My Singer

At least 15 years ago, I bought this machine 2nd hand from a work colleague. She had received it as a 21st gift in the 1970's, and said she had hardly used it. I remember that I bought it more because I felt everyone home should have a sewing machine rather than needing one.

When I got it home, I was full of good intentions, but it got filed away under 'stuff never to be used'.

After the 'Great British Sewing Bee' was aired on TV, I thought about it again ... then forgot about it... again! But, last night I brought it out of the spare room and opened it up. Yuk! It was filthy. My daughter was thrilled when she saw it because she has just started sewing classes at school.

I did my best to clean it over, but had doubts about how safe it would be to plug it in. So, this morning, instead of mulling over the matter and refiling it under 'stuff never to be used', I got a service engineer to come and take a look.

The machine worked (straight stitches only, he said), and oiling it, he had it working on cloth until BANG! The poor man got an electric shock. He managed to sort out the problem, but told me that I should take it to the tip if it breaks down because it would be uneconomic to repair.

So here I am with a working machine!!!! After he left, the zig zag started working, so it looks good so far.

Watch this space for my first machine sewing project!