Madeleine Vionnet. I am in awe of her wonderful bias cut dresses. I'm not alone in my admiration, I am in the company of fashion afficionados for the last century. Madam Vionnet opened her fashion house in 1912. Her garments are timeless and many still look like they are on the cutting edge of fashion and can be worn today, to much acclaim.

When I am looking for a new machine, I make up kits with the kinds of fabrics I sew on, the needles I like to use and specialty thread. Even a cheap clunker will sew beautifully on the very stiff fabric some dealers keep for demonstrating machines. I have some acetate from hell that has stood me in good stead when checking out sewing machines.

To make pressing the 1/4" seam allowance easier, cut a piece of very lightweight cardboard or heat-resistant template material, such as Templar, the size of the finished circle. Lay the circle template against the wrong side of the yo-yo circle and pull the gathering threads. The seam allowance will fold itself against the template for you to press. Remove the template and continue per directions above.

I had a "mystery attachment" with a patent number engraved on it. I found out what it was by searching the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office web site, where information on many patents are available. http://www.uspto.gov/

In case your are curious, it was an eyelet maker for straight stitch machines.

Dear Sew Lady, Go to http://www.sewingpatterns.com and type in "maternity" in the search field (no quotes). You'll find a good selection, some that can be downloaded and printed out.

And after the birth, www.elizabethlee.com has wonderful nursing patterns.

There is a Yahoo group called "Your Sewing Room" with lots of photos of sewing rooms and studios. Great discussions, too.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/yoursewingroom/

While this attachment has been identified, I thought I'd add a comment about researching some old sewing machine attachments. I was given what turned out to be an eyelet attachment. It had a sharp pointed finger that punched a hole in the fabric and it then turned the fabric in a circle making 5 thread "spokes" around the hole. Mine did not have the needed base that raised the attachment above the needle hole plate so the pointed finger could penetrate the fabric without scarring the plate.

I found out what it was because a patent number was engraved into the attachment. The U.S. Patent Office has all patents available online. Pre-1975 patents are scans of the pages and searchable only by patent number, date issued and a few other pieces of data. The patent pages even described how to use the attachment.

There is a number on the forked finger of the subject mystery foot, but I could not read it from the photo.