Singer 114W103

Here are some up-close photos of the mid-30s chainstitcher that I'm tuning up. One interesting thing (especially compared to my Consew 104) is that the Singer Simanco mark & part number is stamped on most every piece of this machine. Dunno if this is true for the entire US run ... but you do see a lot of "Singers" coming from overseas w/o this stamp. Even the casting here has a Simanco mark.

Cool slotted nipple to better eject fuzz.

Wonder if this isn't stock or if all the needle plates were coming from GB at this time.

Whoops. Turns out the Singer's base is a little bigger than the Consew's. :)

Winter bazaar

I made a bunch of stuff for the winter Berlin Bazaar last December. It was fun.

Working on my tote bag game a bit. Pretty clean.

These are made from old street banners. Thanks, library!

Even got some stickers printed! Finally sat down and made a usable logo.

Even had a rubber stamp made.

 Cruisies.

Wallets/random-stuff pouches.

Did a bunch of patches. Enjoying the athletic felt from NNW: https://www.nationalnonwovens.com/Applications/arts/iden.html

Most of them are one-line designs. Dang Cancer, gotta be difficult...

Not the best lighting in Cafe Berlin ... should bring my own next time. (Would also have more time for photos if I wasn't cutting out patches up to doors opening.) :)

Backpack strap repair

Got a classic strap blowout here. Whenever you put a strap in a seam and don't tie it to an adjacent panel, it's very likely to pull the seam apart eventually, as it's done here:

This bag actually had some bartacks to tie the strap to the back panel. Unfortunately, the seam allowance that the straps are in is very small (1/2") relative to the thickness (it's lined and seam-taped, so there're ten layers at one point) and one bartack completely missed the end of the strap. The bartacks also weren't installed in a way that transferred the load from the strap to the back panel, so the seam failed anyway.

Other contributing factors: The thread is shit, and there weren't enough stitches per inch. Also, the fabric doesn't have the tightest weave, which helped it fray at the end and pull out of the stitches after the main seam failed.

Took everything mostly apart on the blown strap and resewed it, and reinforced the other strap. This pack is a fully padded camera bag so it was nice to have the post-bed machine. I had started sewing it on a flat-bed, but it got too hard to keep the bag in place.

 Finally, sewing the straps to the back panel.

Digging in the dirt

I guess I forgot to post this last year... One of the reasons I haven't been sewing more stuff lately is that I'm trying to focus on various home projects. We have an old-ass house and when the dudes put in the central-air ductwork however many decades ago they laid the ducts on the ground. Well, there's no vapor barrier in the crawlspace (yet), so the ducts now have holes in them. And the crawlspace is so tight, I have to remove dirt to get to where I need to go to fix the duct (I'm not pulling up the floor). It's a slow, exhausting process, and I tend to do it in the winter because overheating is an issue ... and all the animals that might be down there are slower. So, here's a video of me hauling out some dirt:

J-beetles tree cover

We've been getting Japanese beetles real bad here in Mid-Missouri for the last few years. They love our li'l plum tree (to death). I bought some big-bug netting to make a cover for it and have been making improvements on the design each year. Third year's the charm: finally made a 3D cover. I was hoping to make a rough cylinder shape but the netting is barely too small at 8-feet wide. [It probably would've been fine, but I wanted to make it big enough to get under and for growth.] So, I made a three-piece box ... which meant a ton of edge binding. The frame is made of 20-foot aluminum tent poles.

Like, 50-feet of binding ... getting rid of all that Sunbrella binding that I never use and old bobbin thread.

Bye, beetles! You can eat everything else, I guess.

Float Your Boat, take 3

Third time's the charm. Our cardboard boat, Boata Boxxx, earned first place in the food bank's fundraiser regatta. We might have to retire.

We pretty much did the same boat as last year but refined the prow and beefed up the gunwales. We also had seven people paddling!

 Bike boxes are our favorite boxes. Gaylord boxes for the bulkheads.

 Green for speed.

 And we're off! Pulling ahead of the doughnut boat!

 And, crushing it.

Bye, boats!