Mama's sewing machine

This weekend on my day off, I mostly did chores instead of working in my journal.

Last year we did a renovation of the house.

A lot of things got moved into the patio until we could deal with them.

One thing was my grandma's (Mama's) old Singer sewing machine.

Mom actually liked using this one, more than the two or three electric sewing machines she had.

It always bothers me that I don't know how to sew with a machine.

I found a place to put it in the living room but it needed a cleaning.

It was interesting to ransack the sewing machine because I was never allowed to touch it.

I've been storing a lot of Mom's sewing notions in a large container.


I decided to sort through the drawers and put things in their place.

Buttons, for instance, needed to be put with other buttons.

There were dozens of single buttons in little plastic bags that come with clothing.

I put them all into one container

There were tons of pencils in each drawer.

Another thing I noticed were some old coins. Nothing fancy.

These quarters were all chewed up.

Maybe they had gone through some kind of industrial washing machine?

Other things, like tools, the bands and bobbins, I left in the drawers.

Some pinking shears are also going back in the drawers.

I was always tempted to use them after reading "Ramona Quimby"
but I've outgrown that.






I found lots of thimbles.




A picture of my aunt? Mom? Or a friend.

Also some name cards and pictures of my Dad from a graduation.

( I would have guessed 8th grade but he says this is high school!
 I was 17 when I graduated, so may be... )


I put these in another container and gave them back to him, to put away.






Most impressionable to me, was this piece of tailor's chalk.

Singer sewing machines didn't change much in the early years.

Although it looks older, Mom said grandma got the sewing machine in the 1940's.




I found an instruction manual in a drawer. (after I cleared out a lot of stuff )

I'd never seen it before, either.

It fits right in the drawer.



I wanted Mom to teach me to sew, but it always seemed to end in arguments.

Maybe a manual will be more enlightening.

The instructions are in Spanish, but I can read that.




The copyright date inside does seem to suggest the machine was from the 40's.