The New Beast

We. Lucked. Out.

This is my Husqvarna Viking 6440, made in 1975, and after three hours, most of a bottle of Triflow, and the Owlvark's meticulous nature, it is the proverbial well-oiled machine. This model was intended to be permanently self-oiling, "permanently" being the 25 years it was under warranty, and as such is made of sintered metal as far as the moving parts go, so when the machine is warm, the oil expands out of the gaps and onto the places it needs to be. It does, however, dry up eventually, and if the machines aren't used regularly they tend to freeze up solid and can be broken by trying to force them through. We were lucky and the one we got was only stiff, not frozen, and I had been doing my research beforehand so we knew exactly what to do with it. With knowledge gained from the Yahoo Group for pre-1980's Viking sewing machines, which is moderated by a retired Viking repairman, and a .pdf file of the maintenance manual, I took it apart and the Owlvark went to work with the Triflow while I reglued the various bits of the case that had been broken by someone with not enough patience to locate all the screws. After a thorough oiling and hand-turning, the formerly stiff unhappy machine is now running as though it had just been made yesterday. It is a joy to sew on. The gearing ratio is 5 to 1, which lets it power through just about anything you can conceivably think of sewing, it a has a low gear that gives you all the power at a fifth of the speed, to let you do precision work without losing power, and, thanks to an ingenious set of interchangeable cams, it has around two dozen stitches besides straight and zigzag. The reverse is button-controlled and works like a dream. I made one heavy drape this afternoon, which it motored through as though I was asking it to sew butter and not four layers of corduroy and wool, and only stopped because I broke the needle- apparently I still have my childhood habit of unconsciously trying to pull the material through instead of letting the feed dogs do the work. (I'll get over it with a bit more practice.) It turned out to have been for the better; the needle it came with was actually the wrong one. So we made a trip out to Joann Fabrics (which was helpfully having a massive sale on notions) and bought a normal needle assortment (it uses a very standard size, thankfully) some leather needles, some bobbins (there's a company that actually does facsimile bobbins for old Viking, Pfaff, and Bernina machines, respectively) and, since they were having a good sale on cloth, we picked up a few odds and ends for me to practice on. The new needle works great (which it should, considering that it's proper one) and I'm looking forward to finishing off the drapes before the cold weather hits. And all the other interesting projects that will come up for it.

So, I got ahold of a used sewing machine over the weekend, which was excellent, as I've been hand-sewing everything for a while now. I don't mind hand sewing, and I even enjoy it on small projects, but since I'm putting together heavy drapes for the windows (I'm trying to keep the gas bill down this year...) stitching by hand just isn't the answer. And I always enjoyed machine sewing as well; Bummy started teaching me when I was very young, and I was reminded again of how much fun it was when I did a quick job putting together a sash for my wedding dress.

Sadly, the machine I got didn't last; we took it apart and oiled it first thing, worked the gears by hand to make sure they weren't frozen, and did pretty much everything you cando without specialized knowledge, and I managed one drape before the motor started to fail. The Owlvark (who has his own blog now, by the way) figures that there was something inside the motor that was frozen or rusted, which it had to work against, and finally gave up after being under too much load. By the end of the drape I managed to get done it was definitely struggling.

Currently, I'm browsing the 'net looking at new sewing machines. Well, new to me, anyway, as I keep finding older used models that look much more useful than new ones do. I don't need a machine with a computer in it; I need it to do some very basic sewing, not perform complex equations, and there's less to go wrong the less complicated it is. Also, I find the older models more aesthetically pleasing, although that's only a minor point. I'm quite liking the Husqvarnas that I've seen so far; there's actually a local dealer in Erie, but unless they do used ones I may browse Ebay a while longer.

I threw a couple more photos up on Deviant

...I'd been thinking about Cam again lately- well, more than usual, I suppose. I really need to get the pics printed out so I can make that album for him.

Another great thing about futon mattresses- when they get compressed from sleeping on them, even with the weekly flipping and rolling, it's recommended that you beat them. With a plank, tennis racket, or, in my case, a wooden katana, since that's the sturdiest thing I could find around the house. And you know what? It works great! It's also pretty fun as well.

Clean Room

Well, not so much that you have to wear suits and static strips, but still.

I has a sushi!

Workdesk of Order

More or less.

Workdesk of Chaos

Gee, I wonder why I haven't gotten any work done lately...

I have made my bed

...Now I must lie in it. W00t!

So there was a pretty good sale at Michael's today, and although I went in originally for origami paper (didn't find any, either, grr...) I did, as usual, come out with about three times the amount of stuff I went after. I did get a couple of good things from the Christmas sales (a cool faux berry wreath and two lovely glass ornaments) and I found two scrapbooking albums on a good sale. I am not really much into scrapbooking, certainly not one of those people that will scrapbook every single episode of their life, from watching TV to walking down the street, but I've wanted to make a decent one for Cameron for quite a while, and the sale finally prompted me to do it (and the discovery of a good-sized album that was not a somber cover. WTF is up with all the charcoal/navy/black albums out there? I'm well aware he's gone, I don't need reminders...) Also, I got an oversized one for the eight months I spent in the UK, as I figure that was definitely an adventure worth recording. It'll give me something to do, which is good. Now, I have to go and print out about a hundred photos from Wegmans...

Skully Puppet

Eight tubes of superglue later, along with an entire bulk pack of beads, sculpey, various odds and ends, an entire series of Blackadder, a season of Black Books, and all the cutscenes and shorts from Sam And Max: Season One, and here it is, the first Skully Puppet. It's as sinister looking as I could have asked for and is alarmingly fun to play with. Haven't come up with a name yet, but I'm sure one will turn up.

Edited; I took some better photos with Grey's camera...

Skully Puppet

Bottom jaw is beaded and whole skull is now attached and secured to the center pole. The poles for the hands are ready, and the hands themselves are ready for beading. Once that's finished, I stitch the body together, and hey presto, it'll be done. Photos to follow.

Skully Puppet

The beading is done on the upper portion of the skull now, and tomorrow I'll start in on the beading of the lower jaw. The jaws will open and shut by means of a cord when I'm all finished.

Work on the first Skully Puppet continues. I've got about 70% of the beads on the main skull now, which is a bit of a relief. The round beads are going on about five to ten at a time, which isn't bad. I can only work on it with lots of breaks, though, because the amount of superglue involved is staggering (three and a half tubes now and counting) and even with all the doors and windows open the fumes are fairly unpleasant. It's the gold spiky beads that I'm putting off, though, as they have to be glued down individually, which is going to take a while. The lower jaw still needs doing, and I have to pick up some seed beads (and more glue!) for the hands. Still, I think it's going to look fairly awesome when it's done.

(Not the world's best picture, I realize, but it's taken on my backup [read: six year old] camera.)

Current Project: Owlvark

Owlvark, pre-baking; made from professional (i.e. non-tinted) Sculpey over a wadded tinfoil base. The wings are built over two inch wood screws set into the foil, and the lower wing feathers are held with copper wire. Eventually he'll be typing on a computer, hence his "Braaaains!" stance.



Owlvark, post-baking; the feathers all survived without drooping or burning, which I was worried about. Next phase- painting.