My Antique Sewing Machine

I just had to show you all this very old sewing machine i bought from the boot sale last week for £5 . It looked a bit unloved and the person who was selling it said an elderly lady gave it to her after she found it in her shed. Luckily all the attachments were still with it. ......The next thing was to see if it worked so with the help of Cherry, who has a similar machine with a shuttle and not a bobbin that i am use to we managed to get it to sew...... I then polished  the case with some brown shoe polish to bring out the grain of the wood........

Florence can be very annoying at times when i am sewing she loves to play with the thread ....., but i still love her.

All set up and ready to sew.. Can you spot Florence she just loves to watch me sewing.......

Before i polished the case with shoe polish...

Look at the difference. I think it looks much better polished up....

All the original bits and pieces that were with the machine.....

After doing some research on the age of the machine i found it was made in 1895 making it 116 years old, but i was unable to find out where it was made... That got me to thinking, Who would have been able to afford a sewing machine like this one?....After all,  times in those days were very hard especially if you were poor....... Maybe it came from a big Victorian house and was used by a seamstress, who cleverly made all those lovely clothes you see in period drama's on the television.  I would love to know, but can only speculate...I love the nostalgia from the past...

Milly is 9 years old and managed to thread the machine on her own she then made these lovely pieces for her mummy and daddy. .... Young children were made to work from an early age in the Victorian times when this machine was made  i wonder if a 9 year old  then would have used this machine just like Milly..........

This sewing machine is one of my best buys and hopefully when my granddaughters are Milly's age they will be able to learn skills at sewing so we don't loose these skills taught to us by our parents and grandparents......

Easy Bunting for Mary...

 Mary, one of my followers asked me how i made the bunting that she had seen on my post. Art, Craft and Vintage Fair.........Well Mary here it is!!

The finished result....

 My August issue of Country Living magazine gave me the idea how to make the bunting.

I cut out a triangle template with all sides equal .Mine was a 9 inch triangle, but you can use whatever size you want...

As you can see i usually work well in a muddle.

I cut out 12 triangles, double thickness with one end folded to thread the string through and 2 sides cut with pinking shears. I used vintage and new material.

My grannies treasured hand Singer sewing machine was ideal for the job.....All the sides were machined approx 1/2 inch round and threaded with some string . Easy!!

To make the bunting more interesting i added some designer labels and name tapes of my children to the triangles which i thought looked good...

The finished bunting...

I really enjoyed making this bunting and have since made some more for my little granddaughters play house....Any orders please!!!!!!!!!