I've Got a Notion - Hand Sewing Needles

I love estate sales, yard sales and rummage sales (if you've ever read this blog before, you know this). One of the things I buy frequently at these sales is sewing baskets. Sadly, a sewist passes on, and her family has no earthly clue what to do with her things. Often, whole sewing baskets can be found in these sales, fully stocked with all sorts of great tools and notions, left just the way the owner left it.

I've acquired neatly organized baskets, and ones that look as though the grandkids just pawed through it looking for only they know what. All have their charms and treasures within. One of the things I come across most frequently and abundantly are hand sewing needles.

I will never have to purchase another hand sewing needle at a conventional modern sewing store. I have hundreds (maybe thousands) of these gems. Some will remain in their wrappers unused, and others will be used in my work. Some will be passed on to others via Etsy.

Hand sewing needles come in greater variety than the uninitiated would think. Each needle is crafted for a particular purpose. The most common is the “sharp”, used for general hand work, with a round eye, a sharp point and a medium length. Applique and crewel needles are used in embroidery and surface design. Tapestry needles are used for needlepoint and other canvas work. Betweens are hand quilting needles. Milliners needles and beading needles are very long and are usually used for decorative work. Darning needles are long with blunt points and used in fabric repair and reweaving.

And, of course there are specialty needles for upholstery and leather work.

Each needle type comes in a variety of sizes. The size is indicated by one or more numbers on the manufacturer's packaging. The general convention for sizing of needles, as with wire gauge, is that within any given class of needle the length and thickness of a needle increases as the size number decreases. When a package contains a needle count followed by two size numbers such as "20 Sharps 5/10" the second set of numbers correspond to the range of sizes of needle within the packet, in this case typically ten sharps needles of size 5 and ten of size 10 (for a total of 20 needles).

The packaging of needles is also fascinating, from ornate needle books, to advertising premiums. Some of the packages feature great artwork, which seems so grandiose when you consider that the contents are but humble sewing needles.   

I've been doing quite a lot of hand sewing lately for the Downton Dress.  Between that and my estate sale habit, I have developed a new appreciation for the hand sewing needle!

Puzzle Me This

Since acquiring my two wonderful vintage Singer sewing machines, I've been on a quest for accessories.  While trolling eBay, I came across a listing for two Singer puzzle boxes.

A Singer puzzle box is a neatly crafted box of feet and other accessories produced by the Singer Manufacturing Company during the 19th and 20th centuries. The box was invented in 1888 by John M. Griest, a Singer employee who was awarded US patent 397980 on February 19, 1889 for the design. 

The accessories stash into a fold out rectangular wooden box which is lined in velvet or felt (if the lining is still intact).  An alternate name for these is a "style box".  The boxes include attachments for hemming, braiding, underbraiding, tucking, shirring, binding, quilting and ruffling, along with screwdrivers and spare needles.  Mine are not in the most pristine condition, but I will continue to look for more of these fascinating treasures!

Now I just have to clean them up and learn how to use them!  Any tips?

Isn't that Pinteresting? - 2

Here's another of my pins on Sew Inspired: something I thought was just a super idea, especially for the vintage sewist!  This idea came from Destri, writing a guest post on Miranda Walker's blog.  There's a full tutorial on how to make one of these nifty pin plates at the link.

It uses magnets glued under the plate to make the pins stick!  How cool is that?  If you've ever stepped on a stray pin in the sewing room, you think it's pretty cool... What inspiring sewing room gadgets and notions have you pinned?  And don't forget to share your pinboard url so we can all check in and follow you, too!

Estate Sale Booty

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this to you before... I LOVE ESTATE SALES! I had to take a time out today and do something non-wedding related, so I hit an estate sale! and OMG! I came away with the most amazing haul!

First, it's important to note that I got everything you are seeing here, and more, for a total of $15! Yes, that's right, $15!  That high pitched noise you hear is me squealing in delight.

First up, a nearly mint copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Sewing book from the sixties... AWESOME!

The, a ginormous box containing hundreds of patterns...

as well as a few odds and ends.  There were a small collection of notions,

and a little pile of iron on embroidery patterns.

As well as about a half dozen cooperative extension publications on sewing.

The patterns are fantastic.  Most are used, so I'll need to go through them to be sure they are intact, etc.  Many I will put to good use myself, others, I will sell, and still others will be part of a really cool give-away in the not too distant future.  Not only were some of these from the pattern companies we know, like Simplicity, Vogue and McCall, but there were a fair number of Advance and Hollywood, and some awesome mailorder ones.  Best of all, most of these are close to my size, so, for the ones I keep, there'll be relatively little drafting up and down.

Most of the patterns were addressed to Miss Adorna Wheelock... Adorna... what a unique and interesting name, especially for a sewist!  There were some handwritten notes on some of the patterns, like these:

As I said, some of these may be missing pieces, and some have some tearing on the pattern envelopes, but what a find, yes?  Do any of these strike your fancy?

And Now For Something Completely Different...

To quote the lads from Monty Python!  I finally completed the decoupaged notions box!  You may recall that one of the boys made me a box in woodshop.  A little rough hewn and slightly lopsided in places, but a nice large wooden box, with a drawer.  Immediately, my thoughts went to what things could be stored in such a box. Since sewing holds a huge place in my heart and brain, it occured to me that one big box for notions and machine parts would be great to have and would eliminate the need for about four other boxes I currently keep about my sewing table.

Here are the pictures of the original box.

The first step was to decoupage on some tissue pattern pieces from patterns that had some pieces missing already.

Eventually I coated the whole box with these.  Then I printed out some sewing graphics onto parchment from my favorite free Graphics site, The Graphics Fairy.  After all images were affixed, I "aged" the box a little by spraying with a brown stain, and adding some small areas of rubbed off paint.  And here is the completed box!

One or two more coats of acrylic varnish and it will be ready to hold all my sewing tools!  This was a fun project that while sewing related, did not involve one single needle and thread!  Occasionally, it's nice to do something other than your main craft, don't you think?

Progressions

Lot's of progress to report today.  The top to Butterick 4228 is coming along.  Here's a shot of the top zipper.

I know, it looks a lot like the skirt zipper!  But honest, it's two different things.  I hope to complete this one sometime tomorrow.  I already love it!

I've also been working on my decoupage notions box.  Making some real progress there as well.  I'm enjoying doing this, as it's a little different from my daily routine.

I also promised apeak at my garage sale treasures from last week.  I went to about seven sales last Friday, and only bought things at two.  At the first I got a duvet and sham set covered with ribbon embreoidery, in really good shape.  Not sure yet what I'm going to do with it.

At that sale, I also got yet another "mom jumper".  I really love these for restyling.  The possibilities are almost endless.

The second sale at which I purchased yielded a non-sewing treasure!  For $5 I got this pretty wooden box (which I do not plan to alter in any way!).

But the best part was inside the box.  A myriad of little tools and cutters.  I plan to use these in my paper crafting and jewelry making.  I was so psyched that the contents were included in that price of $5.00!

So, there's the booty for the week.  I'm excited to see what I can do with the ribbon embroidery stuff.  Any suggestions?

Happy Happy Holiday

Wow!  It seems like a long time since I sat down to blog!  I gave myself a four day weekend, and it was great!  I hope you all had fun as well.  On Friday I got to take some pictures, which is one of my little side hobbies.  I can't wait to get a better camera so I can play around in this arena even more.  Here are some of the lovely flowers blooming near us in the Northeast right now.

I also got a lovely surprise from one of the boys on Friday.  He's been taking a shop course in school, and he made me this awesome box.

It has a little drawer.

And the top opens up.

With his permission, I was thinking of decoupaging some old sewing patterns (Down girls - ones with missing pieces that are too numerous to try to make) and some sewing graphics to the ouside of the box to decorate it.  Then I was going to use it to store notions and feet. What do you think?

Many other projects in the pipeline this week as well.  First off, I'm cleaning the sewing room.  I've kind of been letting things accumulate from the last several projects and that is never good.  Do you clean after each project, or do you wait several to give it a good once over?

While cleaning the sewing room, I'm also giving my machine a tune up using the free class available right now on Craftsy!