06/02/2025
An Afternoon Unraveled
After sitting at my sewing machine, I rolled back and saw a piece of thread trailing from one of the casters of my chair. When I bent over to remove it, it fought back. I then noticed that a whole lot of threads had wound around each axle of all four casters, on both sides of each mid-support, intertwined and compacted amongst themselves, making removal a time-consuming challenge. Realizing the extraction procedure was going to take a while, I would need to flip the chair over so I could sit and have better access to the casters than I would sitting on the floor. Before upturning the chair though, I had to empty its two drawers, yet another time sink, contents to be reviewed later.
I started picking away with fingers, tweezers, and thread snips; then I enlisted the help of my husband. After just a few seconds he left my sewing room to return with a whole slew of tools — a man's solution to everything. There were needle nose pliers in various sizes, a dental pick tool with a straight end and a right angle bend end, finer snip scissors, and special angled tweezers used by stamp collectors. Both of us went to work diligently, heads bent over in concentration, for well over an hour I would estimate. Frank sat in the chair, slaving over the upper (back) casters while I sat on the floor, attacking the lower (front) casters. Perhaps, "A couple that picks together, sticks together?" (We mark our 50 year anniversary this September.) Adjacent to the upside down chair is a wastebasket filled 2" to 3" deep with the removed thread scraps. The tooth brush is there for scale but later turned out to be a useful addition as a loosening and scrubbing tool.
I had never cleaned the casters of my chair before so I wondered how long it had taken to accumulate so many snippings. How old was this chair? One of the items unearthed in the drawer was the original purchase order for the chair, sewing cabinet, and cutting table. The sales order and invoice were dated 2003 and so had been serving me well me for over twenty-two years! They had been made by Unique Sewing Furniture, a then family business. I had the original sales brochure from where I learned of them. Great quality really held up well. As an additional perk, I recall the family was visiting relatives in California where I live and so they delivered and set up my furniture for free. I checked and Unique Sewing Furniture is still in business.
Here is that cutting table I got at the same time as the chair and sewing cabinet. The nearer leaf, that is flipped down, can really extend the surface size when flipped up. Those two drawers pull out in both directions, which can be so handy. I however do not use that particular dual-direction feature. I prefer to push my cabinet into a corner so that it does not roll when I cut. I however am grateful for those casters when I do wheel it out into the center of the room for larger tasks. I store a whole assortment of rulers in those two conveniently long drawers. I assessed the collection in my Rulers and Templates blog post for 3/30/20.
What else was in the two drawers from the chair, aside from historic paperwork? Aha! A collection of small tools that I have never used; but now that I know I have them, I can either A) start using them or B) feel guilty about having bought them. I am going to strive for option A. The forgotten tools in the drawer collection are described clockwise from the black cord at the lower left.
