The Fantastic Featherweight

If you are a quilter, chances are you already know this title. Singer Featherweights are all the rage among quilters these days – and for good reason.  They are a sturdy, portable, easily maintained and competent little vintage sewing machine. 

We recently acquired a Featherweight for a fraction of the average pricing (around $200 to $600); it purrs quietly and has taken its rightful place in the sewing room.

Last year we began searching the net for information on Featherweights and other vintage sewing machines since we seemed to be collecting older Singers from 1946 through 1982 from local auctions. Today, I am amazed at the burgeoning websites and interest in vintage sewing machines – and sewing, even in the younger generation over the past year. Thread-banger websites are now popular among the younger folks and the notion of upgrading old garments into new ones is a blossoming idea.  With the economy in strained and increasingly painful throes of shrinking values, this idea will flourish and aid many people with additional inexpensive garments, as well as helping out our overflowing landfills.  

The fact that sewing and using vintage machines is spreading and growing warms my heart and reminds me of my grandparents' and parents' ideas during the Depression.  To my way of thinking, this mode of thinking is frugal and valuable during any economic turn.

We’ve found two books on the Featherweights, pictured below;

The Featherweight 221 and I , David McCallum

                        
Featherweight 221, The Perfect Portable, Nancy Johnson-Sebro

                                     

The former book is extremely detailed with clear and precise diagrams and appears to cover most aspects of cleaning, repairing and refurbishing Featherweights.  David McCallum and his wife Sharon, host a wonderful website, filled with available Featherweight parts and information.  Their blog contains tips and tricks with this amazing little machine.  They are both avid quilters and I can vouch for their amazing customer service and genuine caring toward their customers and their business.

The latter book is less specific about repairs and much more detailed on the history of the Featherweight. Nancy addresses some Featherweight myths and explains each of the particular Featherweights in terms of their manufacturing, here and internationally.  Nancy's books are numerous and she is well known in the quilting arena.

As always, our purpose here is to share, learn, support and enjoy the sewing arena.  If you have thoughts, suggestions, sewing stories or any related information you want to share, please leave a comment or reach us at daniellesimone0@gmail.com.

On behalf of Potholdersplus and all the lowly potholders in the world, remember…”there’s always room for one more.”

  

Helpful Hints for Potholder Batting/Filling

The inside of your potholder is the most important part, obviously.

http://www.ufo-rphanage.com/potholder_hints.shtml

Found this well-written, informative site on potholder filling/batting. Looking through some of the ideas listed there might add to your potholder toolbox for later creations.

-I use Insul-Bright and find a double layer is necessary. The potholders made with one layer worked for awhile until they had to deal with a very hot pan; ouch! Lesson learned.

-Old toweling for my potholders was cumbersome/thick, but fairly heat resistant.

-Silence Cloth sounds multipurpose - for many uses. Please comment if you've used it and what your thoughts are.

This link, http://tipnut.com/pieced-pot-holders/, is simply a neat potholder & recipe book pattern I tripped onto during my batting travels online. Thought it might fit your next creative urge! This pattern calls for simple flannel as the innards of their creations. Let me know how this works.

This site, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2lcQmcR6Yg&feature=related, Mama's Cottons advertised some interesting retro fabrics - at a reasonable price. Retro is a bit off-task here, but my admiration of things old with fabrics, led me momentarily astray. Besides...for those of you who might be here in partial preparation for your next potholder creation, her designs might spark your interest. If you buy from her site, please leave a comment on your experience.

If you have a stuffing/batting/filling trick or two for your potholders, let us know. Leave a comment or reach me at daniellesimone0@gmail.com.

You can always use one more potholder...

Hollow Cube Quilted Potholder; you CAN quilt!

If you can sew simple projects using straight stitching, you can quilt! The pleasure of quilting potholders is the size of the project; one block is all it takes. Time is your friend.

So let's begin to step a bit out of the box, stretch our comfort zone and bring triangles into the house of potholders. The magic is...we're making an itty, bitty potholder with an itty bitty amount of fabric. So, if you make a mistake, very little fabric is lost and the quilting experience you will gain is priceless.

Triangles and quilting are a combination that have always caused me stress and sent me running back to the safe, easy, simple square...and its unlimited variations. But learning how to quilt can depend as much on the ease and simplicity of a tutorial as it does on the ability to sew. This video below explains the creation of a hollow cube pattern using six triangles. Presented in an easy, step by step process, this tutorial will ensure the success of your project. Your finished potholder will be creative and pretty and will demonstrate your new-found quilting finesse!

Yes, you CAN quilt!

http://www.5min.com/Video/Hollow-Cube-Quilt-Block-91186943

Easy Quilted Potholders: You CAN Quilt!

Are you are a frustrated quilter? Do you spend envious hours browsing expensive quilt magazines? Do you marvel at Eleanor Burns or Sewing with Nancy as they breezily run their quilt squares through their sewing machines, thinking that you will never be able to quilt? Well, do not dismay; think small...the lowly potholder to your rescue!

Do you have some old cotton skirts or blouses taking space in the back of your closet? Does your husband or your teenage children have cotton shirts they never wear? Any old washcloths, towels or blankets ready to be replaced? Can you sew a straight line with your old sewing machine? Presto! You have some potential holiday gifts ready for creation. Your friends will welcome some nice looking, new potholders to brighten their kitchens. And real friends, truly enjoy a gift that is handcrafted with care and thoughtfulness, no matter how small.

How you proceed from here, is totally up to your ingenuity, imagination, time and patience. I've surfed the net and found some quilted potholder sites that may appeal to your artistic, creative side.

http://www.lovetosew.com/quiltedpotholders.htm has easy, simple instructions, completer with clear pictures. You might want to 'stitch in the ditch' along some of the lines where the different fabrics meet. It's easy to do, just place some pins along the seams to keep the fabric from 'walking' which may end in a pucker at the end of your seam. Either use a 'walking' foot or just lower the pressure on the pressure foot to minimize puckers.

http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2009/04/craft_project_simple_quilted_p.html gives detailed directions, also with clear, large pictures so you cannot go wrong. They do interesting quilting lines across the rail fence lines for a double-quilted look; quite nice.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/593629/how_to_make_quilted_pot_holders_with.html?cat=24 uses bias tape to finish the edges, which is a bit easier I think, than turning them inside out. Your particular sewing skill and comfort level will lead your way.

Have fun. Take your time. If you have 'mistakes', they can always keep company with your other potholders at home. Someone said to me at a craft show, "You can never have too many potholders!"

Don't forget to share your projects with us. Even a small tip from your experience, might give someone else the necessary confidence to finish their own project.

Happy sewing! Enjoy your trick-or-treaters.

"Mini-quilting": One potholder at a Time

Some of us enjoy the look of quilting; the perfectly matching corners where the colors meet, the interconnected beauty of delicate, pretty fabrics and designs, etc. We even enjoy the sometimes slow, precise, painstaking work of putting all these special shapes and sizes into their proper place to fashion a quilt block. But "times" 64 or 96? Maybe not. So, the quilt experience may get tabled and put off for 'later'.

Enter, the lowly potholder! Just 1 quilt block and you have a beautifully fashioned, yet usable potholder. Quite magical.

100 Quick to Quilt Potholders, by Jeanne Stauffer, contains pages of potholders created from every imaginable quilt block. (click on the sidebar picture of this book to see more details). Maybe these beauties only decorate a kitchen wall, showing off your creativity and finesse with a needle, but there are certainly worse jobs in life... I don't think they mind.

With Christmas approaching, a pretty, quick potholder may fit your needs.

As you can see, the lowly potholder...can be a 'classic', in its own right. The potholder has moved over to the 'guest' quarters...

Nature prevails.

The Lowly Potholder

Hardly a kitchen exists that does not house at least one, functional potholder. They serve a major role in the safe handling of cookware. Yet, the lowly potholder works in silence, toiling away, day after week after year, with little - if any recognition.

According to ehow.com, Some of the most unusual and charming pot holders date from the 1950s. Many of these were crocheted in a variety of novel shapes, including fruit, flowers and more.

(I wonder what the cave dwellers used to handle their pots over their cook fires).

Today, many types of heat protection are available for the center of potholders; silicone textiles, old towels, blanket parts, quilt batting, and of course the special Kevlar type batting specially made for potholders, found in craft stores and online.

We can hand-make potholders of knitted, crocheted and loomed textiles. They are easy to fashion with a sewing machine. And not to forget the lowly potholders patiently awaiting a home, hanging in the kitchen areas of stores. Many more are only a click away, online, as they will be here, in the near future.

A potholder is limited only to the imagination of its creator. For the most part, potholders are made for their simple, utilitarian position in the home. We're here to change that! The lowly potholder is moving out of the work quarters and into the guesthouse! There is nothing too proud or desirable for the new, improved potholder that it cannot carry with grace, beauty, class and style.

Keep an eye on our progress here, over the next few months. We will eventually offer our own crafted beauties...limited only by our imagination. And we tend to think...a bit out-of-the-box!

Meanwhile, we'll be searching the net and linking to all the sites that offer potholders. If you are looking for a particular type of potholder, let us know and we'll endeavor to hook you up with your need.

Since Nature is our penchant, we'll work harder to find the more natural fibered potholders as well as homemade ones.

Please post any comments you may have on our new debutante. Maybe your Grandma had a special one she bought or fashioned. Maybe you bought a unique potholder at a craft show. Maybe you make some potholder pretties that we could display here. Let your imagination be your guide.

And as always...Nature prevails.