My New Baby

We have a new addition to our family!  No, it's not a new baby or a cute little pet.  It's a Consew 206RB-5!  Up until about a month ago, I wouldn't have known what that was.  Well, I purchased a new-to-me industrial sewing machine.  It has been long journey from June 29th when I picked it up until now but I can't tell you how much I love my machine.  Clearly enough to be writing on a Saturday night.

Let's travel back to June 29th.  I found a machine for sale on Craigslist, contacted the seller and went to look at the machine that very night.  My husband, two children and myself went to look at the machine, probably buy it and haul it home.  When I sat down at the machine, I really didn't know what I was doing.  The owner was encouraging and assured me it would get easier with practice.  So we went to load up the machine in our FJ Cruiser.  I should quickly describe the machine.  It has a 75lb, I assume, cast iron head (the working part of the machine,) a table it is mounted on and a large clutch motor below the table.  Pretty major! Now, as we were loading the machine we had to tip the table and the head fell off.  I nearly died.  We thought it was heavy duty and were sure it weathered the collision.

I got the machine home and realized I left the oil with the previous owner.  This machine is oiled every 8 hours and there are at least 21 spots to oil!  Without oil, there was no sewing and this was the Fourth of July weekend.  On Tuesday, July 5th, I headed to T.J. Elias, my sewing machine extroidenaires.
I bought oil and headed home to my baby.  After oiling the machine, I tried it.  The needle wouldn't go up and down easily.  The wheel on the end where it dropped was sticking.  Uh-Oh!  Without going into every detail of my machine's repair, after bringing it in 2 more times, spending about $200 in repairs and thread, I have the machine working.  It is a dream.  I am creating bags out of vinyl and they are fun!  As you can see in the photos, they are not just your ordinary bag.  The adventure of buying a new machine has taught me patience.  The end result is well worth it!