That's Enough Glue

The next 1601 I tested, and the only other one in my possession is Jane. A 158.16011. Right off the bat, I know she's going to take a little bit of work before I can send her on her way one day. Her drop feed sticks. The feed dogs have no problem being up and working, and being down and staying there. But transitioning between the two can be a bit of a challenge. This, thankfully doesn't keep me from doing any testing with her, I just need to make sure I get that resolved between now and October (when I hope to post the machines up for sale) Boy oh boy does she sew. What's that Mazda slogan, "Zoom, Zoom"? She's got that in droves. In a way that I'm actually having the feeling I'm going to have to investigate. Because she flies a bit free after I lift my foot from the pedal. Inertia keeps her going for sometimes as much as TWO whole new stitches. She's a smooth operator/drag racer. A design change I can note between Helen and Jane is the reverse...

I'm working with the machines now, not in chronological order, but in complexity order. So the first machine I have worked with is Helen. This bird is a 158.16010. She has a slightly green, maybe mint, enamel casing. Quick things you'll note about her and what basically drew me to these generations of machines is the simplicity of the design. Proof Helen is indeed a machine Basic features that are identical across the 1601/1701/1802 line are the side opening door to get to the light bulb, the easy to remove top (it is just held on with a tension clip around), and the order of the knobs. From left to right up to down, Stitch Width, Reverse Stitch Modifier, Stitch length (with reverse button), and Stitch Selector.  Everything is upfront and easy to access. All the machines I will be testing are flat bed, so to get to the bobbin casing there is either lifting up the machine and tilting it back, or popping out the access plate and hoping your hands are small enough to re...

You can make your own set of  'jams... Or Pajamas, pyjamas, PJs. The point is one of the stereotypical items on a nice set of top and bottom pajamas is the buttons and button holes. (Can you really imagine the Bananas in Pajamas in a t-shirt and shorts? Exactly!) If I must be formal the title of this post is: "Buttonholers for the Kenmore family Sewing Machines from the 60's and 70's." Much like the Monogrammer post previously, there are a few different style of buttonholers that came out with these eras of machines. Infact, there is a near identical trend with these gadgets. A matter of difference is that these gadgets don't ever get to use a hoop like the monogrammers. In general there are two styles of buttonholers in this era: bed specific, and shank specific. (Sound familiar??) The shank specific buttonholers of this era harken back to the buttonholers of the early straight stitch 117s, and the zig-zag 158s. They attach to the pre...

With the prep for this project I took some old fabric and reinforced it with fusible interfacing and cut them into roughly business card sizes. These little things I have been using for stitch samples. They will not be 100% professional looking as they are partially about getting to know the machine's quirks for each stitch. Largely the machines have been stitched with a length of between 1 and 2, and a width of 4, except for the straight stitch, which by its own nature has no width. And these machines are not yet advanced enough to have straight stitching offsets. There have been some casualties as I have worked on making these little stitch cards. The biggest being just the cards themselves. I have a particular loathing for rotary cutting. It is extremely useful for a straight line, but cutting hundreds of rectangles is just something I don't much care for doing. I have made TWO whole quilts in my life, and I only had to cut pieces for one of them... never again if I can a...

We have a few things in play: Needle position, Feed length, feed direction, and feed direction modifier. Something that stays consistent no matter what is the needle piercing the fabric. The up/down motion is independent. The needle will go up and down, the thread will lock stitch, tough luck. The cams will advance in time with this up and down. If we think of the sewing as an inhale (needle in the fabric) and an exhale (needle outside of the fabric), for me at least, it helps see what is going on. Inhale: lockstitch process Exhale: adjust Stitch length is how far the feed dogs move the fabric on an exhale. Stitch width is the magnitude of needle position change while exhaling.  While the needle is in the lock stitch process the most that can be done is the drop of the feed dogs and their lower position slide to the proper length get them into the right position to move the fabric. It is really quite cool, and the timing is everything. The stitch cams cams take that...

With the variety of accessories and attachments that one can use on these machines I decided that I needed to test out every one of them if I can. However, I wasn't interested in taking parts out of one of the "books" or "Towers of Power" so I designed a master set. With the large number of parts that I had acquired, I was thankfully able to give each machine its own unique set according to its manual and still have plenty left over. With this I created my own master set, a master key to unlocking all the possible potentials of the sewing machines. Lets note that first I purchased an adapter off of ebay between the Super High Shank to Low shank, so that if I had any attachments that were some how special or unique to Low Shank I could use them (in this case one of the monogrammers and a buttonholer) The standard attachments that all the machines can work with are the same across all the lines, and are pretty typical to any sewer. Zipper Cording Overcas...