Vintage Sewing

The weekend saw us having our customary mooch in our beloved Bridport in Dorset.  We were there very early to take the car into the garage and the threat of gloomy weather meant the street market was not as busy and buzzy as usual.  It was still most enjoyable, however and the weather actually improved as the day went on.  Wandering along with a bacon butty for breakfast, we bumped into Rachel and her family, holidaying in Lyme Regis.  I know Rachel as a customer from vintage fairs and always think of her as the "blue lady" as she is always in blue and buys blue things! Happy hols, Rachel.  Small world, eh?


The fact that many of the regular stall holders hadn't turned out meant some new ones had been able to secure a pitch  Some of the stuff was pretty junky but of course, in between the junk, one is possibly going to find treasure if one but looks hard enough.  There waiting for me was something I'd longed hankered after.  Possibly too much time had been spent looking for just such an item on eBay, sometimes watching them go for too much money, lacking their accessories or worrying how I was going to get the certain extremely heavy item safely to my doorstep without costing an arm and a leg.


No need to have done all that because there she was, waiting for me...

...amongst all the junk!

Reader, meet Norma Novum, my new-to-me vintage sewing machine.  I would guess she's actually a 1950's gal.

A rainy Sunday afforded me the perfect opportunity to get to grips with my new friend.  I plugged in the lead, flicked the switch and with baited breath, on came her light!  Sadly, Norma lacked her instruction manual but I pretty much know my way round a machine and had her threaded up in no time.  A tentative foot on the pedal, and whirr, off went Norma producing a spectacularly truly straight straight stitch!

I cannot mislead you and tell you I there and then whipped up that pretty patchworked item on Norma's machine bed (in fact, I made that last week to house my latest gadget).  In need of some cloth to try out Norma's stitching, it was however, a prettier sight for the photo than the old painting rag Mr HH found me in the shed.  I need a stash at the cottage?

I discovered that Norma had a little swing-out drawer hidden in her base and therein squealed, admittedly rather childishly, at all the metal bobbins and original feet within.  The feet have little labels attached to tell me what they are, each little bit of string attaching each label a different colour.  Golly, you can't imagine how much pleasure this brought me.

Ah, Norma, how could anyone pass you by for a measly £18? Not I!  

Norma and I are going to have some adventures, I can see.