and very decorative.

Rain, rain, rain....

Well, what a soggy day! At least I have the perfect jacket for keeping dry! I made this using the Bernina My Label Barn Jacket pattern and the fabric was a combination of raincoat fabric from Michaels Fabrics (which suspiciously resembles Burberry) and a very nicely coordinating Bamberg lining from G Street Fabrics. The lining was a dead on match for the inside of the raincoat fabric.

I did the front zipper as a concealed zipper and put some snaps on to finish the closure:

I made the hood detachable so if I care to remove it I can. I used buttons to attach the hood.

I did a pretty interesting welt pocket, great as I always need a place for keys and such:

This made me feel pretty stylishly dry today!