Before & After: Vintage Sewing Desk

Remember that sewing desk from almost a year ago? Well, it's finally out of the garage! :)

{click to enlarge}

 I used the Rustoleum Furniture Transformations kit in Winter Fog for the desk. My husband was so nice and painted it for me. We only had enough for the exterior, both sides of the doors and their shelves. The interior we just gave a good cleaning and left it unpainted. We did need more paint for touch ups so I brought one of the shelves to get it color matched and then got a sample size in a flat finish. It's a teeny bit lighter but you'd never notice unless I point it out.

I found the prettiest blue glass knobs at Hobby Lobby and waited until they were half off to purchase four of them. All the other hardware is original and unpainted. I purposely did that because the new knobs had some brass on them so they matched the original hardware. My husband had to jimmy rig them a bit because of the free arm movement, but he made it possible. Just don't look inside. :)

 The thread racks were discolored so they got a few coats of aqua spray paint to freshen them up. It turned out to be an almost exact color match to the blue knobs. Makes me smile whenever I open the doors. :)

All that's left is to get my Singer 403A oiled up and then bolt it in.
Whoever owned this desk before definitely made good use of it. When I was cleaning it out prior to painting I found pins, needles, bobbins, thread, buttons, and velcro. I hope I make good use of it as much as its' previous owner. I can't wait to sew on it.

Vintage Love

I just have to share my new vintage treasures.

I found this circa 1958 Singer 403A at my local Savers a few weeks back. It came with the wrong power cord and foot pedal, and was very dirty. But the price couldn't be beat.

 Yes, seriously it was $7.99!! I had to take her home. She's missing a few parts but a quick search online brought me to a few websites with replacements. I was able to clean up her exterior with good old fashioned rubbing alcohol but I haven't gotten to the inner workings yet. Truth be told, I'm a little intimidated. But I plan on doing the best I can to get her running again and if worse comes to worse, I'll take her to a professional.


I found this beauty about a week ago at the same Savers. I knew right away what it was when I saw it and thought it would be perfect for my little Singer.

Check it out! The front drops down for free arm exposure. How neat is that? I've never seen a cabinet like this before. I was able to find two others (here & here) with the exact same cabinet online, and one with a very similar cabinet. But there's no markings on it anywhere, so I have no idea who made it and what machine it was originally designed for. (Update 3/17/15: this desk was designed by Singer for their Athena 2000 model back in 1976!)

 There's a bit of repair work to be done on some of the trim and there's a piece missing on the top (it's supposed to conceal the machine when not in use) but other than that it's a great little work table.

 And of course the price can't be beat! :) Funny thing is that the day I bought it they were running a half off sale on grey ticket items. I had no idea when I took it to the register, so I paid $7.50 for it! I can't wait to get it fixed and painted. It's going to be so nice having this extra storage and a spot for my 403A.

After I brought home the sewing machine, I began researching this particular little Singer. Come to find out, it's a really great little work horse! Seriously, Google it and there's a few blogs with the history and reviews of it. It's really an amazing little machine that was one of the first to have a lot of the features we see on machines from today.

Like I said there's a few websites that sell replacement parts for it but on eBay I found this box with the manual and a ton of accessories.

It came with 8 CAM discs and a ton of presser feet. I scored this auction for $15.50 plus shipping. So far, my most expensive purchase but so worth it. I look forward to getting this machine up and running to try out all the presser feet and CAM discs.