Does anyone remember the song, "A sewing machine, a sewing machine, a girl's best friend?"
It is pretty old, from a 1949 movie. I never knew all the words, just the first couple of lines and I sing it every time I get out one of my machines.
I have been obsessed with sewing machines since I was a young girl. I have always had one or two. Now in my dotage I indulge in my passion a bit more.
In the past couple of weeks I have serviced and cleaned all of my machines. I ordered new belts for two of them.
My treadle machine I noticed has never sat right, it dipped when it was set up and sometimes it would catch lifting the lid to raise it into the working position. I realised that the back of the cabinet was not straight when I re arranged my sewing room. This machine and cabinet are pretty old, over 100 years and it was in bad shape when I rescued and bought it. I worked on the machine and spruced up the cabinet but I never worked on how it didn't sit right until this past week.
Upon close inspection I could see that the joints had come apart in the back of the cabinet. I cleaned them up and glued them then put some metal brackets on the bottom to hold the joints together.
Now it raises up and down with no problems and it sits nice and flat. No sagging!
You can see how it was sagging before in this picture from a previous post.
I am really so happy that I fixed this. I blogged about the original restoring of this machine in 2017 if anyone is interested in seeing the original condition of it. This is the first post and there are posts throughout the process of the restoration.
https://ilikeknittingandsewing.blogspot.com/2017/02/a-bit-of-excitement-yesterday-and-today.html
Now to my my next project:-
I saw this sad looking baby in our local Facebook Marketplace.
As you can see she is in sad shape. They had it advertised for $50. I offered $20 and they countered with $25. I accepted their counter. Big time negotiater me!
It doesn't have a power cord and the wheel doesn't turn so I have no idea if I can get it running but I will jolly well try. Power cords are available for it. If the motor doesn't work after I get the cord I will buy a conversion handle for it and make it a hand crank machine. This machine is approx 70 years old.
Will update as progress is made. We have been pretty busy these past few weeks as it has cooled down and we are catching up with outside work so aside from washing off the cobwebs and grime I haven't done any more to it yet.









I love old sewing machines especially black Singers. For awhile it seemed like I bought one every week or so. Funny enough though, the last one I bought was a black Anker from Germany made in Bielefeld in the 1950's.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful, do they all work? I am glad I am not the only one with the fascination and love for these old machines.
Deleteyes the Singers work thanks to my husband ( a retired engineer) but we haven't tried the Anker yet. Your posting is pushing us to get it out!!
DeleteCan you ask your husband if I can use WD40 to try and free it up please.
DeleteWhat a bargain find and a great addition to your collection. Hope you manage to get it working.
ReplyDeleteThanks, so do I. I will do my very best to make it functional.
DeleteIs it a 201? I have one and love it. It is so beautiful and sews like a dream! The machine, it's cabinet and bench came all the way from England somehow to Indianapolis where i bought it for $26!! I have the original receipt even! I too love old machines, Singers in particular! I have a Spartan as well. I would LOVE to gather more. I see a lot of deals out there. But my husband would not be happy with me so I do not gather more. I also have a number of knitting machines. I would love the Singer suitcase model as i love the older un-electric ones. I've seen one, but my husband thinks i have too many already so I'll wait. They are hard to find in the states so maybe when i find one i can afford his heart will have softened (or forgotten) and be okay.
ReplyDeleteI believe the Singer is a 66 from the serial number but I haven't confirmed that yet. The treadle machine is a Franklin which was Sears own brand at the time. It has the shuttle mechanism and is in really good shape now. My husband just humors me as he can be obsessional about things too lol. I don't think I will be buying any more though due to lack of space. I have one stored in our shop which came out of a cabinet I just use as a sewing table for my newer machines. It will be bought back over and put back in the cabinet. It is probably from the 60's. Now I have re organised my sewing room I can use the portable machines on my craft table.
DeleteDo you have a blog I could add to my list of blogs I read?
I remember when you posted about renovating that machine. You are so talented.
ReplyDeletexx, Carol
Thanks Carol, this one however is proving to be quite the challenge.
DeleteHave you checked online to see the other blogs about repairing blackhead Singer sewing machines? There are quite a few, some sell parts too.
ReplyDeleteTry using a drop of kerosene on the parts of the machine that rub together. Let sit a bit, then try to run the machine.
I attended one of Nova Montgomery's Singer Featherweight classes and that's the first step she does on a machine that needs cleaning. Her website is novamontgomery.com. There are other sites with how-tos for Singers. They are special machines! Good Luck!
Thank you for commenting. I had seen that kerosene could be used so I had to go and buy some. Boy, it isn't cheap lol. I have yet to try it. I will go and look at Nova Montgomery's site first. Thank you for the link. Much appreciated.
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