A Stitch in Time

We have two old sewing machines in the studio which we use almost every week. Both are Swiss-made Bernina machines dating from the 1960’s which we bought reconditioned a few years ago. They came with many many miles on the clock and have done a few more marathons since.

We are lucky in Deptford to have a local sewing machine repair shop - now a rare find on a local High Street. The ever patient engineers there service the machines annually, giving them a good clean, oil and re-tune. But in between times we try to keep them well oiled and running smoothly.

Bernina domestic machines from this era in their palette of cream, moss green and mustard are familiar to a generation of ‘home economics’ schoolgirls - and it almost always was just girls then - as they were frequently the machine of choice for ILEA schools (Inner London Education Authority). Chosen for their robustness and durability, these machines are wonderfully simple in their mechanics. It is testimony to their quality that so many are still going strong - they are real work horses of the sewing world.

The only major piece of maintenance we have done recently is to repair one of the cases. The original tape binding had come unstuck and the stitching was disintegrating. Sara has replaced the original stitching with this rather fetching gold mercerized cotton yarn which should now last us another decade or two.