Tutorial: How to Thread A Demorest Treadle Machine (Pictures!)

About two months ago, Tracy asked me to do a tutorial on threading a Demorest Treadle sewing machine.  My apologies for taking so long, Tracy.  Click on any of the pictures to see them larger.  Without further ado, the tutorial:

To thread the machine, you put the spool of thread on the machine.  Then you take the thread and place it under the tension plate.  You may have to loosen the tension screw to do this, or press on the thread releaser.

My finger is on the thread releaser.

The round thing is the tension screw.  It regulates the tension of the top thread.  Make sure it’s not too tight.  Press the thread releaser if you need to pull on the thread.

From here we pull the thread left, under the thread guide (not the thing I called the thread guide previously), and through the hole in the needle bar.

It should look like this now:

Thread guide and needle bar.

Okay, pull the thread down and around as shown in the next picture.  The stationary piece is the thread staple; the moving “hook” is the thread controller.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Next, we hook the thread through the thread guide and thread the needle.  My thread guide is not original, so yours may be different.  place the thread under the presser foot.

Almost done!

Now onto the bobbin.  This is by no means as difficult as it looks.  This assumes you have a threaded bobbin.  Drop the bobbin into the case with the thread sticking out.The bobbin is inside the shuttle.

The bobbin is inside the shuttle.

Pull the thread down and it will automatically slip into place. It helps to keep a finger over the open end of the shuttle while you pull.  You should feel it snap into place.

See where the thread is? It's coming out of the bottom hole.

Place it into the shuttle carrier like this and stick the thread down under the body of the machine.

My shuttle fits a little loosely, but seems to be okay.

Holding the upper thread, turn the hand wheel away from you.  A loop of the lower thread will be pulled up through the hole the needle goes through.  (You can tug on the top thread to aid this process.)  Pull the loop until the cut end of the thread comes out, then put both threads under the presser foot and trailing away from it.

The loop of the bottom thread.

Slide in the front slide plate and you have successfully threaded your sewing machine!

The threaded machine.

I hope this has helped you.  Please do not use any of my pictures without my permission.

Chicklings Update

A 2 week old Black Australorp.

The chicks are growing so quickly, they turned 3 weeks old on the 16th.  My Mom and I took them outside for the first time a week ago.  They loved scratching around in the grass.  They laid down in the sun and stretched out their wings as if to say “Aaaah!”

The first outing.

 

Me and my sleepy chicken.

I took Chunky Buff out of the box and she settled right down on the grass.  Then she wanted to go back to her friends so I put her back.

These little, feathery fluffballs make me so happy!  No matter what horror stories people may tell you about poo and stink and pecking, chickens are great birds.

The Chicks Are Here!

They arrived on Friday, as scheduled.  Two extras were added to our order, one of which died, so we have a total of 17 chicks.

They immediately went to scratch in the feed.

We’re using pine shavings for bedding, but for the first 2 days I put paper towels down so they wouldn’t confuse food with bedding.  When we first put them in the brooder we dipped their beaks in the water to teach them to drink.

A Buff Orpington chick taking a nip from the font.

They’re very well handled birds, as you can see.

My sister holding a sleeping chick.

We got one rooster, a Black Australorp.  His name is Gregory Peck.  As of tomorrow, they’ll be officially one week old.  Feathers are coming in one their wings, and just starting on their tails.  They’re so cute!  More pictures will certainly be posted as they grow.

In Memoriam: My Squash Plant

I tore out my Early Golden Crookneck Squash plant today, it was dying of bacterial wilt.  The cucumber beetles caused it.  It’s war!

Massive leaves on my squash plant.

It was perfectly fine one morning, and an hour later it was totally wilted.  😦  I’m going to put beets and lettuce where it used to be.

On a happier note, the chicks are scheduled to arrive Friday.  Expect a post soon, with pictures!

Update on my Demorest Treadle Machine

Last year I wrote about my Demorest treadle sewing machine and today I finally sewed with it!  The thread guide is missing so my Dad rigged up a wire thread guide for me.

The thread guide my Dad made.

Isn’t it clever?

The poor machine bereft of its thread guide.

I hope you all had a great Independence Day!

Completed Project: The Shawl

The shawl is finally done!  I finished yesterday but didn’t get any pictures taken until today.

The Shawl Sprawled

Does it seem funny to take pictures of a wool-blend shawl outside on a 90 degree day?

The Shawl Hanging on one of the Pin Oaks Outside

 I had fun posing the shawl outside.  It looks nicer draped with a green background than flat on the carpet.

My zinnias are blooming.  They grow quite tall, about 24″.  I really like them.

There's another orange flower to the right.

My Posting Has Become Delinquent

Delinquent: adj.

1.  failing in or neglectful of a duty or obligation; guilty of a misdeed or offense.

2.  (of an account, tax, debt, etc.) past due; overdue.

  I have not posted in over 2 weeks!  Worse, I haven’t even been working on any of the unfinished projects mentioned last post.  (Except one row on the shawl.)

  Why?  I can’t think of much to post and haven’t felt like writing.  (See Stephanie Ann’s post: I Don’t Feel Like Writing a Post…)

  That said, I do have a life, despite the doubts of some people, and lately my brain has been filled with thoughts of chickens.  We’ve been wanting laying hens for some time now and already have a coop; we just need to set up a spot for the chicks, get feed and bedding, etc.  The peeps will be coming in mid-July so stay tuned!

Shake It To The Left by Kim Newburg

  My parents and I went to a poultry swap and farmers’ market on Saturday.  I really enjoyed seeing all the birds (mostly exotics and show birds) and holding the chicks.  There were rabbit and goat sellers as well.  I held the most adorable Netherlands Dwarf bunny!  It was mostly white with brown markings, tiny and oh so soft!  (I’m a nut for cute, fluffy animals.)

  Random fact:  It takes 2 lbs of feed to produce 1 lb of chicken, as opposed to 20 lbs of feed to get 1 lb of beef.

Happy Summer!

There’s A Frog In My Throat & He’s No Prince Charming

On Tuesday I woke up with  a sore throat and am now in the stuffy nose stage of the cold.  One upside to this is that I got to watch a bunch of Andy Griffith Show episodes the other day, and I realized that I like the Darling family’s music.  That led to looking up the Dillards (aka the Darling boys) on YouTube.  I found a lot of their music on there.  I particularly liked this one:

Ecclesiastes 3:1  “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”

8 Benefits of Hand Sewing

Lately I’ve been doing more hand sewing and really liking it.  There are a lot of benefits for stitching your stuff by hand.  Here are eight of them:

1.  No danger of sewing over a pin.  This messes up a sewing machine’s feed dogs.

2.  More portable.  No need for electricity or extension cords.

3.  Damages delicate fabrics less.  My Granny told me about a skirt suit she made for an officer’s wife out of silk that the officer had brought home from Thailand (I think).  One of the lapel points wasn’t coming out right and, having taken out the machine stitching a time or two, the silk was shredding.  There wasn’t enough material to cut a new lapel so Granny sewed that pesky point by hand.  It turned out perfectly and the lady never knew.  She adored the ensemble and wore it all the time.

Colorful Threads by Petr Kratochvil

4.  Less expensive.  Compare the price of a machine with the price of a packet of needles.  ‘Nuff said.

5.  More control.  I dislike overshooting the mark and sewing over something that’s not supposed to be sewn over.  And going reallyfast then r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w then reallyfast then r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w holds no appeal.  (But that can be fixed if your machine has speed control.)

6.  Quiet.  No buzzing.  It’s like…ninja sewing.  Until you stab yourself.

7.  Uses less space.  If you don’t have a machine you can fit more fabric on the shelf!  A bigger stash is a good thing, right?

8.  You can squish more fabric into a smaller area.  Generically speaking, a machine can gather about 3″ into 1″ whereas by hand you can get up to 10″ in 1″!  And it’s less bunchy.  See #5.

Do you do more hand sewing or machine sewing?  Which do you prefer?  Leave a comment and tell me about it!

What’s Going On Here?

I haven’t posted much on the finished projects front, so here is a little conglomeration of things I’ve made this year.   Without further ado, my photos:

Felicity in her 1840s handsewn chemise.

On Felicity’s arm is a drawstring bag I made to control the hairpin chaos.  I sewed it entirely by hand and used thin crochet cotton for the drawstring.

The chemise took a while to make, especially since it’s the first real hand sewing I’ve done.  (In my opinion.)  The head opening is large because Felicity’s head is large.

Construction detail of underarm gusset and side gores.

I’m really pleased with how it turned out.  The seams are not finished and I used running stitch since Felicity probably won’t put a lot of wear and tear on her garments.

Total, the chemise probably used less than half a yard of white muslin.

Mr Bunny in his jacket. Please pardon the blaring orange background.

Next project, Mr Bunny’s jacket.  This is him in the muslin which turned out so well I decided to keep it for a summer jacket.  I think it looks like linen (although it’s really cotton).

I have some herringbone suiting in a pleasing brown that I intend to use for his next jacket.  Mr Bunny is only 6 3/4″ tall counting his ears, more like 4 1/2″ to the top of his head.  This makes his jackets very tiny so they must be sewn by hand.

I used bodice draping instructions (sort of) from The Dressmaker’s Guide by Elizabeth Stewart Clark.  I messed with it until it mostly fit although there’s still a slight surplus of fabric at the back.

Some construction pictures:

Pattern Pieces

Beginning of the mock-up.

The finished mock-up.

I think I made these back in February. My current project is a tucked petticoat that I’m hoping to finish it soon.  Speaking of which, I need to get working on the hem…