Good Witch of the North

School Production of Wizard of Oz.  Daughter played Good Witch of the North - a character in the book, but not in the movie.  March 2016

The Story of Lula: A Singer Treadle Sewing Machine

In my last post, I mentioned an old singer treadle sewing machine, owned by my great-grandmother, Lula Rich Carter.  Thinking about the machine made me nostalgic, and I decided to restore it and put it back into service.  This has occupied a great deal of my time over the last few days.  My husband casually asked, "So what's the story with this old machine".

As is often the case, this story starts off with two people who fell in love....

 Addison Carter & Lula Rich Carter

As told by Kathryn Carter Brown

October 1993

These two wonderful people started their life together in a potato house.  Now a potato house was a little “A” shaped building constructed on top of the ground.  It was covered in straw with dirt packed on top.  There was a small door -- just large enough to crawl through.  It was called a potato house because each year when the sweet potatoes were dug, they were stored in there for the winter.

When Addison and Lula decided to get married on September 8, 1915, there were no potatoes in the house.  Because they had decided to slip away together in secret, they came up with a plan.  Lula was to pack her suitcase and hide it in the potato house the night before they eloped and Addison would pick it up before the morning.

On the night of September 7th, Addison crept secretly to the potato house to pick up Lula’s suitcase.   He got down on his knees to crawl in and the first thing he felt was a shoe!  He thought that Lula’s father had discovered their plan and was waiting for him in the potato house. Addison thought he was in big trouble.  He got out of that potato house faster than he went in and left the suitcase behind.

After he calmed down a bit, Addison finally got up the nerve to go back in again.  What he found was that his future wife had so many clothes that she could not fit them all in the suitcase.  She had tied her shoes onto the handle!

*   *   *

In 1918, Lula purchased a used Singer Treadle sewing machine.  It was a model 127 and was manufactured in Singer's facility in Elizabeth, NJ sometime after December 1915.

Singer Factory in Elizabeth, NJ

No one remembers how much she paid for the machine, but based on records of the time, it likely would have been around $25 to $30, which is equal to about $580 to $690 in today's market.  This was clearly an important purchase.  Lula used this machine to make clothes for the family for many, many years.  She passed away on January 14, 1967 at the age of 80.  

When I was a small child, I would visit my grandparents and I was fascinated by the treadle.  The oak veneers were chipping off the top, and the leather belt which drove the machine had long since broken.  It is unknown how long the machine had been idle before I took an interest.  On one visit, I pestered my family to the point that they asked my mother's cousin to come over and fix the machine.  He came over one evening, installed a new leather belt and the machine worked just fine.  I was thrilled.  My new favorite past time at my grandparents' house was sewing on this old treadle machine.

In 1983, my grandfather passed away and my mother and her siblings gathered to distribute the household possessions.  My mother asked if she could have the sewing machine for me.  No one objected, and I'm now very privileged to own this machine.  My father and I restored the cabinet and metal frame in the summer of 1983.  I stripped and refinished the wood and metal parts of the cabinet, my dad installed a new oak veneer on the top.  There is a deep gouge in the cabinet, and I did not repair it.  My mother believes it was carved by her brother, Addison, who passed away in 1955 from a firearm accident.  He was seventeen years old.

I used the machine until 1988, when I purchased a new Bernina sewing machine.  I eventually removed the old singer machine from the cabinet.  The cabinet traveled with me as I moved first to Pennsylvania and then to California.  The machine remained in my parents attic for over 20 years.  This past Thanksgiving, we boxed up the machine and shipped it to California.  It's been on my workbench for almost two weeks, and I'm very close to getting it back into service.  I've started calling it "Lula", in memory of the remarkable woman who sewed for her family for many years.

"Lula"- partially disassembled and before any cleaning.

Growth Spurts, Thriftiness and Favorite Tee Shirts

My great grandmother made clothes for her family.  She sewed on Singer treadle sewing machine, purchased in 1918, three years after she married.  I'm very proud to own that machine and sewed on it for several years before I purchased a new one.

My mother often told me the story of a dress Granny made for her.  My mother's version of the story was that Granny didn't have enough fabric, so she cut a ruffle and sewed it to the bottom, but the ruffle had the stripes going the wrong way.  Years later, I saw a photo of my mother wearing a dress of that description, and to be honest, I thought looked nice.  The ruffle using opposite direction stripes was a nice design element, but in my mother's memory, this was an example of how thrifty they had to be. I don't think she liked the dress very much.

When I was young, I came home one day complaining of being teased for wearing 'highwater' pants.  After letting the hem out a few inches, my mother covered the white, worn hem edge with red ricrac trim.  Now it was my turn to be horrified.  I think I flat out refused to wear them.

Fast forward .... My daughter has a favorite tee-shirt.  It's become way too short.  And her school, thankfully, does not allow midriff attire (intentional or not).   My suggestion to retire the shirt was not well received.  I offered up a possible solution - maybe we could sew a pale green ruffle on the bottom.  To my great surprise, she loved the idea, and immediately asked if I could put ruffles on all of her tee shirts.

So Necessity is the mother of Invention, whether it's squeezing a dress out of too little fabric, making a pair of pants last a bit longer, or sparing your daughter the sadness of letting go a favorite shirt.  I hope Granny would be proud.

Fun Baking Tip

Save your empty baking powder cans.  They have a nice edge to level the measuring spoon.  Fill the empties with salt and baking soda.  These are three common ingredients for many quick breads and pancakes.  Print out the appropriate label.  For things you bake often, edit the label to include specific measurements for salt, soda and powder.  This makes a handy reference.  I can remember that my pancakes need one cup of flour, one cup of buttermilk and one egg, but I can never remember exactly how much salt, baking soda and baking powder.  A quick look at the side of the can and I have no need to dig up my recipe!

Faux Amazonite Necklace

Finished stringing my faux amazonite into a three strand necklace.  Looks great with a brown top.

A Dress for Daughter

A new dress for my daughter.  She picked out the fabric for the skirt and I made the dress around it.  She wore it for her school picture last week. 

A Quilt for Mom

 

I purchased this kit from my neighborhood quilt store, Cotton and Chocolate.  The pattern is 19th Century Reds.  I made this as a gift for my mom, who is so very dear to me.   The batting is wool.  I am lucky to live near Andrea Gillingham, whose work has been featured on the cover of Quilt Sampler Magazine (Spring/Summer 2012).  She's a very talented machine quilter.  She uses a Gammill long arm, but her work is hand guided, and anyone who has ever used a long arm machine knows that this is hard work and not easy to do.  She has done several quilts for me and they are all spectacular.

Pattern:   Joanie Holton and Melanie Greseth for Windham

Fabric Collection:  19th Century Reds, c. 1875  Windham Fabrics              

Quilting:  Machine quilted by Andrea Gillingham

Binding:  Patti Adams

58" x 74"

Simi Valley, CA - April 2013