Richie

and Willie...
In 1989, when, after finishing the special technical/vocational school (where I went after graduating from highschool) I started to work as a dressmaker, but I would not sit into a factory lane, or a workshop, I wanted to work from home, in my own rythm, which means sometimes working 20-24 hours in a row, sometimes not even going close to the machine for days (mind you, I work the same way as a translator)...

The basic requirement of working from home was to get an industrial sewing machine and an industrial serger. As a student just out of shcool, I had no money, and honestly, I did not even knew much of machines)... I could only afford the cheeapst possible machine with my fathers help, and even then I had to look for the one that costs even less.... He was Willie, a machine produced my Wilcox and Gibbs, and the table on it says the license is from 1939... It was old and rickety when I got it, there were no spare parts, no spare needles or knives.

I still used it a lot over the years, we sew a lot of clothes together, but I always felt...its backdraws... It worked with an arched needle, which was not produced any longer, shops sometimes ground a tiny bit off the edge of a different needle for me (but they either managed to cut just the right amount...or not). There were problems with the knives as well, the last one was cut out from a totally different machine's knife...

One of the reasons I avoided sewing for so long (all the while there was an urge in me, I dreamt of making clothes), was that I knew there will be only struggle with this grumpy old machine. Even on the red dress it messed with me, it bunched up the stitches just where it shows the ugliest... I am so sure that in the hands of someone, who loves old machines and knows what s/he is doing Willie could come back into life, or, because of its age, and because it is basically still in working condition) I can even imagine a museum or a collector taking interest in him,... in any case I sent him into retirement.

Everyone: meet Richie. He is the successor of Willie.
I made the decision and seen it through in amazingly fast, especially for myself as I tend to mull over a lot more on a lot smaller things, and this involved quite a bit of money as well. It did not hapenned because of the ball gown, as it was in my thoughts/ plans for a while, but I can't say the dress didn't hastened the process :-)
I wanted an industrial grade machine, because I am used to working with one... back in Miami, I had a household serger, and... let me put it this way: I did not liked it much (OK, I hated it. Desparately). Interestingly enough, Though in that 28 years salaries increased many times over, as did most of the prices, the amount of money these machine sell didn't changed that much... for about 30-50 000 HUF you could get a cheapo rickety one, like mine was, for about 6-90 000 HUF you could get a medium used, 4 threaded one, and for about 150 000 you could get a really really good one, but those are only needed if you are regurarly sewing things like bathing suits, leotards, and similar stuff, which I will not. So it was an easier decision to get something that is definite improvement over the old one-
I am courious, if working with Richie will be easier, and what will it mean that insted of only three, Richie is capable of handling 4 threads...