My planned project - and some questions

[Tobus]

And her old Singer! It looked like it had started life as a treadle machine, with an aftermarket motor bolted on. Maybe it had been made that way, it looked homemade to me.

Richard, a lot of old treadle machines were retrofitted with electric motors. Singer made a big push to sell their new electric machines, but offered the retrofit kit for those who couldn't spring for the whole new package. Their catch phrase was, "It's sew easy with electricity!" I can just imagine how exciting it must have been in the early days of electricity as households started to switch over from manual methods of doing daily tasks to electric.

Oddly enough, I'm in the camp that prefers manual. Especially after the storms we went through a week ago where we lost power for 26 hours. I know that's not very long compared to real emergencies like hurricanes, but it had been a while since I had to go without power (except when camping). Even in usual times, I prefer to saw wood by hand instead of with power tools. I wash dishes by hand instead of using a dishwasher. That kind of thing. So a treadle machine is right up my alley, and if we lose power again, so much the better! I'll sew by the light of a kerosene lamp.

[Barb T]

Eeeeeeeek!!! That looks just like my treadle Singer!!! Right down to the drawer pulls!

And I have to say that there is a lot of satisfaction in running the treadle - it has a wonderful rhythmic mechanical noise rather than electrical motor noise. Never had a lick of trouble with it, which is more than I can say for the most recent, and most expensive, of the machines that I've owned since, which I would happily toss into the ditch..... It's making me want to get mine out of storage - it's been, oh......, yikes......more than 45 years since I used my treadle Singer as my only sewing machine. That was back in my hippie days in graduate school out in Colorado......Man, am I getting OLD....!