I made a little video about stitching detailed appliques, uploaded it to YouTube and added some annotations/notes (not sure if they can be seen in all browsers?)
This machine may date to the 70s (maybe 60s?) I’ve had it since 1995, the second walking foot machine I ever bought.
(I’d like to give a shout-out to Maurice at City Service Sewing Machines, he’s the best in town.)
Please check it out, and let me know what you think!
Thanks xoxo JNA
Kiddo #1 watched me sewing, got a bit quiet and said he wished he were a girl. Why? Because girls get to do things like sew. Of course I told him some men sew, and in some cultures men knit rather than women, which cheered him up. And I promised to teach him once he was old enough to run a machine safely (I forget if I was 7, 8 or 9 when I learned? 10 with knitting though I know kids learn much younger.)
Then he asked how a sewing machine works. We found two animations online: here, and here. Timing is everything 🙂 and once it gets out of whack you have to re-time or get serviced (if you’re in Austin, I very highly recommend Maurice at City Service Sewing Machine.)
The machine I usually work on is a walking foot (though my needle moves up and down without the forward-backward motion shown in the video.)
Growing up pre-Internet, we just had a How Everything Works book, nearby library, or Dad to consult. Though most times we figured it out, animation or video (or even good diagrams!) would have been really helpful.