SCORE

So today that_redhead came over again for another Crafting Day of Get Red Out Of The House. (She's still nursing a nasty knee sprain from our bout vs. the Kats and so is out of work on disability-- they had no desk work for her to do!)
I actually didn't make anything, but I did meet my goal for the day: I got the sewing machine Grandma, the one who turned 90 on Sunday, gave to my sister Fi a while back. Gram knew she wasn't going to use it, and Fi wanted it, so she got it out and gave Fi a quick tutorial and gave it to her.
Of course, Fi didn't have anywhere to set it up in her old apartment, and by now has entirely forgotten how the heck the thing works.
On Sunday Gram asked her about it, whether she'd used it at all. Fi admitted no, shamefacedly. I made her sound a bit better by explaining that I had a machine I knew how to use, but we were getting good enough that we were planning to get Gram's out. She confirmed that it surely had multiple stitch types-- it had been quite an expensive machine in the '40s when she got it, and she called to mind several projects she'd used it for that had required different stitch types.
So today I got it out and stared at it in bafflement for a while. It was threaded, thank God, so I took photos of how it was threaded.
Unfortunately the lower bobbin seemed really easy-- I snapped a photo but it didn't look like anything. You can't see it. So I'm still not sure how that goes. I keep screwing it up.
Anyway:
IT HAS A ZIG-ZAG STITCH. It has several, actually-- you can change the type of stitch by removing a plastic disc with cogs from a compartment in the upper part of the machine, and replacing it with a different disc, from a case that also holds bobbins, spare parts, and a tiny screwdriver to take the machine apart and replace needles if necessary. The case slides in under the compartment that holds the lower bobbin, but you can take it out and then there's room for whatever you're working on to pass under the machine, if necessary--extremely handy for hemming men's pants, Gram said, recalling somewhat crossly all the trousers Uncle Peter (6' 5") used to bring home for her to hem for him.

Red was helpful at figuring it out, but to all of our astonishment, Z was yet more helpful: his mother used to be a professional seamstress, and well into his childhood was still taking commissions to pay the bills. So while he has never been interested in sewing, simply from being around his mother he knows the various components of sewing machines, new and antique. He knew to push down the tip of the stitch-length selection lever to free it so it moved-- "that's just how those levers operate," he said, though he didn't know what it was for. (I did, at least.) More importantly, he was the one who flipped open the top compartment and immediately knew to unscrew the plastic nut holding the cog/disc onto the spindle. "There should be other discs," he said, and I rattled the mysterious slide-out box. "Aha."
Then I, um, tangled the lower bobbin thread so badly I had to dismantle the machine to get it out, but at least that meant I had a chance to clean out the raceway, which was badly clogged with lint.

I have exhaustive photos of this thing. And I also have a photo of the cross-stitch Red completed while sitting and watching me poke the sewing machine in bewilderment, so I've got to download all my photos and sort them out. I have months and months' worth of photos on my dang camera and I'm just too dang lazy...

Anyway. Wanted to post my excitement. I still don't 100% know how to use the thing, but I am super pumped for this machine.

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Man I had fun skating tonight.

That's all.