Last week on my phone.

A needle case for a swap.
Decorated broderie anglais.
Parcels all ready for packaging and posting.
Me having to peer over Jack as he sits on my chest.
Work in progress - pockets on an apron.
Filled spool on my hand-cranked sewing machine.

I hope you had a good week.

TTFN
Louise.

My new 'old' sewing machine

First, I must apologise for it being such a long time since I last posted, making commitments and a nasty big have kept me away from the laptop.

Back to today's post.

I'd been looking for a hand-worked sewing machine for a while as this would enable to machine sew some of the smaller more fiddly things that I make.

The Jones sewing machine.

A few months ago, whilst on a bus, I spotted a sewing machine in Oxfam's window. Ray went had a look at it the next day and discovered that it was £25, which I thought was reasonable, so we went back to give it a look over and buy it if it was okay, which it was.

My Jones sewing machine

Unfortunately, the machine doesn't have it's lid, but the rest of it was there, including a bullet shuttle and a couple of spindles, so homeward bound it went.

It obviously hadn't been used for a while as the workings were seized up and it was very dirty. Ray very kindly set about cleaning it and getting the workings going (thanks to WD40).

Some of the gilding is worn off.

My first sewing machine had been one similar to this Jones model, with the bullet shuttle, but I couldn't remember, exactly, how to load the thread into the shuttle. But, thanks to the internet, where I found a copy of an old Jones instruction manual, I soon had the hang of it. One big advantage with this machine over my electric one, which I have had for a good few years now, is that it has automatic thread take-up. The new electric ones now have the automatic take-up but there was an obvious step backwards when my machine was made.

Bullet shuttle and spool

It's so much more aesthetically satisfying using this machine, the noise it make while you're turning the handle is gentle and rhythmic and even though you only have one hand at the business end I find it easy to use. It's not as fast as my electric machine, and can only do one stitch, but it's now my favourite.

The business end.

TTFN
Louise