Wednesday, June 30, 2010

New uses for old sewing machines

A few months back, i helped my grandmother move.  She was moving to a smaller place, and one of the many things she planned to leave behind at her old house was her ancient Kenmore sewing machine.  Now, i'd never sewn on this machine, but it was in the room i'd stayed in when i spent summers at her place as a kid.  I kinda liked the cabinet.  And she told me she'd bought it with the first money she'd earned from her first job, sometime around 1939.  (Now, from the model number, it looks like it was probably manufactured a bit later, something like 1947, but Grandma is 88, so we'll cut her a little slack on the chronology... and maybe that was a different machine.)

Anyway, i wasn't about to let it stay behind.  So we had it loaded onto the moving van, and then it went from her old house to her new apartment to my parents' place, and eventually back down here, the heavy old machine having been removed from the cabinet and wrapped in an old blanket for protection on its travels.  I'm still trying to create a spot to wedge it into in the sewing area, and as the machine has waited for a permanent home, the cats have found it a prime sleeping location.  Eliot demonstrates:

 
And Winston does likewise:

 

2 comments:

vintage eye said...

They do take the task at hand seriously, now don;t they?! :)

Fripperie said...

I find their devotion to the task inspiring (...yawn... nap vortex warning)!