Jaci Dawn

My mother loved to sew. She could make her own patterns. She made beautiful clothes.

I have at least three cousins who quilt. My mother-in-law sews. Both of my girls love to sew.

Me? I can sew and I have quilted. All on this lovely Singer Featherweight that I begged and pleaded for. My mother gave it to me when I left home and she bought her brand new White. My brother got the machine Mom used between the days of this machine and the White.

My Featherweight is in prime condition, has a complete button hole kit, the original manual, and a mostly intact original case (it’s missing one latch). You can purchase your own for between $400 and $600 (mine is not for sale).

For decades, this machine has been adequate for my sewing needs: a repair here and there, a simple project like a banner, a couple of quilts, a number of Christmas stockings for my nieces and nephews. I’ve put up with it’s persnickety habit of eating the bobbin thread (I think it is currently jammed). It’s been well kept. Well loved.

We moved into this house 12 years ago, and that’s about the last time I used this machine. No room, for one thing. It’s a pain to set up on the kitchen table and have to work around the project. Then, it ate the bobbin thread, again. And I moved on to other projects. Bought other machines that my girls ended up with because they liked sewing more than I do. I’ve been without a second sewing machine for around 6 years now.

Until this past week, when I finally picked out my Christmas present from my husband. I was going to purchase the one that is a step above this one, but the store was out of that model, and – really – I don’t need anything fancier than this. This does more that the Featherweight and I’ve decades of sewing on that!

(On a side note: the water color on the wall came from my Grandmother’s estate. I painted it for her in the early years of my marriage, a gift for Grandmother’s Day.)

I spent the better part of this weekend deciding where I wanted to set up a sewing station and getting motivated to do the work necessary to create that area. I have too much junk. My first sewing project will be to sew a dust cover for it (and, yes, I know how to do that, even without the DIY instructions off the Interwebs. It’s the kind of sewing I excel at: making up my own ideas).

Second project: new curtains for the 1971 VW Van.

Third project: long skirt for Ren Faire dressup. I’ll need to actually purchase a pattern for that. And all the notions.

For a little perspective: the Featherweight set up in front of the new Singer. The new Singer – all plastic – weighs about the same as the Featherweight, and has a carry handle for convenience, so it’s a win-win situation.

I actually look forward to sewing.