Sweet Singer

I must show off my recent thrifting score. 

You are looking at a 1966 Singer Style Mate in a great, trapezoidal sewing table. She is in good condition considering her age. Her body is a bit faded and  missing some easily replaceable items like a presser foot screw and presser feet, but she works for now! I can't wait to clean her up and take this baby for a spin! Here's how she looks when she's closed:

Groovy, right?
And here's a close up of the adorable blue sewing machine:

 

I suppose I should mention that I have a modern sewing machine. It's a Brother and it has way more bells and whistles than my cutie here. But does my 2009 model have this kind of charisma? Does it have her history? Does it have her gorgeous blue casing? No way!  I'm so in love, I just hope she still sews properly. I'll let you know when I find out. In the mean time I will be getting to know my Style Mate's User Manual, which I was able to download for free at http://www.singerco.com  It looks like you can get ANY Singer user manual from their site, which is extremely convenient.

Now that I'm finished gushing about my new toy, I wonder if anyone else still finds these vintage sewing machines charming.  Do you have an older model? If so, do you use it?

Frankendresser

 Some time ago, I rescued this abused dresser from a Goodwill: 

I plopped him in the dining room where he served as a depressing buffet for more than a year.  I knew right away that I would paint him, but there was the issue of the broken corner on the top (You can't see it in the photo, but the front, left corner of the top was barely hanging on.) What to do with that? Cut it off? Repair it? Replace the whole top? I couldn't decide. I was perusing Pinterest one day and found this Dresser to Bench project from chicstaginganddesign.blogspot.com.  Genius, right? This solved all of my problems from the chipped trim to the busted top; I could just hack it all off !  Here are a few progress shots:

I had an absolute blast ripping my dresser down to a bench. I didn't begin this project with a plan. Knowing what I wanted to achieve but not how to reach my goal, I basically  had to remove the drawers and unscrew some layers to see what I was working with. From there, I winged it. Experimenting and figuring things out is my idea of a good time. Add power tools to the mix and I'm in heaven. Here's the finished product:

 

I think he's looking quite dapper these days, sitting at the foot of our bed and holding our excess of pillows. I painted him white and gave him these knobs from Hobby Lobby. 

Do you have any unfinished projects lying around your home? Have you ever "just winged it" and hoped for the best?