So,, at the moment inertia due to the fact that despite it having soaked in WD 40 for a good 10 hours the hex screw on my needle bar won't move. Subsequently I can't adjust the needle bar and the sewing machine itself must remain inert.
I tried putting the metal panel that the light is attached to back on the machine only to find that it doesn't connect to the column. I guess on closer thought it wouldn't, since the needle column has to be free standing in order to move right. Had just thought wit it going back on it might steady the column and I would have greater purchase on it and thereby be able to turn the screw.
 I remember the first time I tried to turn the screw lower down that allows the needle to be changed it was very very stiff and had to sit in WD 40 for a while. I think I actually pretty much gave up on it and went down town, came home and it was able to move. No such luck so far with this damn hex key. I'm just watching the hex key nearly bend in the middle from exertion, or looks that way. maybe I just need to put more faith in it.  It's a metal hexagonal bar on a plastic handle & I'm just wondering if it might be easier to turn if it was shorter. Not sure what that means in terms of leverage though. I know that with some leverage the longer the handle/lever the greater the force applied but since this is sticking out horizontally from the fulcrum and doesn't have length in a dimension that extra force could be applied as far as I can see I don't think that applies. maybe I need a wrench or something, pair of pliers, that I could attach to the shaft and turn things that way? Is that the way it works?

Until such a time as I can get that screw to move, work with  the sewing machine is at a standstill. Maybe I need to move onto cutting things out in preparation for the thing to fix itself? Pockets which I might have been better off working on yesterday instead of that  bib, still need to be done. Really should have gone and refilled the bobbin  and finished off the buttonholes on the bib at the time I was doing them,. Think I'd been letting eating get very late, possibly even had food getting cold at the time so had placed a fullstop on the activity without finishing. Thought things had been getting good up to that, what with the tension on the stitching finally having been corrected. I'd even gone back over whatever stitching was already on the shirt yesterday morning before the problem began. Well, spilt milk doesn't really do anything but make a mess. So counting my druthers isn't going to make it any better is it?

>>>>>5 hours or so later I'm back with a set of Stanley Hex keys that are the standard shape not the straight stick with a handle type that I presumably got given in Maplin's several years ago. Those I had may have been designed for more delicate work on a computer. Whereas what I take to be the standard shape is more L shaped or rather short shaft, long handle which is more the other way round than the standard letter shape.  Not tried it yet but hoping that it will be exactly what I'm looking for.
Also hoping that something I heard about today which might turn out to be a C.E. scheme or something based in upcycling things as clothing and repairing donated clothing comes to fruition.

Also need to check up what patterns are available for men's clothing from Burda since there is a sale on the label in Hickey's. Just looked at a mid 19th century outfit that looks like something from Dickens or other costume drama before I left there earlier. Want to see if it's worthwhile though.

Recent projects in psychedelic clothing

I've been meaning to get back to this page and start actually adding input.
Recently I've been trying to make clothing, using a Silver Crest sewing machine I got from LIDL in 2012.

Been buying up material to upcycle from local charity shops and made some interesting stuff . This jacket for one, which I've been wearing around town recently.
It's based on a pattern for a western frock coat that Simplicity somehow got from Buckaro Bobbins, been wondering what the story was on that . Buckaroo Bobbins are a firm that sells patterns for pretty authentic Western wear as far as I understand it. and this pattern has things like polyester fleece used as sleeve heads. So not sure on the history there .
This was made from upcycled material which I'm really hoping to repeat.

Been wondering how much the source material shows and is obvious as to what it was originally. I found 2 items that cost me €2 each and a third item I lined it with which I'd bought new  to sleep under several years ago and then found my feet kept getting caught in so stopped using. Initially bought some purple polyester lining material but then rethought what I was using at which point I thought of this duvet cover which I'd also thought of as using for a shirt. Thought I might use the other side which had a different pattern on but think this works better as this and it's poly-cotton so may not have been the most comfortable shirt while it is at least breathable as a lining which the straight polyester wouldn't have been. This is now heading towards the middle of the summer so it is better that it is breathable at least.
It is thankfully light enough weight for this time of year and may show off its roots in the way it billows when I walk. I still need to finish off seams and the hem.

At the moment my sewing machine has decided to stop sewing and I'm waiting for WD 40 to do its work,. This will hopefully make the needle bar hex adjustment  become  movable so I can adjust it and get back to things.
This morning I was trying to finish off the Cavalry shirt I had been making earlier this week off but I think I must have had a needle smash into the Needle plate as I attempted to sew a buttonhole on the bib. So the interlocking of the threads from the bobbin and needle has been thrown off and needs to be fixed. Been told it is likely to be a problem with the needle bar timing.
I didn't notice a problem at first but when I went back to sewing a little while later, things were getting weird. At first I couldn't get the bobbin thread to catch despite several attempts, the needle just seemed to be dropping too short which seemed odd. I continued and possibly changed the direction I was turning the hand wheel which was eventually successful at least in catching the thread, then when I finally did have the end of the bobbin thread up and then tried to sew a line down a test section of the Aztec material I had used for the Cavalry shirt I discovered I was only sewing from the upper side, nothing was catching on the lower side at all.  Now looking at the column below the block where the hex adjustment opening is you can see there is a line which is presumably where the column normally sits in relation to the needle that is a cm or 2 away from where it normally sits. That means the needle could never drop low enough to catch.
So fingers crossed that I can sort this with little difficulty when that WD 40 soaks in. Now having trouble with the entire column moving when I try to move the hex key since the column isn't secured to anything.

I'm having a lot of trouble with the sewing machine, I guess so far it's just a learning curve. Up to the beginning of this week I had the tension on one side of the thread very badly sorted. I hadn't realised that adjustments needed included tightening  the bobbin screw, since it seemed more obvious to adjust the controls visible on the top of the machine. Subsequently the thread the bobbin tension  was controlling was basically just lying on the material not sewn properly with most of the actual stitching coming from the other side. It was only later that I realised that each side's tension controlled the other thread, bobbin controlling the thread from the top reel and the visible tension adjustments controlling what came from the bobbin. As my understanding stood, when I was having the thread that was coming from the reel on the top of the machine not sewing properly I was wondering why no adjustments I  was doing to the visible tension controls were having effect on the thread from that side  while the other thread mainly seemed to sew ok. But now I get it, as explained above, each tensioning device controls the thread coming from the other direction. Took a bit of googling to get that plus some help from facebook friends.
Today as I took the top section of the machine apart I scrolled the tension screw from one end to the other and saw the end section of the sewing machine go from being flat with the body to being very raised. I couldn't tell if I had just not noticed that action before because I was looking at another aspect or if that  had greater freedom of movement because an otherwise place keeping sidescrew had been removed. But very weird looking effect, seemed to rise a good couple of cm or so.

I think I need a course in sewing machine maintenance. I mainly got heavily  into sewing this year thanks to a couple of courses I did through the local community centre and a teacher called Tina O'Rourke. She is a great teacher so if you get a chance to study with her I'd take it. She is a lot of fun and has been sewing for years so can be very helpful in information she can give you. My confidence has gone up no end since the beginning of this year.
Up to January which is when  that first course started, I had this sewing machine sitting in its box since I bought it a year and a half earlier. Now when it isn't in pieces it is in use several times a day.



I'm dying to get these striped drill jeans

finished. Have wanted a pair of late 60s Levi's style jeans for years so finally making a pair. This striped drill material has 2 different ordered variations on the same colour group stripes on it, one has a pinky red around orange, blue green and white ,the other has the orange as the larger stripe. I'm wondering if I've gone the right way by going with the red as the dominant colour which I think is down to the way that I layed out what I was using as the pattern on the drill material. I'm assuming that it would have been as easy to have the orange dominated grouping as the central to the design. Not sure if that could be done with the same economy of material as what I've used but as yet I'm only doing this for about the first time with a pattern that behaves like this. The coat above might have been layed out differently with more experience too.  But it's early days yet.

Over the next while I have a number of projects that I am hoping to do. The striped material from these unfinished jeans is hopefully going to become a jeans type jacket, possibly with some amendments. I had a shirt/jacket thing when I interrailed Europe in '85 that was like a cross between a candy striped button down and a jeans jacket. I can just about remember the collar and definitely the side/back adjustment features from the thing and it makes me think I'd like to try to copy it in this material. But so far i don't really remember the full design. I'm also thinking about a short jacket that the Regal used to sell which came in a striped material but can't really remember exactly what it looked like but would like to attempt in this material.

I have worn a jeans jacket which I tie dyed and tie bleached for the last few years and fancy making a jeans jacket anyway. Also thinking of trying to run off a dummy in a curtain material since I've been buying up some of the stuff.

I have some yards of African material that I found cheap on ebay from a shop called African Diamond. I've made one Ukrainian cossack type shirt though the collar has been miscut since the pattern had the cutting line in the wrong place, looks ok though. I want to make others more successfully, preferably with a taller collar.

Also wanting to try to copy a bike jacket in something. Wish that was more original than fashion over the last few years has shown. I tend to wear a bike jacket through most of the winter which I bought in the early noughties . Think at least attempting to make one should hopefully teach me some stuff about making clothing. I'm on a learning curve which I really would have loved to be on 20 or 30 years ago, but glad to be on it. Just hoping I can remain on it, but that relies on having a sewing machine
Think I need to learn how to repair the things , hope I can get some practise in, anybody got any sewing machines they don't use lying around?