A new starter with hobbies other than Facebook

Facebook, that is our age group. At least for the ones that left newsnet. Good to see that the interests are proper. Better not be cheeky to him. My 8 year old daughter went to kickboxing three times. To pass time on christmas day I offered to spar. My wrist was better by easter.

Better hobbies than dressmaking and knitting I suppose. Bill

The mother is a beautician with her own salon and is young enough to be my daughter.

ARW snipped-for-privacy@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote

Likely not a great idea to rev that one up.

Perhaps she is?

But, will you?

What's wrong with dressmaking and knitting?

Both involve practical skills and understanding written instructions.

And you are in no place to criticise knitting - we've all seen your cardigans.

Owain

Owain Lastname snipped-for-privacy@gowanhill.com wrote

Yes.

Not necessarily with the best of them.

Unlikely he actually knitted them himself.

I borrowed a sewing machine to make up some cushion covers. Spent some time with the instructions and setting it up. Utterly baffled. Partner just plonked herself down and it was done in minutes.

I'm not sure I could cope with a modern one, with all the fancy stitches, but I still have my mother's treadle operated machine and that was simple to use.

My impression is that new machines can turn sewing thread into a complete rat’s nest much faster than the old manual (or motorised manual) machines. ;-)

Tim

I bought a fairly new one to do my curtains.

Id used machines before back in the 60s and 70s but there were some tricks of the trade I hadn't learnt. Like when using thick heavy fabric use a top quality hardened steel BIG needle so the material doesn't bend the needle and either shear the thread off or snap the needle.

Took me a long time to puzzle that one out. Lacking an overlocker I found one sort of anti-fray edging stitch on hte machine that worked well on un-seamed edges.

I did also make some button holes with the button stitching thing

But all went well in the end.

You dont NEED to use all the fancy stitches. Its enough to get a plain stitch properly tensioned and working.

That's the first challenge - right needle, right thread, right tension - the fancy stuff is simply variations on a theme.

Eh?

Brian

Its trivial to just leave that switch in the simple stitch position.

You'd be wrong, as always.

Similar to computerised accountancy.

Owain

Or modern programming languages in the wrong hands. Or for that matter Photoshop, Excel etc etc

Just look at the way Bunter was photoshopped out of that picture of the duff rocket down in Cornwall leaving a massive gap in the picture.

I've got a hand turned one. A Singer, and likely 100 years old. Cost 15 shillings in a secondhand shop. Bought it to make a new Webasto sun roof for an old Jaguar. Vinyl. Which it did easily. And it's been fine for the pretty rare other jobs I've used it for.

Like mine from the 1950s you mean? Plenty of stitches, but no electronics - you set the stitch by inserting a Bakelite disc.

I have the same model my mother had. I've made some curtains with it, I mean to develop my treadling skill but it's a table in the corner with stuff on it and my other machine is easier to get to.