A few of you guessed what my special present was, and Clare got it spot on. This was my Nana's sewing machine. Isn't she a beauty? She's been stuck up in my parents' loft for the last 20 odd years. At various times over the years my mum has mentioned either getting it fixed or getting rid of it, as she would never use it, but I asked her this week if I could have it - and here she is! My mum said that my Nana used to make her clothes with it when she was little, and I do recall that, one summer, Nana helped me to make a skirt as well, when I was, maybe 9 or 10?
It dates from 1931 and still has the original instruction book and all the attachments. I spent ages with it yesterday, picking about half a ton of lint out of the mechanism (!) and then trying to figure out how to insert the bobbin and thread the needle. I couldn't get it to wind a bobbin but, luckily, there was one already wound in the little tool compartment, so I set it up - and it worked!
The tension was all way off but I was so pleased that it did actually work! I'm going to give our local sewing shop a call to see if they might be able to service it for me, even though I don't suppose I will ever actually use it for sewing, but I just really wanted to have it. It's such a beautiful piece of machinery, and it reminds me of my Nana too, of course. We don't even have room for it! If I had my own sewing room then I could have it permanently on display. I really don't want to just put it back up into our loft, so I'm going to see if I can re-jig things downstairs and find a nice home for it.





