I've been gently chided by a kind friend that I've been neglecting my blogs. I have, there's no point denying it. I'm in a bit of a funk - maddened and despaired by my current job situation - so I've not been posting.
However, there are so many things to be grateful for in my life. One of these is a new love. It's OK, my lovely hubby has not been deposed. I am talking about yet another vintage sewing machine. As some know, DD has a hand crank. A few weeks ago I found a sewing table for it and it's lovely. I was therefore ecstatic when someone advertised on freegle that they wanted to pass on another machine in its own table. I was lucky enough to have it gifted to me:
So I am now the proud owner of a mucky, chipped and well used Singer 319k with all of its attachments, cams, plates and a couple of spare bobbins.
I was a bit scared of all of its jiggery pokery - so much to fiddle with. I can't get the stop on the stitch length regulator to budge yet, but I'll work on that.
Poking around on the Internet, I was a bit dismayed to find out that these machines work on a different needle system. I was therefore horrified when I broke the needle when testing it. Friends on
Ravelry found me UK and USA stockists. I was perturbed when the UK stockist told me to buy as many needles as I could if I ordered from him as they weren't made any more. I spent the afternoon sulking and wondering if I should just pass the machine on and save myself future heartache. Finally, at about 5pm I had a brainwave.
Tentatively I fitted in a normal needle - a Klassik sharp that had come in the biscuit tin of attachments. I gently turned the wheel by hand to see what happened. By rights this should have been a disaster as there's a length difference with the needles and so the timing of all the gubbins inside the machine should be wrong. It seemed OK, so I tried a test sew - bang - needle broken. I took a deep breath and tried a different brand of needle. It worked going forwards, but not backwards - that broke the needle. I fitted a third and resolved to just sew forwards. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Then, in a fit of not quite knowing my controls yet and thinking I'd adjusted the stitch length to zero, I accidentally sewed backwards with great success. So, I now just need to stock up on Pony needles or experiment again with other brands.
I don't know why these needles worked - they shouldn't have done. I looked at the bobbin case and it's not had the cutaway mod. Maybe the previous owner had got the timing adjusted? It was definitely a 206x13 needle in there originally as it had the groove down the centre. Whatever, I am just so excited to have this machine to play with
Now to think what I want to sew on it!
