An HVG Talent Swap

Remember a while back when Wild Kat and I decided to trade talents?  I'm pretty sure I got the better end of this deal.  A few weeks back, Wild Kat delivered my new and improved sewing machine.  Here's my traveling Singer decked out in gold metallic pinstriping!

I bought the machine for $12 because the mechanics underneath were completed rusted and seized.  No guarantees that it would ever sew another stitch.  The flywheel didn't move one iota.  But my fabulous grease monkey of a husband *tapped* it lovingly a few times with a hammer, loosened the crud, oiled the bageebees out of it, and viola! 

 

I figured out how to thread it, wound a bobbin (thank God it actually came with one!) and ran a few yards through her.  After a search on the serial number, I discovered this 99k was made in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania in 1957. 

Once we got everything freed up and sewing again, my husband stripped down the wooden case.  It had been covered with a vinyl fabric and was in bad shape.  He resurfaced the outside with some fiberglass resin to firm it up and sanded it down smooth.  He sprayed it with a coat of gloss black paint and replaced the handle with one from a copper wash boiler.  A metal latch on either side, and she's good to go.

Enter, Wild Kat.  She claims that she's still learning how to pinstripe, but I don't buy it. She added just the right amount.  Not too fancy, not too West Coast surf.  If Isaac Singer had known about pinstriping back in 1851, he would have done it this way.  It looks factory!

We're proof that the time honored barter system is still an effective tool today!  I'll knit your scarf; you stripe my sewing machine.  What could be better?