Stuff like fail more miserably at a hill start than usual to the point where I stopped half an inch away from rolling into a mo-ped. Half. An. Inch. I shake my own head in shame at my fail. My dad would disown me, I'm sure.
And more stuff like clean my room and vacuum. I have a floor in my bedroom now! Mind you, I was a bit worse for wear yesterday after all that vacuuming. Housework is bad for your health!
And I bought this:
Photo from original eBay auction page.
Advertised as a Singer sewing table without an attached machine, it's actually a Gritzner with a machine that someone has taken to with an angle grinder. It makes me cranky. Not that I have a broken machine with my table - I bought the table on the understanding that it would need some TLC and it was sans machine.
What makes me cranky is how someone has deliberately butchered a beautiful piece of history. I've dated this machine and the table to between 1901-1921. It's supposed to look like this:
And instead it looks like this:
Let me list the faults, the most obvious one being what I call the drive wheel. The bobbin holder on the top of the machine has been grounddown, one of the spool pins has been cut down and there's skid marks where the grinder has hit the top of the machine in the process, there's a crack in the casing close to the remaining spool pin, the needle clamp and presser foot is bent inwards and the bobbin cover has been bent down to make it near impossible to open. And that's just what I can see.
To whomever is responsible; I want to shake you, slap you upside the head, and hit your most useful parts with an angle grinder. Is that any way to treat your elders? This machine been through wars! You should be ashamed of yourself.
How can people have no sense of history or respect for property, especially when it's been around for so long? Tell me, gentle readers, because I would really like to know.
3 comments:
Heh - I learned to sew on an old treadle singer - I think it was originally my great-Grandmother's. It's currently doing duty as a side table at Mum and dad's place, but only needs the belt replaced to be in working order.
I have a semi-butchered machine as well, not as damaged as yours though. I don't much get it either, I would have thought if they didn't want the machine, they'd just rip it out.
it occurred to me a while back that maybe they were trying to modify it to work with more modern bobbin and thread attachments that have since been ripped off again... but I can't be sure. its the only reason you'd try to hack bits off. unless they were hacked off to try and mend another machine, perhaps.
Autumnheart - if only the repairs to this little beauty were as simple as replacing the belt! Miss Dawn said she learnt on her gran's old treadle as well, which she is taking possession of soon. Those old Singer sewing tables aren't as rare as I thought!
Speedy - pulling apart an old machine to fix another one like new, I get. Makes sense. My dad did that to cars all the time. Still doesn't explain the sorry state of my poor machine!
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