Antique Leather Sewing Kit

Hello

When clearing out our late Aunt's flat, my sister found this handy sewing kit and thought I would like it.

The zip had started to come away, the leather strip its attached to is very brittle and had torn away.

My Aunt used to do a lot of cutwork embroidery and she has obviously used these curved scissors as the fabric behind the keeper is very worn with lots of use.   I've never really thought of using curved scissors when sewing so had a go with these, they cut the thread very close to the fabric which is useful.  I don't think the other pair of narrow curved scissors are original as they don't seem to fit the slot in the case very well and they are of a different design.  The ribbon/elastic pullers are a useful thing to have, they beat a nappy pin!

A matching needle case.

I reattached the zip using the Singer 201K, then gave the case a good polish with navy shoe polish, added a bit of ribbon on the zip pull.

Couldn't do much with the inside, the watermarked moire silk is a bit grubby.   If anyone has any suggestions on how to clean this, I am all ears.

There is a makers marker J.C. Vickery, Regent Street.  W1.  Which made me wonder.   So I Googled, don't you just love being able to do that?

Came up with this info.

JC Vickery took over the shop in 1854 and expanded the stock to include jewellery, dressing cases, gold and silver.  The height of the business was before WW1 obtaining Royal Warrants. They were known for their high class leather goods so that's why this has survived for so long.  The business was taken over by James Walker Ltd in the 1930 when JC Vickery went into administration.

There is even a Facebook page dedicated to the company  https://www.facebook.com/jcvickery/

So I am guessing this was made in the 1920s, I couldn't work out how my Aunt had ended up with a posh sewing kit from Regent Street.  My sister came up with the possible answer.  My Aunt was sent into service as soon as she became old enough.  Her father had come back from WW1, he stayed at home for a while before being admitted into a Sanatorium in York, I expect it was shell shock.  He never returned home and they split up for good.  So money was tight for my Grandmother with 5 children.  Aunty Mary ended up at Middleham in a big house as some sort of domestic servant so this is probably where this came from.  The dates work as she will have been there in the late 20s early 30s.  My Aunt was 99 when she died a few years ago.  I can't remember seeing her sew but she was a great sock knitter when I was a little girl.

Cheers

Sharon

Singer 222K Featherweight - Darning and Patching Trousers

Hello

I had another play with my new to me 222K.  It's a novelty for me to have a machine with a free arm.

First fixed my partner's work jeans, he had torn the knee when doing some work in the garage on his car.

Pulled the jeans leg over the free arm then using a rectangle patch that I had already made.  Sewed 2 sides on the machine, there was just enough wiggle room to turn the corner.   Then turned the jeans around so the waist end went on the freearm first, sewed the other 2 sides.

Turned the jeans inside out, tucked in the frayed edges and machined round so that he wouldn't catch his toes when putting them the jeans on.

His tatty jeans will last a bit longer.

The 222K was powerful enough to sail through the layers of thick fabric.  Brill.

Onto the darning, my lovely customer Don who is 85 said he was going to re-darn his work trousers.  So I offered my services as darner.  Was really keen to try out my new darning hoop recently bought on Ebay.

Took out all the old darning threads.  Glued a patch on the back of the tear so that I had something to darn to (it held the tear together as well).  I left the frayed threads on the edges of the tear, you are supposed to tidy the edges.

Original 222K hoop and darning foot.

The hoop snaps together.

It has a post on the back that slots into a square hole on the bed, then the hoop swings round.

Material goes over bottom hoop then the top clips over the fabric except as this was thick fabric, it was tricky to get it to clip together but just holding the hoop held the top in place.  When you put the foot on, there is only one place to put it, as you drop the foot the lever hardly drops down, this is normal.  It drops enough to engage the tension.  There is no mention of this in the instructions so a bit confusing when you first use it as you are used to the lever dropping right down.  There is a little sticky out bit lever above the spring, you can use this to lift the foot up to get the fabric and hoop underneath.

YOU MUST DROP THE FEED DOGS BEFORE SEWING. Its easy on the 222K there is a lever next to the stitch length lever.  Set the stitch length to 12.

The hoop moves easily in all directions whether is up and down or side to side, its a joy to use.

Pick up your bottom thread and bring to the top by turning the hand wheel.  Holding both ends start sewing, cutting off the ends when you have done a few stitches.  Sew around the edges of the tear, as you look at the picture below sew up and down fairly close together, once you get the end of the space in the hoop, go back the way you came sewing side to side.  If the tear is big like this one, you will have to move the fabric in the hoop.  It's easy to cut the threads off, reset the hoop and start again, this tear took 3 hoop moves.

My first darn on the 222K.  I trimmed any excess fabric off the patch on the inside close to the stitching.

 My second darn. This was a smaller hole so didn't put any fabric behind it.

The 222K was designed as a darning machine, it was something that everyone did, darn and repair.  They didn't just throw clothes away because they had a hole in.  They repaired them.  It will be brilliant at repairing vintage table cloths etc.  Will have a go and let you see the results.

Happy days.

Sharon
PS it took much longer to write this post than it did to darn the trews!  Hope it makes sense! Any questions just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer.