New Technology and Old Sewing Machines

I was paging through the latest Joanns circular the other day and noticed they are now selling these (list price $599.00):

I have no need for a 3D printer and no plans to get one, but I thought it was interesting that they have become mainstream enough to sell at Joann Fabrics.

I follow a woman up in Edmonton who has done some great YouTube videos on sewing machine repair under the name ArchaicArcane. She also has a Facebook page, and she posted there last week about having made a replacement needle plate for a customer’s vintage Kenmore using her CAD program and 3D printer. (I suspect her model is a bit more sophisticated than the ones Joanns is selling.) On that particular Kenmore model, there is a separate needle plate that fits into the throat plate. It can be flipped around for either straight-stitch sewing with a small needle hole or zig-zag sewing with a wider opening. Many times, that needle plate goes missing or it’s so chewed up as to be useless. She successfully made a replacement needle plate for her customer’s machine.

Making replacement parts for vintage sewing machines has long been a topic in the vintage sewing machine groups I frequent. The problem is that even if your mother owns a metal stamping plant and could—theoretically—make just about any part you needed, the quantities are so small as to be impractical. A 3D printer is a way around that, and I expect to see more hard-to-find parts coming to market as the price of these printers comes down.

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Vittorio, my Necchi BF, got a workout yesterday. We listened to sewing podcasts and ran up apron pieces.

I am getting a lot of use out of the two French terry Nancy Raglans I have made so far. The second one is out of some royal blue French terry that I ordered from Raspberry Creek Fabrics. The fabric was a bit of a disappointment, which is always a risk when ordering fabric online. I always wash and dry my fabric before sewing with it, even if I plan to line dry the garment when it’s finished. (Very little of my RTW wardrobe goes into the dryer because I have trouble finding garments that are long enough to begin with.) When this fabric came out of the dryer, it was stiff and rough and had picked up thousands of little pieces of white lint. It was almost too ugly to sew with. I went ahead and made the top and washed it again when it was finished, although I line dried it instead of putting it in the dryer. It came out somewhat softer and much less linty. I probably won’t buy fabric from that line again, however, and that’s too bad because it comes in all the bright jewel tones that I love.

I also bought a length of some heathered pink French Terry from Raspberry Creek. That fabric is by a different manufacturer and it feels much nicer. I haven’t sewn with it yet, but I am not expecting any problems. And I can safely say that while the coverstitch machine and I are not yet BFFs, we are well past the awkward new friend stage.

I am intrigued by this new design from Closet Case Patterns:

It’s called the Sienna Maker Jacket. Do I need a jacket? Not really, but I like this design. And I like the idea of wearing something like this instead of an apron when I am sewing, although it’s rather akin to wearing a chef’s hat while cooking dinner. After all, I am not working in a studio with other creatives. It’s just me and the dogs here. We’ll see. I may put it on the list. I especially like the closure even though I usually have trouble with anything belted. My torso is long enough that my natural waist doesn’t fall at the spot where belts are usually placed. I’d probably have to adjust that. The pattern also includes a cropped, non-belted version of the jacket, but cropped and I don’t get along for the same reason that belts are an issue. The proportions aren’t flattering for my shape.

I managed to find some sew-in industrial 2” wide Velcro, so fixing the husband’s gaiters is on the list for today. We got several inches of snow yesterday afternoon. I had gone upstairs to sew after lunch—and all of our windows are covered with insulated curtains, so I can’t see outside—and when I came down to make dinner, the landscape was completely white. He did say that it is wonderful having a “shed” to store all of his equipment in so he’s not shoveling snow off every morning.