Harrington in detail part 1

I haven't "digitised" the pattern but if you're in my situation: That is, you can't afford to buy a new jacket, have an old one, the time to make it and the skills required or the ability to find out. I also have an excellent library of old sewing books which I've referred to several times. I'm about half way through, insofar as putting actual area of fabric is concerned. There were a lot of problems because it's been a while since I last made a Harrington and couldn't remember how to make the pockets. Well, since I did all of this stuff in the past 48 hours, and will be making more of them, here's how I did it:

1. Practice pockets

Make these until you completely understand how it's done and you're certain they will all be perfect from now on.

2. Cutting

Do all of this before anything else. Both self (outside of your jacket, the drill), the lining and the interfacing.

3. Interfacing

Interface the collar, the pocket flaps, pocket welts and the wrong side of the fabric, where the pockets are going to be. If you don't know this, interfacing provides stiffness and strength. Pockets in bomber jackets cop a lot of punishment (my jackets do anyway).

4. Make the pockets

All of them. Start with the hard ones, being the self pockets, then do the lining pocket.

5. Sew the lining together

This is precisely where I'm at now. I stopped to explain to you, dear reader/s, how to do it, and my pattern maker didn't explain how to put the self together: The top of the back is quite different to any I've done so far so I have to wait until I see her again before proceeding.

OK, the pockets. I won't be scanning the picture from the Vogue sewing book because it's possibly still copyrighted in the U.S. (the book is 44 years old) so I have my photos.

Flap and welt pinned and being basted into place

pocket flaps go on next

Here is how to construct the pocket (on the right side of the self):
Bottom - the front left or right (I'll assume you want one on each side).
On top of the bottom - At the top is the finished flap. At the bottom is the welt. Now, the welt fold must be exactly 17mm outside the white box (the white box is solid line. That broken line is basting thread. The longer side of the white box is exactly the same as the flap. The welt should be longer than the shorter side, as the excess will be pushed inside after all this is over. I pinned both of these bits  in place so they wouldn't move when I put the pockets on top.
Put the pockets on top. The top part has some self joined to the lining (which I'm using as pocketing) because this will be visible when the pocket is opened.  Pin this in place too. The bottom pocket part goes on first and reaches about halfway inside the white box. The top pocket part sits on top and covers the whole box. Here's a close up of this:

Everything basted into place. Pins removed before stitching

Now the outline is carefully drawn and stitched. You stitch only the two long lines, not the shorter slanted lines the join them. You should end up with this on the other side:

interfaced wrong side of self fabric

Now, cut through the self and interfacing only. Be really careful or you'll cut through the pocket flap as well (go on, ask me how I know this). Stop short of the end and cut diagonally almost to where your stitching ends (about three threads short is perfect, I've been told):

Arrows point to the little triangles you need to make

Now turn the piece over and push the pockets only through the hole you just made. It should be reasonably obvious how this will work but it should also look so neat you'll be excited. Pulling the little triangles ought to make it even neater on the other side and when you do this, you should see that if the triangle were stitched to the welt (now on the wrong side with the triangle) it would be lovely.

then turn it over

Stitch both triangles to both sides of the welt and you should be patting yourself on the back.

Front of jacket. Welt is perfectly joined.

After doing this twice, you need to do it for the simpler inside pocket. The two outside pockets are easily the most difficult part of the whole jacket, so it's all downhill from this point.

Sewing the lining together

This is quite basic. Stay stitch the shoulders and neck then pin, baste and stitch the front and back at the shoulders. Press seams open (they don't have to be finished).

Remove the pins before stitching

Pin the sleeve in place then baste it and stitch.
Pin then baste and stitch the sleeve together with the side of the jacket in one go.

If you're asking why I always baste it's because with just pins holding the two sides together the fabrics move when the machine gets close to the pins. When it's a pattern like this, it is very noticeable.

Tacky 1960s suit?

And here she is: All ready to go with the self.

Bernina manual 642-1 542-1 540

Bernina 542-1 and 642-1 manual

The Bernina I bought a few weeks ago came with a manual. The lady found it a few days after I bought it but in those few days, I searched for one online but it was only available as a paid download. Keeping information a secret bothers me enough but the fact is that these people didn't write the manual and have no right to sell them.
I'm quite certain they didn't get permission or pay Bernina for the right to make money selling their works.

I did the right thing here and asked Bernina if I could give the scan away. They said "You are more than welcome to pass on the  PDF book for this model machine for anyone that may need it."

So here it is. It's fairly low resolution and 4.4MB If you need it, feel free: The pdf is.

Bernina 642-1 semi-industrial 1960

I had my doubts as to whether a "semi-industrial" even exists, but it's just what Singer called "industrial - for home use" or "light industrial". The first sign is the motor, which seems as fast as an industrial - quite remarkable for such a small motor. This actually makes it hard to do some things, like, well, sewing slowly, embroidery etc. Real industrial machines never have an attached motor.
Unlike the 630/730/830 it has a full rotary hook, and still a vertical bobbin so you can do embroidery (in theory at least).
Also it's a flat bed machine, and no cam stack. It says on needlebar that it can be converted into a full automatic machine. I just Googled for this and couldn't find what an automatic machine is. Singer use the same terminology: In the adjuster's manual for the 206/306/319 series, they only list the 319 as automatic. Now the biggest difference between the 306 and the 319 is that the latter has a cam stack, or built-in stitch patterns. My new Bernina doesn't have a cam stack so I'll assume this is what it means. To be honest cam stacks are nice but who really uses them? I don't use decorative stitches for anything but demonstrating them as a feature and never when constructing a garment, so they won't be missed. During garment construction I only ever use zig-zag and straight stitch, which brings me to another feature of this machine: The longest stitch is really very long! Haven't measured it but it's longer than any domestic I have.
OK, on to the machine's specifics.
Bernina 642-1. 1960, straight stitch and zig-zag, super fast, flat bed and Bernina green a-la 730. Here's a picture:

She came in a really nice Swedish cabinet, too. My father is currently giving that the love it needs to look new again, but after cleaning I did some sewing with the head free standing. Nice but starts vibrating a bit at full speed. It was very clean probably due to being inside a cabinet. The previous owner used it all the time for a business, and the motor brushes were worn almost to the spring! It had the original green bobbin winder (it looked like it had melted), which I replaced with a more usable black one, and cleaned it for hours and am very happy with the result. It came with the original feet and some needles.
Didn't come with a manual but if the lady finds it she'll call me. They don't exist as free DLs anywhere on the Internet so if I get one, I'll scan it and make it available as a pdf, free of charge.
I'll update with cabinet pictures when dad has worked his magic.

Western Shirt

I was asked to make a western style shirt for quite a tall guy. The only shirt pattern I had in the appropriate size was Simplicity 7745, which isn't western at all. I only had to made one modification, pockets.
Made two instead of one, and changed the shape. It looks like this:

Shirt for James

Fabric came from the tip shop and buttons/thread from garage sales. Probably my thriftiest garment so far at around $3. Almost completely sewn on the 320K2, but as usual buttonholes done on the VS2.

Singer 15-1

This is a second one. The ad said it was from 1879. The seller got the serial number wrong and it's from 1888. Still, it has a bobbin winder and looks better than the other one.
I'll have to sell it in the cabinet, since I have no space (sad, right?).
After a few hours of cleaning it's working perfectly and I wish I could keep it to sew a garment with.
The 15 is an amazing machine and this is the only fiddle base machine Singer made with a round bobbin and standard needle.

MOP Singer 12 in the cabinet

The last lot of pics were sans cabinet, so here she is today (literally, just took these). The ridiculously lovely base was thanks to a rub with boiled linseed oil, which I also treated the wood with. It will provide rust protection, shine and cleanliness (until dust starts sticking to the oil of course).

Needles. 

According to ISMACS, the 12x1 was made by Schmetz under the designation 257 or 339 or 23:51 and by Groz-Beckert (no number given) but my local supplier has no listing whatever for this needle, meaning... (insert dramatic music here) they don't make them any longer. Well, this is no big surprise. According to the lady responsible for http://sewingtales.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/needles-and-my-singer-12/ if you can get one in there, a common 16x231 will work. Well, I tried and the needle clamp wouldn't play along (sigh).
My new best friend Steve in the U.S. is sending me a couple of his, and I'm ordering some old stock from a place in Switzerland just as soon as they let me know how to pay for them. If they come through I'll tell you who they are, but I won't recommend them if they're not reliable.
There's a lady on Etsy who sells them, but she won't ship outside the U.S. (boo!), Alex Askaroff has a few left apparently and you could get some massively overpriced ones from eBay. I find the latter to be full of people charging too much for everything. It seems to coincide with eBay's constant fee changes, like the fact that they charge you the selling fee plus postage. This means that if you sell something heavy (e.g. a machine head) to an overseas person for the  99c recommended starting bid and it costs $300 to send it to them, you not only lose the money you paid for the item, you're left with a $30 fee plus paypal charges! It used to be a great way to sell things but greed always seems to spoil these things.

Singer 12 Mother of Pearl

This is the most beautiful sewing machine I've ever seen. I bought it because it was obviously a stunning piece. The needles will be a bit of a problem, though. Not all that many Singer 12s being used these days, and they stopped making them quite a while ago (1903). I'm surprised they were made past 1890 actually. My machine was made in 1885. The stand is original and has 1st May 1885 cast into it.

In reality it's even more beautiful than this. The shimmering light on the mother of pearl is something special.
If I get some needles for it I'll post where I got them.