Back in November I decided that I should pick up a new COVID hobby to keep me busy in the dark winter months. Quilting attracted me for a number of reasons: color, pattern, detail, design. Plus, I could make a bunch of quilts to scatter around the house so that when the cold Canadian weather set in, I would have something to snuggle with.
The only problem was I didn’t have a sewing machine. I contemplated buying one for Christmas early, to avoid the Christmas rush. But my partner convinced me that before sinking a bunch of money into a machine, that I could use one that his family had, to make sure I actually liked quilting. I decided to humor him and agreed, and we asked the family to take it into the repair shop to make sure it was in good working order.
Now, at the time I wasn’t in a huge rush for the machine. I didn’t have any of the notions, so I didn’t mind waiting a bit. However as we neared January, I had started to amass a small collection of fabric, thread, rulers, quilting books, etc. Right as I was about to bring up the sewing machine again to the family, COVID restrictions increased and all nonessential businesses were closed. This meant even the repair shop was closed.
I spent the month of January anxiously waiting for the shop to reopen, and realizing that this quilting hobby was going to be more complicated than I originally thought. You see, I had been reading my new quilting books that walked through different patterns and had noticed a distinct lack of coverage on how to actually quilt the final layers together. This is actually its own technique called Free Motion Quilting (FMQ). Another round of books had to be ordered.
Finally, COVID restrictions were eased and the machine made its way into the shop. Within a couple of days it was ready. Apparently, no repair was necessary and all was needed was a good cleaning and oiling.
Now I had seen the machine briefly before it was taken into the shop and was aware it was a vintage Singer machine, made in 1936 about 20 miles away in a local factory and had been in the family a long time. This made me a bit nervous because I wasn’t sure how easy it would be to use (and I’m essentially a novice to sewing), and it wouldn’t have some of the features associated with newer machines (i.e. automatic thread cutter, needle threader, etc.). I had also heard though that vintage Singers had a reputation of being well built machines, so I was open to trying it. Plus it came with its own desk that was rather adorable.
The long awaited day arrived this last Friday and I was able to place the machine next to the work station I had set up. It has come with all sorts of bits and pieces that I must sort through, but it does seems in good working order. I’ve been able to thread it, wind up a bobbin, and do some test runs on old fabric.
I’ve also find out that this specific Singer is a 15-91. Thankfully, this machine does seem to have a fair amount of documentation online so I’m hopeful that I won’t have too difficult of a learning curve. But we will find out…