She is an Elna Lotus ZZ and they were made between 1968 and 1977.  My darling Mum found her for me and has given it to me as an early birthday present.

The reason I am now a proud owner of this cute sewing machine is that I like to go to the Australian Sewing Guild Conventions when I can and I do like to use a sewing machine that I am familiar with.as the classes I do take tend to be a challenge and to use a sewing machine that you are familiar with makes it so much easier.  This year the Convention is being held in Adelaide so the search was on for a small machine that would fit in my carry on bag and still be within the limits.

There is plenty of room for packing around her and she only weighs 5 kgs, perfect.

Here she is all set up ready to sew (well the power plug isn’t plugged in).

and look at the accessories that are stored in the top section of the machine.

• Pack of Schmetz 130/705H 60/8 Needles with Elna on the back of the pack.
• Two Elna bobbins (1 is in the rotary hook and there is a cute way to get the bobbins out).
• Missing the needle threader.
• At the top is the quick unpick.
• I think the Oiler is supposed to be in the empty spot.
• Lint Brush.
• Screwdriver, it looks so brittle I’m not sure if I will use it.
• Cording Foot
• Zipper Foot

One of the things that really surprised me is that this machine not only lets you move the needle to the left and right of centre, but you can set the needle anywhere between the left and right symbols as well which, “this is very practical for sewing the rims of collars, cuffs, zip fasteners etc.”  This is one of the reasons I went from my mechanical Janome to the computerised version for the needle to move more than one position left or right of the centre needle.

Look how she looks next to my Janome MC5200.

Now to cut out a garment or two and sew them on the Elna to get a real feel for what she can do.

I’m thrilled 🙂