Sewing machine gloat...

[llyd]

I seem to have a gift for nosing out great sewing machines...my wife's machine is a Bernina 830 which I observed being dropped into a dumpster and fished out..had it factory refurbished, and it will still fetch new prices...refurbished two decades ago..mind...my favorite machine, likewise..mis sixties Kenmore..probably built by Juki in japan...when I got it it still had the instruction manuals and the bearings had no wear marks...

anyhow..I keep getting lucky...yesterday I felt the pull and wandered into a thrift store...a spanky new singer (which I could care less about..plastic junk..bought it for my daughters..) A 1926 Singer industrial for fifty bucks...basic bit of research says it is fairly rare...and best of all, an older model
Baby Lock four thread serger..or overlocker for you folks on the east side of the pond. I have been hunting for a decent serger for awhile...fifteen bucks. gotta love it.

My holy grail still eludes me however...I really want a decent singer featherweight in it's original case..but the only ones I cross paths with are restored anf hiiiigggh dollar...oh well, I'll just keep fishing.

What kinds of machine scores have y'all made?

[OC Richard]

Though I'm handy with a needle and thread I've never learned how to use a sewing machine.

When I, a few months ago, finally took a kiltmaking class (something that had been on my bucket list for decades) I was happy to learn that the sewing would be done entirely by hand. (Thus my deficiency was not revealed!)

That's amazing, that dumpster find!

BTW a dumpster is a skip to our British friends

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_(container)

and not to be confused with a wheelie bin.

I wonder what the British equivalent of "dumpster diving" is!

BTW I grew up with a grandmother who was a great seamstress, and she used an ancient machine which had originally been pedal-powered and had been converted with a bolted-on motor. I wonder where that machine is now.

[llyd]

No telling Richard, but there are quite a few of them in my house...I love old singer sewing machines...my last find was a a gear drive Singer of British manufacture...1929 if I recall correctly...sews like balls of fire....a neighbor lady who I help care for, as she had a stroke last year and lives alone has a british middleweight which was her mothers...I got it out and cleaned and oiled it the other day..also works well...

it is not too hard to learn, particularly if you start with an older machine with no bells and whistles...

[MNlad]

Congratulations on your recent find. Like you, I'm fond of the old hardware. Once you get those old steel and brass gears and shafts pumping they're almost unstoppable.

Good luck on your quest for the Featherweight; it's a grand machine. I have it's bigger brother, the 15-91, and use it regularly on leather, denim and an occasional X-kilt. Built in 1953, it's almost as old as I am, and I'm sure I will wear out before it does.

[Lorna]

$15 for a serger? You must have a horseshoe tucked away somewhere. That's a great find. They certainly don't make sewing machines like they used to. I still use my Mum's Kenmore. She bought it new (early 70's) and I've had it since 1979. It has saved me a fortune in highland dance costumes although I enjoy the challenge of handsewing a kilt. The Kenmore does special stitches and buttonholes so it's all I'll ever need though a serger would be nice.

[Pleater]

Well - after all the time I have had it the brand new Janome machine I bought has to be a bargain in terms of the pence per item made on it. I set it up three days after we moved in here in the early 1980s and it had never been put away since.

My father's mother had a treadle sewing machine which I used for my first efforts in sewing. Unfortunately the top apart was taken off and the stand used as a shelf for a leaking fish tank, so by the time we were emptying the old house it was just a wreck.

I don't think people throw away as much here in the UK as some places, and visiting charity shops does not turn up such bargains very often.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[llyd]

Anne, I think part of hte problem there is our disposable materialism..and the fact that skils which were once common are not now, and most folks don't know good machinery when they see it.

[MNlad]

Agreed. The other problem with today's consumers is they get swayed by the "latest and greatest" features of today's sewing machines, and fail to look at the mechanical elements of the machines themselves. Self-threading, 100 different stitches at the touch of a button, etc., etc., are great, but many of the machines themselves are built to be disposable, like today's cell phones. They aren't built to last several generations, because they aren't expected to. Only when you get to the industrial models is that kind of construction found today—and you pay dearly for it.

[Mikilt]

I have a workhorse Singer 774. It's solid as a rock and has been for nearly 40 years, though I just learned to sew 3 years ago. I make myself vests, hats and bow ties.

[brewerpaul]

Anne, I think part of the problem there is our disposable materialism..and the fact that skils which were once common are not now, and most folks don't know good machinery when they see it.

Agreed with this statement. Mass marketing, cheaply made goods and big box stores has removed the mom and pop stores that not only sold you quality items but either repaired them or knew of someone who did. Repair has been replace by "toss it and buy a new one." All the new bells and whistles just make new items more costly to either replace or repair and create more problems than needed. Ok off my soap box on consumerism and mass accumulation.

Here are my shopgoodwill scores. I always keep my eye out for machines on shop goodwill and have two workhorse machines that cost me 20 bucks each.

My Dressmaster work horse. This will sew through anything.



For all those fancy stitches, well all 14 of them, my Brother machine.




I have a Familylok serger I bought from goodwill and need to get it figured out. Found a reproduction of a Babylok manual so just need to spend some time messing with it. Jennifer just bought a working Singer foot treadle style machine that still works, has the old leather belt that runs from treadle to sewing machine and has a table that is in near perfect shape. At an estate sale she got that for 60 bucks.

I was told by a gentleman who has a Janome shop that the Singer featherweight is in high demand and you will be fortunate if you ever get one under 300 dollars. Ive seen them on shop goodwill at minimum 350. They must have been quite a machine. He said they were popular because they were portable, light and bombproof. Here's to quality workmanship and craftsmanship.