Button And Cat Charm Earrings

    I finally made some earrings with the lever back ear wires I found at Fire Mountain when I bought my elastic cord for the elastic button bracelets.  For this project I also had to buy 24 gauge non tarnishing silver wire and I got that from an Etsy seller.  I found the cat charms on eBay a couple of years ago, they still sell them.  They come in a group of 50 and I have a bunch left even thought I've made other jewelry with them and given some away.  The cat charms are Tibetan silver and come from China.  They remind me of Laurel Burch cats without all the colors.  I found the blue and white buttons on Lots of Buttons.com.  I had the small beads and the jump rings in my small jewelry stash.

  To make the button earrings I had to have some on line help.  I used a tutorial from youtube by Potomac Bead Company to get me started.  The link is here.  The cat charms are just attached to the ear wires with gray thread.  So simple.

   These were fun to make, but they took me a couple of hours because I'm not very good at making jewelry and I had to take the button earrings apart several times before I was happy with the finish.

  I have a couple more pair of lever backs that I'm going to pair up with more buttons and I'm also in the process of making some button brooches with felt and pin backs.

My Christmas Present From Me To Me

   I finally found a Singer Model 221, commonly called a Featherweight, on ebay with a price I could afford.  I have been shopping on line for a Featherweight for a while now.  I've had a hard time finding a decent machine for a good price.  I've spent a lot of time reading seller's descriptions of Featherweights for sale.  I found a lot of sellers that have this type of machine for sale, they know that this machine is sought after, they price them high, but they can't even tell you whether the machine works because they don't know anything about them.  I wanted to buy one that was being thinned from the herd of a collector or to get one where the seller took the time to have the machine serviced, could tell me it worked and wasn't overpriced.  

   I had to go on line to find my machine because there is no market for vintage sewing machines in my area.  I've been checking my local Craigslist and I even checked with a sewing machine repair guy in town to see if he had any vintage machines but he only had one, it was a Singer 404 without any extras.  I didn't want it.

   So this is the machine I bought from the ebay seller.  It was made in 1949 and has the striated face plate.  I love how shiny the presser feet are because lots of times they are kind of rusty and need cleaning, there is also an owner's manual, a buttonholer, and a cool screwdriver.  The seller said they recently had it serviced and oiled, and that it runs well.  I requested that the seller double box the machine for shipping which they agreed to.

    I ordered some extra bobbins and a 1/4" patchwork foot for the machine.  I will use it for piecing quilts and simple projects.  This machine will be kept set up on my sewing table.  Estimated delivery of the machine is December 2.