I was taught to sew by my mom at the relatively early age of 10. While my brother and sisters were out playing in the woods behind our house or caring for our horse, boarded down the road, I was designing and creating wedding attire for my dolls. Bride, groom, bridesmaids…shoes, bouquets, veils. I have been in love with everything about sewing since I can remember! When I was in 7th grade, Home Economics was a required class (for girls! How sexist! Ooops, that kind of ‘dates’ me doesn’t it?). I was pretty much beyond the requirements so my teacher was happy to modify! I remember making a fully lined jacket and a Holly Hobbie doll with hair made from mohair yarn, curled into little ringlets by wrapping it around a pencil and steaming it in place with the steam from an iron. I made the doll for my little sister, Melissa. Holly Hobbie spent her life, since then, in my mom’s cedar chest (a story for another day!) and Missy has recently given her back to me because I really wanted my Harlow to play with her and know about her. It was a very special thing; made with so much love!

So… yeah… in love with all things sewing…I bought this old sewing machine, a FIELD, in California (for an outrageous price). I insisted that it be brought with us to Pennsylvania, but alas, it did not survive the move well. One side was irreparably crushed. I still could not part with it. Love is love! Finally, I removed the drawers and I was using them to store scrapbooking stuff: glue, glitter, colored pencils, scissors… pretty! I thought that maybe I could remove the machine itself and use the cabinet as a planter, so that is what I did, fairly easy, right?

The DRAWERS! There had to be something more! I have seen drawers from old sewing machines in antique stores (and what a shame!) going for $15 to $30 each! I have 5 (one did not survive)!! What to do, what to do…? My initial idea was to make a ‘shadow box’ to hold some very precious childhood items that my sweetheart has procured from his mom, who saved them all these years for him, because, again, love is love! These things hold memories of love! For the purpose of this blog, I am not going to show that final product of my initial idea, I may at some later point, but for now I will just follow the sewing (love) theme.

The first thing I did was arrange the drawers to satisfy space and need requirements, also, to appeal to the eye! Remember however, all old sewing machines are not alike… the development of this project can only be used as inspiration!

I used a piece of the cabinet, that was no longer needed after I removed the machine and top, to fabricate a piece that would hold the entire box together for hanging. Again, this will vary from machine to machine.

    

I routed the pieces of leftover boards (boards from the top of the cabinet that I removed to allow the space for the plant) to fit over each adjoining set of drawers.

I used wood glue to adhere the joints, then waited for the glue to dry. You may notice that I used a picture frame (8×10) to create a nice even space between the drawers where there will be an open space. This helped ‘square’ it up, easy peasy!

I used more wood glue to adhere the fronts together where there were gaps and used clamps to secure it until it was dry. I added hanging hardware, made sure the heaviness of the box would not be an issue (proper wall consideration). AND….

There it is!! In all its glory! Showing off all of the antique (vintage…ha!) sewing related things I have collected (and once my mom knows what our obsessions are, gifted!) over the years.

My sister, Melissa, was sad when she discovered what the fate of the old Field sewing machine was to be… out in the elements, no drawers, machine removed. Ahhh, but it will live on! As a showcase for love!

 

My crocuses told me that Spring is finally here! I am not always sure about Punxsutawney Phil, but I always listen to my crocuses!

 Necessity Is The Mother:

So… I head out into the garden; the warm(er) weather refreshing and much anticipated! I get on my knees and start weeding one section; the ground is still wet from our latest, and hopefully last, snow. My Harlow alarm goes off! I have to pick her up at school in half an hour! My knees are covered with dirt so… to change or not to change? I change my jeans quickly and pick her up.

 Of Invention:

Back to the garden. Okay… to change or not to change… again! NO!! I need a garden knee pad. I don’t have one and the only thing waterproof and the least bit useful is a cat food bag that I just emptied. That could work, except that it is thin and maybe just a little padding would make it more comfortable. Oh! The thought process! 

What about one of the 5000 reusable shopping bags I own? Because, you know, if I forget them when I shop I have to buy more; I can’t be responsible for another plastic bag that takes like 3 million years to decompose. I’m sort of kidding there. Maybe. OR… maybe I really AM a bag lady/lady who loves bags.

Fill it with whatever; newspaper, bubble wrap, junk mail, sale flyers, other empty cat food bags. Fold it in half lengthwise. I used my fanciest duct tape; garden theme of course.(Seriously?! It was all I had on hand) Because I made two, the first with the large bubble wrap (was a little too puffy), I used one of the straps from it for the second. I also closed one end so I could perhaps carry or store gardening tools in it. 

There it is, the child!

I had another ‘child’ to share but this went a little long with the pictures so I will just have to publish another. It will be in the same category, Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention, where you will find more like this as I post. If you would like to subscribe to my blog,  Letters to Harlow click on the three dots in the banner at the top to access the menu. You can also choose to receive an email notifying you of new content.

I will leave you with this:

It isn’t about how you lived, but how you loved!