Okies in the BYC The Original

[faerielady]

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My mom always used pennies. Figured nobody would notice a missing penny or two or four.

 

[nnbreeder]

The method she used was to get all of the hems sewed up leaving the corners open. then she would hang the curtains and start adding weight. Too much and it would look strained, too little and the corners would curl. When the right balance was found she would close the end of the hem and then sew around the weight which kept it in place.

I still have her machine too. It was state of the art back in '75 when she got it and will do just about anything but cook you a meal. I know it will use 2 needles and I believe that it will accept up to four for fancy stitches. Still have the original book for it too.

 

[faerielady]

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That's a great family heirloom

My sister has her mother in law's original machine... turns out when she went to get it that it was her mother in law's *mother's* old machine, an old Singer treadle sewing machine that would sew through three layers of leather.

Weighs about a ton too.

 

[osukrazykate]

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I heard this before, don't remember where, but it makes total sense. I was also reading about putting magnets along the sides if you are making it fitted into the window so you could make it cling to the window edges and seal the window some to insulate.

 

[faerielady]

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That was the only time he ever asked me to do anything with his uniform... I also believe that if you wear it, you're gonna be the one to starch and press it! I made sure to use his money to pay for the tailor too.

 

[osukrazykate]

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That was the only time he ever asked me to do anything with his uniform... I also believe that if you wear it, you're gonna be the one to starch and press it! I made sure to use his money to pay for the tailor too.

Yeah, I had to sew on my own patches by hand when I was in the military. Oh yeah, I can sew by hand and can do cross stitches and such. Just never learned how to use the sewing machine. I guess my sisters got all of those talents from my mom. For some reason I was left out on that part, probably because I was outside climbing in the trees or something. My mom gave me her old machine several years ago, but I couldn't ever figure out how to thread the darn thing. That is why I thought buying a new one that had a book to teach me would be a good idea. Besides maybe it has more advancements to it than my moms old machine from the early 70's if not older.

 

[nnbreeder]

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I heard this before, don't remember where, but it makes total sense. I was also reading about putting magnets along the sides if you are making it fitted into the window so you could make it cling to the window edges and seal the window some to insulate.

Most windows today are made of either aluminum or vinyl, neither are magnetic. Some of the older windows from the 70s and early 80s were vinyl clad steel though. Velcro works very well to seal the edges. Some will make an insulated blanket that just fits the inside of the window frame and attach velcro all around the edges to make a seal. These are only used at night when heat loss through the glass is the greatest.

 

[faerielady]

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Just watched the cnn video... pretty cool

Oh, and I'm still a chicken rebel. My particular little "city" passed a poultry ban on Nov 1, 2008.

 

[Plain Old Dee]

Most of the military wives I know take the uniforms to the tailor to have the patches sewn on. My mother in law is an excellent seamstress - nothing fazes her - she can make anything - and uses an old 1930's era Singer that only does a straight stitch. (It was originally a treadle machine that belonged to my husband's grandmother, but his grandfather in law put an electric motor on it for her sometime in the late '40's or early '50's). Even she took my father in law's uniforms to a tailor on base for patches. She also refused to iron his dress blues and dress whites - they were sent to the cleaners on base.

I used fishing weights for curtains once - and only once. Talk about a mistake! We use an attic fan when the weather is warm - until it's just too hot at night to sleep. I made curtains for the living room windows. The weights broke out one of the windows, and put more than one knot on my head! I know - too much weight - but I won't use weights again!

 

[faerielady]

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I figured that the military sent me home from BMT after pulling my eyesight waiver, I be darned if I'm going to press a military uniform!

Actually, honestly... there's too many rules. Too many ways to mess it up. EASY ways to mess them up. Even J takes his uniforms (both DAF cop and USMC dress uniforms) to the cleaners... much smaller likelihood of them getting messed up.