My sewing room has had a lot of work done to it lately. As part of my Christmas present, my hubby built me a peg board. It's made a huge difference! Here is what my area looked like before:

And here is after (and yes, the wooden dummy is still on the other side of the room):


All that stuff on the peg board was on my sewing table! Which meant I only had the area right in front of the sewing room to sew. Ridiculous!


Now, I even have room to leave my serger out and ready to go.

And here is my 'new' sewing machine:


It's a circa. 1978 Singer Stylist 533 that my dad bought for my mom for Christmas when it was new. It's the sewing machine I learned to sew on! I spent a few hours taking it apart, cleaning out all the lint, and oiling it. I was happy to see how many gears and parts were metal and not plastic.

This is what it replaced:


This was my 1991 Singer 3343C. So much more plastic! It's still a heavy machine, but it doesn't do what I want it to (ie. sew through 4 or more layers without skipping stitches and struggling). I had so many issues, like not being able to finish my winter jacket.

In comparison, the older Singer 533 is a dream! It sounds so beautiful when it runs. I tried sewing on a thick piece of twill to see how it would work. I just kept folding and folding it and sewed 12 layers with no problem!


This machine also has one extra feature that the Singer 3343C doesn't. The Singer 533 has a pressure foot adjustment dial. Now I can control tread tension and foot plate tension!


Now, I should have no problem sewing thick or tricky fabrics.