Sew What? - Albion Chieftain

Surprise find today, spotted a couple of chairs with a FREE sign on them. Thought they might be good as garden chairs until I got a proper look at them.




Not sure on the date of them, they're a bit 1970s Jentique looking. There might have been cloth or velour on the seats if they are from that era. The seat backs look a bit too modern to be 1950s so I don't think we missed out on any brown leathercloth for the Lanchester interior bits that are missing and need remaking.


A nice solid pair of old chairs at any rate, that are actually pretty comfortable too. Might recover the seat bases in the future, not really a fan of the beige vinyl, but they'll do just fine for now.

I'm going to give that a provisional yes please, I do like the opportunity to do a bit of downcycling.

Just spoke to my sister and they’re not carvers, they’re ordinary chairs like those ones. There’s four of them. She also has a matching gate-leg dining table that could go with them…

Chairs are here. Slightly different detail on the front legs at the bottom, but they look to be the same otherwise. Certainly from the same manufacturer/period. They were my brother-in-law’s mum’s. He’s not sure when they were new, but they definitely had them in the mid 60s. 



I have texted you, as I might be able to get over to yours tonight, or meet you somewhere (ooo-er) on my trip out to get some stuff for the Land-Rover.  

Our ones are the upcycled ones. 🤣🤣

You about tonight?

This week I make a unisex summer garment. Sewing a summer shirt from salvaged spa fabric on a Singer 201k.

Whole process from drafting the pattern to wearing the garment in about half an hour (view time, it takes a bit more than half an hour to actually make). A nice easy project, and a comfy one for the hot weather.

It was going to be woodwork this time. Instead, plans got messed up so I diverted and did a Rainbow Goth thing. Simplicity 4219 is a nice quick easy sew, I can make one of these shirts in a day since they're not complicated. Great for if you're starting out in re-enactment, doing a bit of cosplay, or like a bit of alternative fashion.

For setting up the Singer 201K I use, I do cover that in the Victorian/Edwardian shirt. This should timestamp to the right point, if not skip to 5:45



As for simple projects, probably the simplest is the Chinos adjustment (with Jones Model 105 review, though I'm not sure if that covers setting it up too).


Most older sewing machines (pre-1980 or so) thread the needle from right to left. Newer ones tend to thread the needle left to right. Except for ones that don't. Most machines thread in an N pattern, imagine drawing the N from right to left. Except ones that don't. Realistically, setting up a machine depends on the individual machine, while there's commonalities, finding out what machine you have and then doing a search online for that should bring up a diagram etc. on how best to set it up. There's a lot of sewing machine videos out there on Youtube too covering everything from design aesthetics to full mechanical rebuilds, just a case of finding one that matches or is similar to the one you're having trouble with.

To add to the complication, sewing machines seem to have a rudimentary level of intelligence, rather like a cat, and will do their best to go wrong when you have a deadline looming only to be perfectly fine when you don't.

The 99K is very similar to the 201K I use and is one of the best beginner machines out there. Really great parts support and lots of coverage on how to set them up, particularly since they have a following in the US which always helps with old tech.

The trickiest thing to set up is usually the tension. A bit like welders, once you find a setting that works for most of the things you do with the machine you don't really touch it again. The two settings for tension are usually a screw on the bobbin shuttle (the bit that goes underneath the machine and holds the thread), and a dial on the front of the machine (or side, or top, depending on the machine). You want the thread to pull through freely with just a little resistance as a base line and then fine tune based on what you're sewing from there.

Too much tension and the thread will snap, too little and it'll go loopy or one thread will just pull out as though you hadn't sewn anything at all. The tension is usually the thing that makes setting up a nightmare, it's a bit of an art. Once it is set, generally sewing is then trouble free, except for when it isn't.