Bargains and Craftsy Love

I headed back to JoAnn Fabrics on Saturday. I had another 50% off and 25% off coupon. This is what I came home with.

I had been looking for a good way to store my sewing threads. I used to have a couple of those thread holders that hang on your wall but thread that is out and uncovered is a dust magnet. I needed a way to keep the thread clean while still being able to see the colors. I found these nifty double-sided, clear cases, above. They each hold twice the amount of thread shown. Two of them were almost enough to hold my entire collection. I did go back on Sunday and pick up a third since they were still priced at 50% off. Saturday I used my 50% off coupon to buy that little sleeve sized ironing board. It will come in handy for pressing smaller items, like bags.

Sunday the husbeast and I began to clean up my Kenmore model 51. I want to eventually (hopefully soon) place this machine into a treadle base and make it people powered.

We spent about an hour freeing up the feed dog mechanism. First I un-stuck the knob that should lower the dogs. I got the knob to move but nothing else happened. The feed dogs refused to budge. The oil had turned to varnish and they were glued in one position. The husbeast finally got them back into working order. Now they drop as intended. Today we got the tension assembly fixed. Someone before us had dismantled it and put it back together out of order and also managed to get the tension knob on crooked. I feared the shaft was bent but we lucked out. I located the proper schematic and we got it back together correctly.

Here is the wonky knob before:

And here it is all fixed.

We make a pretty good sewing machine repair team. Today I will start cleaning and lubing the upper workings. I am anxious to see if the cams I bought will work in here.

I also want to put in another positive plug for Craftsy.com. I have signed up for many of their courses but there was one that I just couldn't watch. Something about the instructor's speech mannerisms drove me up the wall. Like nails on a chalkboard. The nice folks at Craftsy allowed me to trade that course for another. I chose the wax resist dyeing class. I hope to create some lovely batik fabrics using my bees wax. Darn it, I gave away all of my cellulose dyes. I didn't think I'd have a need for dyeing cottons. Oh well, I know where to get more.