I love to sew, mainly quilts and bags. I am 66, married to Fred and have one son, Matthew, who is 27. I enjoy embroidery and applique and prefer to machine piece and quilt my projects. I love my vintage Singer sewing machines especially my Featherweight 222K. I’m enjoying treadling on my 201K Singer and I collect Miniature Sewing Machines and currently have three Essex , one Singer 20, one Singer 40, two Vulcan Miniatures and my latest, a Grain. My love of sewing I believe comes from my Grandmother - I still have the drawings she made for me to embroider on tea towels many many years ago!

Monday 13 April 2015

SNUG AS A BUG IN A RUG

or in this case.....  a Grumpy Bear and a baby Monkey :-)

MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT FREE MOTION QUILTING
ON MY FEATHERWEIGHT 222K
FREE MOTION FOOT FROM APRIL 1930s SEWING SHOPPE

THE OTHER SIDE

AN UPSIZED VERSION OF THE SLEEPING BAG FOR DOLLS
GRUMPY BEAR IS THE MODEL
THIS ONE IS FOR A VERY ROTUND TOY MONKEY
HENCE THE PLEAT IN THE QUILT TOP (not in the pattern)

AND ANOTHER ONE..... THIS ONE IS FOR A MEDIUM
SIZE TEDDY (still upsized from the pattern)

AND THIS SLEEPING BAG WAS JUST RIGHT :-)
FOR A LITTLE BABY RABBIT NAMED EMMA
LITTLE MONKEY IS THE MODEL HERE
(this is the Baby Bear size from the pattern)

I have had a fun weekend making these sleeping bags for my little great-niece's toy Monkey and Teddy (the two large sleeping bags) and my other little great-niece's new toy rabbit.  You have seen this pattern before...

Ruby Rabbit in her sleeping bag-
made this one last year

The Pattern can be found HERE.  I loved using my Featherweight to make these bags.  It's perfect for doing the rounded corners with the bias binding - I use the Seam Guide that comes with most Vintage Sewing Machines and the binding comes out so neat!

Free Motion Quilting on my 222K was just fantastic!  All I had to do was drop the feed dogs and away I went.  Perfect stitching immediately...... no fiddling around with tension settings or anything.
Due to its small size, I would not want to attempt too large a project for FMQ on the FW but it's just perfect for cute little things like these sleeping bags.  I would probably use it for a crib size quilt but nothing larger.  It would be good for Quilt As You Go blocks and then perhaps finish them off on a larger machine.

The two large sleeping bags are upsized from the Papa Bear Pattern and the little pink sleeping bag is the Baby Bear size.

I did some straight line quilting on the quilt fronts (used the walking foot guide on the little pink bag) and FMQ the mattress part.

Recently I had a play with the Swiss Zig Zag attachment for my FW .....  
Side view 
putting an edge along an Appliqué piece

not bad!  very neat zig zag for a vintage attachment!

and a cute box ! !

Yes I own a modern sewing machine that can do zig zag and all manner of fancy stitches but honestly this little vintage attachment is absolutely amazing!  a wonderful piece of engineering and all I had to do was give it a little oil and away I went.  The attachment forms the zig zag by moving the fabric left and back to the middle.   It was such fun!  I remember my Mum putting an edge on our clothes she made for us when we were little and this is how she did it.  I have a Buttonhole attachment too and I remember Mum saying that it's the best buttonhole you could ever make!  I will play with that attachment one day too.  This attachment will fit all of my Vintage machines.

Did I mention that I bought a Hand Crank Singer 99K ?  well I did and here it is...

winding my first bobbin - WOW .. what a perfect bobbin!

I bought it some months ago and it did not have the wooden handle on the Hand Crank.  My wonderful Brother-in-Law fashioned one for me out of an old hand crank drill.  Isn't it lovely?  The machine sews beautifully.  I made a Siggy Block to test it out.  It is quite easy to sew with your left hand!  the trick is to NOT look at your right hand as it turns the crank.  I found it very easy to sew straight and keep a 1/4" seam.  I think I will have fun with this new toy!



Happy Sewing!
Cheers from Helen





3 comments :

  1. Very cute. It looks like you had a lot of fun playing with the zig zags too?

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  2. Interesting post Helen - love the litle sleeping bags and what fun sewing with your vintage machines!

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  3. routine test of "no reply blogger"status.

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