Elna TOP 300 for more machine fun...

Machines. They are so siren song loaded. I have just been gifted with two more of the type of machine I love - the bottom line of a good brand. The first one is an Elna TOP 300, which proves elusive to find info and pictures of here in the US, as all the pics I can find are in Europe or Australia and New Zealand. I think the Elnas were not sold here nearly as much in the early 90s, or late 80s. This machine does date back to the early 90s, and looked like a wreck in the thrift shop. I saw it is the Seattle area in May, but passed on it due to the looks and felt it wouldn't be worth taking home. But my hubby returned from his trip out West with this in tow. Apparently all the parts that they could remove they had removed and had at the counter, including the bobbin area cover and the feet. It was missing the regular sewing foot - Zigzag foot. And the original owner had never removed the protective film from the from as you should upon opening the box and removing the machine! SO it had a ratty look from bits of the film coming loose and so on. After some work with Goo-Gone and warm moist dishcloth the looks were improved radically, and then I saw that someone had somehow crimped the shank oddly and I needed a ZZ foot anyway. Having a family of machines of the same general manufacturer comes in handy, as I had an extra shank or two I wasn't using from Janomes, and a foot as well. Luckily one of the shanks and feet fit and I don't need them for other machines, so now she has a new foot and a new shank. As to sewing. The stitch selection dial is a bit wonky, as the detents are no longer lining up perfectly with the numbers, but that isn't relaly too much of a problem. You can, and I always do anyway, do a test stitching first, so if you didn't put it on the correct stitch you will soon realize that. It sews nicely and with the correct shank uses Janome feet of course, as it is a Janome made Elna. Janome shanks do differ among models now too. This one use the red button shank as does my Janome 11510 (Kenmore 19110). I tried all the stitches and made a buttonhole. I do like 4 step buttonholes and this baby does a nice one. I may rehome this machine in months to come, as I have plenty of machines, but it is really an appealing machine with useful stitches. If you should come across one in the St. Vincent De Paul store near you, don't be afraid. This one sat on the shelf there for almost a full 5 months unwanted and unloved. Now she is clean and working and much happier. I may not have mentioned that the little wick under the bobbin case needed a drop of oil. That's it, although there are two places inside the cover in the workings as well, and those are now oiled too. This is an all mechanical machine.

Cloned McCalls 2208 from Lutterloh Shirt...

My modification of a Lutterloh basic shirt pattern to emulate McCalls 2208. Unfortunately the pattern itself was so difficult to try and alter to fit me that I just decided to modify the neckline of my TNT Lutterloh shirt to look like the McCalls. It didn't take too much. I cut a nice facing for the entire neckline after folding back the neckline of the Lutterloh pattern and tracing the resultant neckline from the bottom of one edge to the bottom of the other. I had to make a back facing and two front to shoulder facings. Made them nice and wide and that was a good idea. Sewed up well and fitting was good. I wanted it high enough to wear as a shirt or as a jacket. The buttons are nice shaded grey-brownish ones I got on sale at Joanns last year.
The fabric is postage stamps I got on sale several years ago at our wonderful local fabric shop now gone. A print like this requires a plain no-nonsense pattern if you don't want to look really busy. Here is the picture of the McCalls again to compare.  The neckline is a bit lower than I wanted mine to be, and I think the whole project turned out well. I have also finished the tropical print skirt but no pictures yet. I am behind in my pics-for-blogging. Have been working on the quilt as well, and finished all the blocks.

Paper Pieced Strips and Sewing Plans...

Right now, the project I am starting is a Strip Quilt which my Craftsy class with Pepper Cory calls the Phone Book Quilt. But I don't want to use phone book paper and I wanted 12x12 inch blocks, so I cut them from tracing paper with a matte finish, which is very light and removable when the time comes. So far I have several blocks - it is addicting and fun to strip paper piece them. I have the fabric already - my quilting stash isn't huge, but it will make several quilts I am sure! So, this one will be 6' by 5' when done and a bit more for the binding. Half dark and half light blocks diagonally.  I may have to cut more strips but that's O.K. I have the materials to do that. I am taking my time.

In the meantime, I may just cut out this McCall's pattern. I have admired it for a long time, and finally bought it - it dates from the late 90s I think, but they still have it for sale in the stores. I can see why as it is very basic. I love that the neckline is not encumbered with a collar, and that it could be adapted to either a top or a jacket. No law against making longer sleeves either. Might even try that pants pattern.  I have fabric for the top as a top, not a jacket, and I do not have fabric for matching pants, although I could of course buy some. Time will be the constraint here, as I really like working on the quilts better now. Plans, though, we must have plans. Always better to have lots in mind to do than nothing at all to occupy our minds. Happy Sewing!

Quilt for Constance Complete...

My doll Constance Evelda was given to me on the Christmas of my third year. She still lives with me, and had herself spa treated by my Mama in her doll hospital back it the late 1980's.  I have never made her anything in all those years, as she had lots of clothes at first, being size real baby, and as I was practicing with this little quilt, I decided it should be hers. She is pretty happy about it I can tell you, as that means a time out on the deck with a nice wrap to keep the breeze at bay.  This was a fun little quilt, and I learned that I need a lot more contrast in an Attic Window pattern. So many ideas are twirling around in my head - the next three quilts are taking shape in my mind, one being another try at a real Attic Quilt with contrast that gives the correct depth. I ran across a nice used quilting book in Third Place Books in Seattle. The book is Perfect Patchwork : the Sew Easy Way, by Margaret H. Nichols. More important than her sewing method is her planning method and the way every design is made from rectangle and triangle basic block forms. Combining these forms to make some designs that usually are not done that way is really a treat. The book approaches quilting a little differently - no pattern templates - you use measurement and I even think I will change whatever measurements to whatever I want to do. She provides empty planning sheets of various types that can be copied and used to plan your own quilts. Attic Window is one of the planned block setups in the book.  There is a lot to read in this book, and I think for the price I paid, I will more than get my monies worth!  I have also been buying quilting magazines in a relentless attempt to see if one or more would be worth subscribing to. Presently I do get Modern Quilting Unlimited, which is really a nice magazine, but I find a year of one is all I need. So now I am trying various other publications, and reporting on them will be upcoming here. So far, QUILT and McCall's Quilting are coming out on top.  In the Craftsy Class on Scrappy Quilting with Pepper Cory, I really was taken with the paper pieced strip quilt, and so the next one I want to make is going to be that very thing. I have loads of seasonal curtains I used to use on my front door and they are all cotton and are all going into the scrappy strip quilt. More planning on that later.