Tammy's Craft Emporium: September 2010

Friday, September 24, 2010

1976 Elna Air Electronic TSP

Manufactured in Switzerland. Isn't it pretty? I bought it used in Brandon for $55 CAD from a lady who was replaced it with a Husqvarna Designer machine from the 1990s.

The manual is well-written and easy to follow. This sweet little machine arrived at the craft emporium in perfect running order. All it required some cleaning. Elna came with her manuals X 2, bobbins and accessories.

After I cleaned her up, I sewed six nylon shopping bags with it while watching movies. Elna sews lovely precise stitches! Then I bought a used green steel Elna case from the Brandon Sewing Centre for it. Elna along with the shopping bags and some knitted dishcloths was gifted to my lovely niece who is moving to Alaska! A huge thanks to Lindsay who scanned book 1 of her manual for free downloading to anyone who needs it. If you do download it, will you please leave a comment here so I know this was helpful?

Saturday, September 18, 2010

90 Years Young! Happy Birthday Art!

This is a half slab black forest cake purchased from the Heritage Coop Bakery in Brandon. Yummy!

This is my father-in-law! :D

His sons

Grand-daughter with her fiancée.

Great grand-daughter and grand-daughter.

Common-in-law boyfriend & grand-daughter.

Grand-daughter & Daughter-in-law.

Grandpa & Girlfriend

Personal Care Home Lady & Grandpa

Blowing out the candles! Then the batteries on my camera went dead... sad..sad.. sad. ~ no more photos for me. :-(

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Necchi Lelia 513 Instruction Manual

Today I scanned and uploaded the instruction manual to google docs. Please feel free to download and enjoy. If you do use it, would you please leave a comment here so I know this link was helpful.

Have a super duper day!

I received and replied to this email which may be helpful to others.

Hi,
My name is Patricia and I'm in the East Bay of CA. I found you via the
blog Zigzaggers, which came up in my search to find info on fixing my
Lelia's feed dog issue. I am hoping to pick you brain a bit further.
I do belong to the Necchi user group and have posted this question
there, but no joy! Here is what I wrote/how I can best explain it:
I've been a very happy owner of a Lelia 513 for about a year now. I
bought her in superb condition, with alot of great feet and right away
bought Triflow oil and made sure I kept the machine properly oiled.
I love the stitches and the heavy duty aspect of this machine, it has
taken me a year to truly get to know it. I clean, oil and trouble
shoot using the user's manual and the service manual.
However a few months ago I did start to have some problems with my
feed dog. It seemed to drop and I couldn't get it back up. I did tons
of research and found info about cleaning, oiling and 'unfreezing' the
feed dog mechanism.
I did the whole alcohol clean up, put in tons of oil and then use a
hair dryer. But the lever just goes up/down seemingly not attached to
anything.
I have a feeling I'm not aiming the hairdryer in the proper place.
Where exactly do I aim the heat from the hairdryer? Is there anything
else I can possibly try to get my feed dog to drop up and down?
Tammy, if you have any insight or advice you can give I would be
eternally grateful!
Best, Patricia

Hi Patricia,
Before you try anything more..did your feed dogs ever drop? If you have visited my blog you know I collect vintage machines. Right now my Lelia is set up for free motion quilting with the feed dogs down. Here is how it works on the Necchi 513. When the plastic lever is pushed down the feed dogs are disengaged. This is not automatic I have to turn the hand wheel towards me. The same is true to raise the feed dogs, I flip the plastic lever up and rotate the hand wheel then the feed dogs re-engage. This is different than my other vintage machines where button or lever raises and lowers the feed dogs automatically. Would you please try this and let me know if your issue is resolved?

Happy Sewing.