Anna's Felt Flowers

Here is a felt purse I made for my friend's daughter Anna who turned three last month. I must admit most of the purse was hand-stitched so I didn't get to practice much with the Singer but it did come in handy for assembling the two sides and adding in the zipper. I thought it would've been too ambitious to make a small dress for her, plus she'd probably outgrow it by the end of the year! 

I did think that a 3-year old might not have much use for a purse but who knows, maybe in a year or two she might like it. In the meantime I figured she could at least make use of the little felt hairclips I put inside.

Denim-Bound

This is the first piece of clothing I've made for myself with the Singer outside of class. I just finished a trial run of this skirt with a piece of inexpensive brown cloth bought from the clearance section of Fabricland. We were told to just get something cheap and solid-coloured for class so that we wouldn't be distracted with the pattern or feel bad about having to take something apart if we screwed up a step. I thought that was really good advice. The instructor was a no-nonsense woman who wanted everyone to focus on mastering the basics and not developing bad habits. Pin, baste, sew, press. Pin, baste, sew, press.

The purpose of the skirt project was to learn how to make darts, waistbands, zippers, button-holes, and invisible hems. My brown skirt turned out a hundred times better than I had expected and I was kind of disappointed that I had chosen a poo-brown piece of fabric. That's where the denim skirt comes in. I had an afternoon sewing-date with one of my girlfriends and managed to finish most of this skirt in that time. I love stretch denim.

Attachments

Zigzagger attachment

Mike and I picked up several special attachments for this machine and they all seem so cleverly designed. The Featherweight can only do a straight stitch, meaning the needle doesn't move side-to-side as is required for a zig-zag stitch. 


However I got my hands on a stapler-sized zig-zagger that actually clamps onto the fabric and shifts that side-to-side to create a zig-zag stitch. Now how cool is that?  There are different mechanical cams that produce various zig-zag patterns and you can switch them in and out.

Buttonholer attachment

The buttonholer  works much the same way as the zigzagger by clamping onto the fabric and using separate cams to create holes of different sizes. 





There are some other attachments specific to the Featherweight that look pretty crazy and I haven't even figured out what each one is used for yet! For now I've only tried out the zigzagger and buttonholer but am intrigued by the other ones.

Featherweight

Look at the charming little Featherweight that my husband's grandmother gave us after she no longer had much use for it! The machine was made in Scotland in 1958 and still runs beautifully. I've read up on how these machines have been made to last and I sure believe it.

The machine came with a neat black carrying case which holds the pedal nicely in place under the lid. We also have the original green-covered manual which comes in handy whenever we have to oil the machine (apparently in about 30 places!). It's really convenient to have a sewing machine down at the condo now and I will make it my goal to put it to use regularly.