Necchi Lelia 513 : Lelia

She is one of the first machines in my collection - it was actually a while back when I got her.  Ever since I heard that the Necchis were great machine, I've wanted one. I also wanted a pink machine. Not long after I set my heart on finding a Necchi, Lelia showed up! I felt quite lucky since these don't come up very often in my area.  She was made in Italy, sometime in the mid to late 60s.

When I began looking for a Necchi, I joined the Necchi Yahoo group. I've learned much from the group.  It's a great source of info on older Necchi machines, and to get to know other Necchi lovers. 

I bought my Necchi Lelia from a person who had hoped to learn how to sew but never got around to doing so and she eventually gave up on the idea. Lelia is actually more like salmon pink than "pink" pink.  

She came in this pretty and compact cabinet. However, when I got her, she didn't move! Luckily, it was just the broken foot pedal - easy to replace. 

Like many things Italian, I was fascinated with Necchi's design. Sewing machines, as I previously knew them, didn't look all that sleek and, well, so fashionable at the same time being a reliable workhorse.  I mean, think about it. This sewing machine company named every single one of their machines with a cool real people name. Julia, Mira, Lelia, Lydia, etc., and not just with numbers. How cool is that?

I love her pretty two-tone color. 

Older Necchi sewing machines enjoyed fabulous reputations. Those all metal machines are what most collectors want. The Necchi collectors are not at all interested in modern Necchi machines that are no longer made in Italy - newer ones are no longer metal inside, and completely different. The vintage Necchis have a great reputation for leather and canvas sewing. 

I haven't sewn leather or really thick canvas on her yet, but I love the way she hums along. She actually makes this really soothing sound when she sews. Despite her sweet appearance, she is quite solid, and she's not even the top model machine of Necchi. She's a very basic zig-zag machine. She has three needle positions. I love machines with multiple needle positions. Just makes sense, and totally handy.

There's just one thing about her. This plastic dial knob thing is a buttonhole regulator and it is jammed stuck. I'm afraid I'd break the knob, so I'm leaving it alone. I figure, I have other machines I can use for buttonholes.

Love the "N" decal on its bed. The letter design is whimsical.

I usually sew garments on my Bernina 1230. When I have smaller projects, I'd like to get a different sewing machine out and sew on it. It's not really good to have those all metal machines sit idle for too long. They really need to be used, the machine needs to be oiled, and the motor needs to be run. 

My son needed a new pencil case. His old one is cracked broken. (I tell you, those plastic things!) So I decided to take Lelia out for a drive. I haven't sewn on her for a while. I used a leftover fabric from my son's journal book cover project. It was a couple of years ago - he chose the fabric himself. 

In fact, we've been trying to figure out what to use it for ever since he saw me using it for a gift wrapping sack this past holiday season. He was like, "oh~, I really liked that fabric....." (Translation: Mom! How dare you used MY fabric without my permission! I'm jealous!) Well, the gift wrap sack was kinda cute. I called it a "bubble wrap". But I got the message.

Anyway.  Worry not, my son. There was still plenty left to make something.  Here it is. A giant pencil pouch. It needed to be big enough to carry a scotch tape, compass, scissors, in addition to pens and pencils. 

 

I used a couple of scrap fabric pieces from the Zero Landfill event for the liner. 

I used the tutorial from here. I was originally inspired by Dawn's "Two On, Two Off" blog. This was so fun and fast to make. I was so pleased with it that I made another one for carrying my knitting supply!

For the zipper pull, I used this little beaded puppy my mother's friend made.

It was a date night with Lelia. I'm glad I took her out on a spin. 

 Do you like the little boom box with pink flower design that is keeping Lelia company?! (Really. I bought it for Lelia. They look great together!)

Now, I want a lavender Julia. Where are you~?!

Aloha ~! Improv Bag for Pineapple Sam

Another improv bag.

This bag's dimensions were dictated by the picture pattern of the fabric. I usually have the colorful fabric part in the middle to be a lot narrower, but this one, I couldn't cut it any narrower than this for the obvious reason.

This fabric is a fat quarter (newly learned quilter lingo!) that I got from a quilter when I bought an Elna machine from her a few months ago (well, I promise to talk about the machine on another post).  I would have made the pocket on the other side a little bigger if I had more fabric.

This bag is for Pineapple Sam. Pineapple Sam is from Hawaii. He is a vintage Hawaiian and Pacific Islands  music collector.  His dad, Bill Akamuhou, was a renowned musician in the 40's~50's primarily performing in Honolulu. He recorded and cut some albums.  You can sample listen a couple of his songs here - these two songs are available on this mainstream site.

The interesting thing about all this is that no one really knows how many records are out there that contain his songs. Sometimes Pineapple Sam buys a record without even knowing that it contains Bill Akamuhou's song until he reads the liner notes. It's nice that his music continues to live on and be loved even though he is no longer with us on this planet. 

This is Bill.

Pineapple Sam knows a ton about Hawaiian music from the era. He said he also hung around the musicians who played with his dad as he went to rehearsals and performances with his dad. What a gift, growing up around musicians! So much fun. 

Here is another photo of Bill Akamuhou with his fellow musicians. 

Anyway, Pineapple Sam collects old vinyls. LPs. (Younglings out there, do you know what those are? I guess they are making a comeback these days.) The bag is wide enough to carry LPs. His records and CD collection habit is just as bad as my vintage sewing machine collection habit.

The applique for this bag, of course, is a pineapple!

I chose a lighter colored canvas for this bag to really accentuate the sky and ocean blue color of the fabric. The canvas fabric is from the Zero Landfil event. I made the bag simple and clean looking because the focal point of this bag really is the picture of the beautiful Diamond Head and the surrounding ocean and sky blue.

 Pineapple Sam and me in Hawaii.

 Pineapple Sam DJs a vintage Hawaiian music show once a month on the radio. The first Sunday of every month, 5-7pm Pacific Time, on KSER 90.7FM.

You can stream online at www.kser.org  from anywhere either live or you can even listen to the program now. It's on the archive tab on the website above. The program is called "Da Coconut Wireless". It is on every Sunday, but their DJs rotate, and play different types of Hawaiian music. If you want to listen to some nice vintage Hawaiian nostalgia, look for the first Sunday of the month program that is hosted by Pineapple Sam!

Aloha~!

Improv Bag with Zero Landfil Treasures

I love making bags. Well, I love bags, period. I have many for myself (ha ha), and I keep on making them. 

Remember the Zero Landfil event I went to? I came home with a ton of upholstery fabric samples. I have planned to make mostly bags with them. I pulled out a few pieces in greenish, brownish color scheme.

Then I went on making the bag. I had no plan in terms of designs except for the approximate size of the bag.  I love this process of improvising and watching the bag evolve. Many design bits come as I sew. Sometimes the idea comes after I've sewn some parts so that I have to either undo what I'd already done, or I have to sew it "the hard way." But it's fun. I just love the process of coming up with new ideas and design bits as I sew the bag.

This one has a big pocket here on the front. I was originally going to sew all four sides of both squares, just to use it as a giant square applique. But at the last second, I decided that the upper one  would be a pocket. I added a button and a button loop.

This bag is for my friend, Jillian.  I think she would like lots of pockets, so I added a pocket inside the bag, as well as on the other side of the bag.

A little birdie applique. The eye placement was a total coincidence. Isn't that perfect?!

I will fill the bag with some goodies and give to Jillian.

Well, I put my garment making on hold to make a few bags as holiday gifts. Some of my friends are getting these market bags!

By the way, I am LOVING my improv bag.

It's perfect for my knitting project!! It's the perfect size.  The bag goes everywhere with me. The more I use it, the more I'm loving it.  The size, the weight, the design, the color, the whole thing.  I'm very happy with it. Just the right thing!

Happy Sewing, everyone.

ZeroLandfill Event - Fabric Bonanza!

I went to this event called ZeroLandfill a few Sundays ago. I'm telling you, it's worth finding out if they have a local chapter in your area!  It's an event where local architectural firms and design firms donate their unwanted samples and materials of all sorts (otherwise destined to a dump) and you can go "shop" free.  That's right.  They want you to take them all away, as many as you want.  I just got to know about it about a month ago. What a fantastic idea!! What was I after? FABRICS (what else?!)

It opened at 11am, but I had a prior commitment and I wasn't able to get there until several hours later. When I got their with my friend, Jillian, people at the front desk said; "Come earlier next time -- it's mostly gone now" What?!

Well, I think everything is relative. There were still PLENTY of stuff there, especially if you were interested in fabrics and textile materials.  That's all I was interested in. I wasn't looking for paints, building materials, tiles, or anything else.

OMG!  All the fabric samples and leftovers!! Since I love making bags, these upholstery fabrics are perfect.  There were fairly large size pieces, too. Large enough to be the base of a canvas market bag. Lots and lots of small sample size fabrics, just perfect for embellishments of bags, purses, garments, and what else?!

I can't imagine what they had when they just opened the door that morning. Anyway, we overshopped, stuffed my car, and happily went home with lots of ideas and inspirations.

I got home, and immediately unpacked and organized the pieces I picked up!

Look at all these 'books' of fabric swatches.

I took SO many. I have enough materials to make hundreds of bags, or whatever little things I want to make~! Many, many beautiful pieces. Colors, materials - oh, so pretty.

Some are larger than 10 x 10, some smaller.  These are all samples that interior designers and furniture makers show to their clients for custom furniture and home deco.

I picked up --- maybe 10 big fat 'books' of fabric swatches.

Many high quality fabrics. Wool, chenille, brocade, canvas, cotton, nylon, and, and, and....  Not pictured here, but there are also larger, thicker materials (probably intended for curtains) that are perfect for bags. These photos I'm showing here are all, well, mostly for embellishments.

My head was spinning with inspirations. Oh, I so wish I had all day and everyday to play with all this. I have already made a pretty market bag with red accent fabric pieces for a friend's birthday gift. What else can I make besides bags????

I made a foot pedal bag for Jeri Bee, my New Home sewing machine. Here are the two pieces I chose. They are each about 10" x 10".

I just noticed that I've been attracted to the color green lately.  Hmm, interesting.

Here is a pouch to hold Jeri Bee's foot pedal and her tin of goodies as there was no place inside the case to safely keep them without risking scratching Jeri Bee's beautiful exterior.

And here is how the pouch sits just perfectly and snugly.

And when I put the case cover/lid on, I can't help noticing this cute little detail. The handle is made of plastic trying to look like leather.