Sunday, August 16, 2009

The Rocketeer (and friends)

As you can see from the previous blog, sadly out of date, I have made one buttonhole. With my Janome 6600P. I was not thrilled with it, my practice buttonholes were not uniform even using the automatic buttonhole thing. So I have put off making the many buttonholes for my Advance jacket below.

Then I started coming across references to the very cool Singer Rocketeer. As if the looks of that beauty (the Jetsons!) wasn't enough, I then read on various blogs (Debbie Cook's and Gigi's) that these make stupendous buttonholes with the special attachments. Actually, the older generation straight stitch sewing machines.So to eBay I went, and now if am the proud owner of two Singer 503s and a 500. Here is a picture of the 500, shot at a rakish angle:


Then I found a white Featherweight. It is love.

The auction included the two-tone celery case, which looked to be in good shape, but sadly the packing was not very good and the case is coming apart at the sides, which is tearing the celery cover apart. Me sad. Here is what it should have looked like:

I won't post a picture of what it looks like now. Look how big the spool of thread is compared to the machine! It is so cute, looks like a toy but sews a great straight stitch.

A Singer 15-91 is on its way well, with beautiful matching cabinet. I'll post pics and when I get it all set up. In the meantime, you can read all about it here: http://blog.sew-classic.com/2008/10/05/singer-1591-sewing-machine-review.aspx

Ebay is a very dangerous place. My justification? These all cost much less than my Janome 6600, which I may just sell. The Singers are built like tanks, I can maintain them myself, they are just a blast to sew with. (Still have to make a buttonhole.) Then again, my 6600P is very quiet. And when it eventually breaks, I've got my Singers!

Back to my Hot Patterns Great White Shirt, which I am using for my PatternReview Build a Better Blouse with Shannon Gifford. So far, so good. In fact, an amazing easy blouse to fit, much easier than the Vogue bodice sloper that I worked on a few months ago. I think I do need a bit more room where the front bodice joins the sleeves at the lower armscye, but close enough for version 1.

Plenty of opportunities to play with the Singer Professional Buttonholer.

Back to sewing!

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