This beautiful Little Vesta, dating from the 1920s or 30s, had the honour of making Little Red Riding Hood. It seemed to me to be the perfect project for this machine, and was the first item made with with it for decades.
It is a tiny machine. Sitting the doll next to it makes it look even smaller. I found this machine over twenty five years ago in a second hand furniture shop. It was not until we had the internet that I found out where Vesta machines were made and who by. A good twenty years or more after buying it, I finally hauled it out of the cupboard and cleaned it up.
The next thing to do was try it out. I was not disappointed, it makes a perfect stitch. Then came the video. It all took on a flavour of Watch With Mother with Little Red Riding Hood at the end. Perhaps I should make another rag doll one day soon. When I do, I will use this machine again.
The pattern was on Ebay, so I snaffled it. Original price sevenpence halfpenny. A bit steep, I thought. The illustration looks very 1920s, and I was delighted to find that the pattern was in near perfect condition. The pattern pieces were outlined on a large sheet of paper inside, so I traced them and kept the original pattern intact. Then I looked for the instructions - there was no instruction sheet, and there was nothing on the back of the sheet of pattern pieces. Then I found them, printed on the inside of the envelope. Had I wanted to read them easily I would have had to cut the envelope open and lay it out flat. No chance, I wasn't going to ruin a beautiful vintage pattern, so I squinted inside to check a couple of things (the shoes had me a bit puzzled for a while) and set to work. Next came the decision - which machine? It took me less than ten seconds to decide...
Meet Little Red Riding Hood, my one and only rag doll. She's a bit grumpy with me because she spends too much time in the cupboard, so she refused to smile for the photograph. Also the camera played fun and games with me. It recognised her as having a face, and after I clicked the shutter it said "blink detected." Too clever by half. Even though I only made her last year I consider her a vintage piece of work. Why? More tomorrow..
