That's Enough Glue

My previous entries covered the first impressions between the two machines. And with both of them I have a bit of exploration to go through before I can say definitively anything about the design. Helen (16010) & Jane (16011) One thing I can say for both of these machines, they are strong. You can feel the power when working with them. And neither of them are particularly loud for their strength. Working on these vintage machines, you feel like you are unstoppable in comparison to the computerized machines I have worked with (Bernina Bernette 25 is my go to dearest). They have the same feeling as I get with my mechanical near industrial serger (Juki MO-735). They go through the material like there is nothing there. This was even the case when on Helen, I hadn't quite corrected the bobbin issue and I was destroying my needle points. I also know that Jane is more than capable on hemming jeans. She's the machine that got me into this mess in the first place. I that serger ...

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...

In this adventure there are 9 machines that will be tested. An important thing to note about the models for Kenmores of this era is the context of the naming scheme. "XXX.MM(MM)Y" The XXX being the general design numbers such as 117, 158, or 148. These often correlate with the manufacturer of the machine and the region of sale. MM(MM) mean while is the model. I have seen model numbers that are from two digits to four digits. All the models I'll be writing on in this series are four digits. Model Number and Serial Plate The last number is the Y, and is always the Y no matter how many M's precede it. It is often casually implied as the manufacturing year, 0 being the first year of manufacture. From what I've actually seen, it's more like revision number just like in modern computing when they go from 2.0 to 2.1. A major revision has been made, but it isn't different enough to be a new machine. With this, sometimes multiple revisions can happen in ...