When I was 14 my grandmother gave me a reconditioned sewing machine. I mentioned her in my previous aprons post in regards to her kitchen and cooking. She also had a dedicated craft room. It had heaps of materials, a sewing machine, hobbytex and goodness what else. She taught me how to knit and crochet. I don’t know that she taught me how to sew but I got this sewing machine from her nonetheless.
In any case, my mum was a good sewer and, her mum, my Nana, had been a dressmaker back in her day so I had a lot of people I could go to for advice.
I’ve kept that sewing machine all these years and a lot of house moves. It’s bloody heavy so it’s not easy to cart around but it’s very handy when I need to do a little project. I haven’t used it to make something from scratch for a long time.
It’s a Necchi Supernova Ultra and was brand new in about the 1950s. I barely do any maintenance on it so it’s a miracle it still works.
My most recent project was to resize some retro curtains I bought a few months ago for my laundry. The curtains I found were the correct width, but about 20cm too long. I measured, and pinned and it was very handy having the stripe in the fabric to keep things in line.
I realised as I was pinning, that I could use what was the current hem as a tie for each curtain because I don’t want them closed all the time and I didn’t need to do extra sewing to create them.
I’m pretty happy with the finished product. The length is good and the ties worked out a treat.
I also fixed up a gorgeous dress I bought recently. Photos to come of that one.