Vince's needlework and occasional drawings

Been meaning to make one of these for years!

Blogspot - I used to post on there more often, and I really would like to get back into it. Mostly longform sewing posts about how I made a thing.

Youtube - Mostly sewing videos, with each step of the project explained in thorough autistic detail. New videos come out whenever I finish making one (which is not super often) and they are however long they need to be to contain all the relevant information.

Patreon - Started out as just extra @pterribledinosaurdrawings but now I also do monthly behind the scenes updates on the sewing video stuff I'm working on, and have done a few unscripted bonus videos. (I also have a ko-fi but I haven't really posted anything there.)

Instagram - Occasional photos of stuff I've made, much the same as I post here.

Facebook - Same stuff as instagram. I don't look at my feed on either of those places but I still post.

Pinterest - Where all my beloved reference pictures live. Wanna see pictures of extant 18th century waistcoats? My board for that has over 1,400 pins!

Spoonflower - Repeating patterns on fabric.

THAT IS NOT FREEHAND. THE HAND IS NOT MOVING FREELY. WHAT DO YOU THINK FREEHAND MEANS? That's like saying "Look, I can move my finger in a perfectly straight line!" and then running your fingertip along the edge of a table.

Also you're severely limited in the size and placement of the circle if you do it that way. Plus, if you're using a marker, you get ugly splotchy bits where you stopped for half a second and more ink seeped out.

If you want to use your hand as a meat compass that's fine, whatever, but don't lie and call it "freehand" and don't pretend it's impressive. If you actually want to draw circles freehand you need to practice for a while.

It's actually not that hard to sketch a decent circle if you fill up a dollar store sketchbook or two with practice.

For the second time in 2 years I've been given a gunky old treadle. This one's a Bernina KL 105, which I hadn't heard of, and it's very interesting! It's a rotary machine with backstitch and drop feed, which is much more modern than any treadle I'd ever encountered before.

The model was first introduced in 1932, but this particular one was sold in 1945, as can be seen in the manual which it still has! (Edit: Turns out I was mistaken in thinking it was sold to a Karl Seebacher! Oops! I have been told he was the one who sold it to a Mrs. Dr. Hardegger.)

It was made in Switzerland and evidently sold there, as all the writing is in German and the markings are Metric. I'm very happy about the Metric markings! Someone must have moved to Canada with it somewhere along the line. I've read that these machines are more common in Europe than they are over here.

There are several different feet, and It came with a fantastic little hoop for darning socks, which I'm quite excited to try.

The machine itself is quite gunky, and has some rust spots, so I'll disassemble and clean as much as I reasonably can. I think it'll be alright. The wheel was turning very stiffly and jerkily when it arrived, and oiling everything didn't help much, but after it sat there for a couple weeks the new oil seems to have soaked in and softened things up and it's spinning quite smoothly now.

It came with two new drive belts that someone appears to have bought fairly recently, and as far as I can tell the only thing that's missing is the pair of set screws that hold the machine head to the hinges. Edit: Nevermind, they are in there! They're just ridiculously tiny and had been loosened! 5mm long screws in 2 cm deep holes.

The cabinet needs a lot of work, but once the machine head is cleaned up it should be useable even before doing anything to the cabinet.

Oh my! I've not got any experience with ones that bad, but there are videos out there of people unsticking them. Looking up "seized treadle machine" should bring a bunch of them up. I know there's stuff called "penetrant" that's made for unsticking gunky machine parts.

Another wearable mockup, this time of a different pants draft. They turned out pretty decent, but the hem is too long so I've shortened the pattern a bit. I sewed these up on the industrial at work, except for some hand finishing, and the buttonholes which were done on my Singer 15. I could cover them with hand buttonhole stitches but I probably won't.

I did some rearranging and moved my White VS2 into my bedroom and I think it looks better in there, and it's nice not having a big coffin top sticking up at the end of my work table.