Singer 66: Cleaning and Sanding

We made some progress cleaning up the Singer 66 the weekend before Thanksgiving. Andrew sanded down all of the wood surfaces, while I began cleaning the machine head. It was somewhat cold then, but not nearly as cold as it is now. The back porch is not insulated, but is warmer than just being outside. Plus, the table weighs about one billion pounds; no one was volunteering to carry it downstairs and then up again! :)

Sanding

 The finish came off pretty easily since the table is so old and had been sitting in a basement for so long.

 Andrew did a great job evening out the finish. He was able to put on two coats of stain, but we haven't finished that part up yet, so no pictures.

 Meanwhile, I was sitting at the dining room table cleaning the machine with sewing machine oil. I decided to start with the bottom and work my way up. It was pretty grimy, but the machine moves and the parts turn. I just removed screws and cleaned it up with my toothbrush, some cheesecloth and the oil.

Before the scrubbin'

After the scrubbin'

Though it may not look monumentally different, I took off a LOT of black gunk and goop. 

Then, Thanksgiving and being super tired last weekend got in the way, but I hope this weekend we can maybe finish this up! Next Friday we will be in Oregon to visit my parents for Xmas! Yay!

The Vogue Coat- Actual Progress?!?

Here is a post where I lamented my lack of progress on my vintage Vogue 775. It chronicles the years that have passed since I bought that beautiful pattern at an estate sale in Oregon. The wool came from Mood in New York later and I managed to do a muslin and cut and underline all of the pieces before we moved to Chicago, ahem, two and a half years ago. 

Finally, a week or so before Thanksgiving, I finally started sewing the coat together. Having made a muslin, it came together quickly and easily. 

 Sorry for the mediocre phone pictures, but I was just taking them to show my mom my progress. I have the shell completed, but I am currently debating the addition of the cuffs and the double collar. I think they may look a tad costumey. That will be for a later post.

 It has that cool button detail where the buttons make an inverted V, but I still need to find 15 buttons to do that. I saw these as Jo-Ann and I might consider them. They are made to look like vintage brass buttons and are metal. I think they would maybe look nice with the blue.

Hopefully I will find some buttons and a lining that I like and maybe finish this coat THIS WINTER!

 Whoo hoo!

McCalls 6408: Red Sweater with Ties

I bought this pattern quite a while ago, maybe even a year ago, at one of Jo-Ann's 99 cent pattern sales. It is McCall's 6408 and it makes a sweater with or without ties at the waist and an angled hem. I went for view B, the girl in red: waist ties with a flat hem. Perhaps I am overly influenced by the cover photos, but I wanted a red sweater.

I bought some lightweight knit at Jo-Ann in a nice blue-red. Orangey reds look terrible with my skin, but sometimes it is hard to find a blue-red. Since it is fall/winter, there were a lot of knits from which to choose. 

This pattern is easy to make, since it only has five pieces: back, front, sleeve, band and ties. After making it and trying it on, the original length and the ties really made it look like a bathrobe. Plus, even though I cut an XS, it was really baggy. 

I have a similar sweater from Express, so I used that to cut it to a more suitable length. Now it hits just above my hip, and it looks much better.

Tied in the back

 I ended up cutting a bit off of the sleeves and narrowing the sleeves about an inch. It made the sweater look fitted instead of potato-sack-esque.

Unfortunately, my photographer-slave did not tell me it was all bunched up. 

 I did not hem the bottom or the sleeves, since it is a very light knit and I think it will just curl up a tiny bit. That is how my Express sweater-twin was "finished" so why not? My machine does not sew knit hems very professionally, so less is more this time.

Tied in the front.

 I also finally cut my hair right before parent teacher conferences. I saw this girl's haircut on Reddit and decided I liked it a lot. My hair is not as dramatically long, but it's in layers and goes into a point in the center back.

See, I did make something! Andrew and I have been working on the Singer 66, too, and I will post some project updates soon!

Exciting news for me!

Finally my paperwork is done and everything is finalized, so I can finally tell you all that I HAVE A TEACHING JOB! After so long! I am so, so happy.

I now work in Chicago at a regular neighborhood high school teaching French! It's the same place that I substitute taught for about a year and half. The French teacher retired suddenly (which is what I had been waiting for, TBH) and now I am the new permanent teacher. All of the paperwork and things took about a month and I was the "long-term sub" until everything was complete.

I taught World History before in Louisiana, so this will be my first time teaching French! So, Andrew found his new awesome job and then less than a month later I got my long-awaited teaching job. It has been a good autumn for us both!

While having a real job is more time consuming, I do have some projects to show you. It gets dark at like 4:30, so I have been waiting for the weekend to take pictures.

November Giveaway Winner!

Sorry for the late drawing! The winner of the November giveaway of four patterns for a 38 bust is....

Jenny!

She is a mom of three and has made some cute projects like the Squid and the Duck birthday party. So cute. Email me at mollysewsblog (akkkk) gmail.com

For December, in the spirit of the holidays, I am going to give away some actual things. Still sewing related of course, but more like the stuff I acquire at estate sales claiming I will sell on Etsy and then never do...
If you want to buy a Swirl wrap dress, I do have three listed right now. Probably fits a 34-36 bust, they are too big for me. :( for me, :) for you.

November Pattern Giveaway!!!

Here is November's giveaway. These patterns are from an estate sale a few weeks ago. While they don't fit me, they were too cute to pass up and now to pass them onto a good home!

There are four total and they are all a bust 38. Leave a comment to enter and I will choose a winner on Wednesday November 13! 

Advance 3030 has a circle skirt, vest and blouse with a bow at the neck.

Simplicity 5891 is such a pretty dress!

Butterick 2353 has a simple skirt suit and blouse.

Simplicity 3331 is a slightly weird 40s blouse and jumper outfit. 

I will ship them anywhere! Good luck!

Exciting news and a bit of estate sale loot

Andrew has found a very awesome new job that he loves and is also improving our quality of life in the money department, too! So we took the opportunity to purge his entire wardrobe and get new clothes ( and some for me too, don't worry!)

He hates shopping and I am not really a fan either. We counted back and the last time he got new clothes was two years ago, for his last "new" job, and then two years before that when he started business school, and then... so basically every two years or more. And that wasn't even a lot of clothes. 

So we took huge bags of clothes to the Village Thrift  to donate and now be both look much more adult! He of course gets to immediately wear his new threads and I have been on a super boring pants hemming marathon- only two more pairs to go! Sadly, even the petite pants need to be hemmed with the exception of my Gap petite jeans. A 28 inch inseam will do that, but I want everything to be ideal for flats- I am not teaching all day in heals.

That has been exciting for us the last few weeks, plus we went to visit friends in Nashville. I was sick and lost my voice, but it was so fun to see Steph and Steven!

Oh my gosh, plus his new job meant I got to quit working at the restaurant because if I have no income in the summer it is not a tragedy! That is monumentally awesome and now I get to have weekends again like a real person! So we have just been having great fun!

On to my estate sale loot:

This was from a disgustingly decrepit house in Rogers Park. It was so run down and dusty, it kind of makes me sad that an old person was living like that. In the kitchen, there was a hole in the wall by the floor and you could see into the basement. 

The advertised sewing patterns and there was some stuff left when we arrived. All of this was four dollars.

Two lengths of cotton flower prints and three cards of real pearl buttons. One card of cute, white plastic buttons.

The seven patterns were cheap, so why not? I am going to keep the super cute apron pattern and the ties. The clothes are for a 38 bust and they will be November's giveaway next week. The doll pattern is up in the air. 

So that's my life for about the last month! Hopefully I will sew soon, but now I want to fill actual gaps in my wardrobe and not just make crap to make it. 

Thanks for still reading! :)