Not quite a dumpster dive.

Today on the way home from running errands with my mom and the boys I saw the familiar shape of a sewing machine tucked in the grass by the side of the road. I couldn't stop in time, but I made a u-turn and went back for it and upon stopping saw the homeowner in the yard. I asked if I could take this home, he said yes. I asked if it worked, he said, "I don't believe it do!"
I decided that for free I would just have to see about that so I brought it home. It had all kinds of bug guts, spider webs, plant debri, dust, dirt, fibers, grease, and who knows what else on it but I stuck it in the minivan for the short trip to my mom's house. Once there I grabbed a plastic bag to encase it just in case. After what I found inside I'm glad I did. More about that later.
It's a Singer Model 237 Fashion Mate. It was made in Monza, Italy between 1968 and 1972. The specific date of manufacture is not available for this Singer manufacturing location. It has straight stitch, and zig zag, forward and reverse. It seems in the vintage sewing community some swear by it's reputation for satin stitch.
Anyway after I got home and settled the boys for lunch/naps I plugged it in and what do you know, it worked! It was a little sluggish from the gunk inside, a little crunchy sounding too. Also the motor bolt was loose as was the light bolt so both of those were rattling around a bit, but since it powered up and moved I decided it was worth cleaning. I need the practice for a little eBay "treasure" coming later this week I hope. So I patiently waited until after dinner and started pulling off whatever I could. I took off the motor and light assembly with power cords, top and side covers, and bobbin race. The rest I pretty much left in tact. Somewhere around the time I pulled off the top cover I found a suprise inside. Dealt with that, then moved on to a deep cleaning, rinsing, blow drying, then lubrication and oiling.
She runs so nice and quiet! I still need a bobbin and bobbin case to see for sure if she will sew, and some rust remover to treat a few areas, but overall I'm really happy with how the restoration of my happenstance find worked out!
Hindsight being 20/20 I should have taken a before picture from when I first brought it home. the sm had been brushed off externally and somewhat wiped down with Lysol wipes before the first picture was taken.

Motor and Light back on after the cleaning! 

Here's the case I picked up at Value Village for $3.99 after my find! It's just about perfect and like new! I may get a board to put under the machine to boost it up so that it's level with the lip on the case base.

What a clean sewing machine innard! 

inside the top after cleaning! No more grime! 

After cleaning, the bottom. 

end cover off! 

top cover off, look at that filth! 

One of my yahoo groups that discusses fixing sewing machines just had a discussion about how of all things found in old sewing machines spider bodies are in abundance. . .
well after getting off the top and end covers I was about to stick my finger in when I saw this little lady staring back at me. I shreiked, jumped back, called Rocky and he proceeded to try to get her out to kill her. She deceptivly jumped down, then ran and hid in the case base until about three seconds after this picture was taken at which point her life ended. I thank her for killing the rest of the bugs and spiders that inhabited this machine so that I only had to kill one! For those of you who aren't familiar with spiders or cannot discern her markings this is a Black Widow poisonous spider.

Charmie cutting

We started schooling kind of officially. . . I've been of the impression that we have been homeschooling since the boys were born, but I was not sure if I would continue or try to put them into a preschool or private/christian school when they became older. I've been frantically gathering information and am FULLY onboard with homeschooling and it's benefits for our family. I'm fully motivated to do it and though I am scared and may have doubts, committed.
So. . . here's one of our first lessons; cutting. Charmie has not been allowed to have scissors up until this point. He loved cutting. We will have to have more projects with cutting in the future. I drew some lines on paper after he got more comfortable with holding the scissors and cutting the brown craft foam and he did very well cutting along the lines. I was impressed with his ability for his first time handling scissors. 

Where superhero costumes come from

Rocky and I will be serving at our denomination's camp www.carolinacamp.com this year and we are going to be working with the pre-teen campers and mini campers. . . kids under 12! Our theme is going to be superhero camp. We are going to show them hero's in the Bible and lead up to telling them about Jesus, the greatest superhero of all time. One of the messages we are going to teach them about the Armor of God and then let them build their own superhero costume. You can't have a superhero costume without a cape so I had to make them before camp. Here are the 61 capes. My mommy helped with cutting them out and I serged them all. Whew, that's my sewing for a couple of days. . . 

My Hero

Here's my mommy trying on the last cape and look, her super powers are making it kick up a little in the wind!
THANKS SO MUCH MOMMY FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP AND SUPPORT. YOU are always a SUPERHERO in my book!!!!!! 

Astronaut Charmie

Earlier before running errands Rocky put on a baseball cap, of course the boys had to have one to wear as well. Charmie decided to put his on backwards like this and promptly told me he was Astronaut Charmie! I think he was thinking that it was like looking through the face mask or something but I couldn't resist taking these shots. 

shot #2. 

of course whatever big brother Charmie does, little brother Mardie has to imitate. 

as is

I know that this is a few messy shots, but it's a response to Karina's shout out for all the "as is" areas out there. Sk's hat is off, my stuff is in transition from my class and here's my "new" used yet comfy chair that we picked up this weekend from a side of the road place that had tons of office stuff from the Pillotex mills that closed. The plan is to clean and re-cover it in true Ray sewing room hat style.(Or something that goes with the theme) The cost of $10 made it just too good to pass by for this kind of chair.

what you're looking at here is pretty usual for my room. . .that is except for the piles of fabric in front of the bins. Just haven't made the time to fold them properly to store them away. . .btw, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my carpet flick for this room. It's awesome for picking up scraps of fabric and thread clippings and there's no "brush" to get the threads tangled around. I've used mine like 5 times and still don't need to change the pad to get it to pick up stuff in one pass. If you don't have one, look for a online coupon and get one. . . they are worth every penny imho.

Ironing area/baker's rack. from top to bottom Singer 758 Golden Touch-n-sew that no-one has seen other than Rok, BK, new digital iron that's inspiring me to iron, and cutting mat covered with some embroidered patches that i haven't blogged and a million scraps from my last few projects. I haven't taken the time to get them into the scrap bin.Oh and the corner of my messy desk. Mind you Rocky and I are in the middle of planning for Chapel messages and worship for a week of camp for pre-teens so we've got junk in the office now that won't be cleared for a while like the camp manual on the end of my ironing board. . .

going up. . .
blogger has been making me do word verification for the last 10 posts, probably because I've made so many posts tonight. . . I cannot blog anymore. I'm done. You are just going to have to wait for the rest of the pictures of our cabin and this museum that we are in called WonderWorks.
i'm done, nighty nite. 

coming down