My planned project - and some questions

[Tobus]

Well, you've done it now, Barb! You gave my wife all the "I told you so" she needed! I guess I'm on the hunt now for khaki wool twill tape.

[Barb T]

Emmm, I probably shouldn't have waded into this...

[Patty Logan]

exited to see what the finish product will look like! good luck

[Tobus]

Emmm, I probably shouldn't have waded into this...

It's OK, I appreciate your input. It's been helpful.

At this point, I'm not finding any khaki twill tape. But there's a lovely dark blue/indigo 7/8" twill tape that should make nice binding and match the dark blues in these government sett-based tartans. That should work decently.

[Barb T]

Sounds like the perfect solution!

[Tobus]

I finally received the treadle belt (the first one got lost in the mail) and installed it.

She lives, she breathes!

The first video below is me just running the machine with no thread to check the function of all moving parts. Despite being 122 years old and having been stored in a shed for the last couple of decades, she runs nicely! I'll need to let the belt stretch in a bit and then tighten it some more. I just love that mechanical sound.

(Sorry if my videos are a bit wobbly; I was pumping the treadle with my foot and trying to hold my phone steady at the same time.)

The second video is winding a bobbin. I was supposed to disengage the drive clutch so it's not running the needle mechaninsm, but oh well. It does wind the bobbin as I thought, with the bobbin winder assembly swung away from the main arm so the little pulley temporarily engages the drive belt. The little arm that guides the bobbin thread onto the bobbin seems to have a bit of overtravel at each end whilst winding, so it ramps the thread at the ends. When the ramp reaches the outside diameter of the end flanges of the bobbin, the thread spills over the end. Not sure if I can correct that, but I'll look into it.

I strung it up and tried some test stitching. It does stitch, but I'll need to adjust the thread tension to get it right. I discovered that the previous owner had put together the thread tension assembly in the wrong order, so I'll need to disassemble and correct that. I may end up replacing some of those parts to make sure the thread runs smoothly through the disks and the check spring is operating optimally. Plus, I'll need to do some fine adjustment on the bobbin thread tension on the shuttle, presser foot pressure, stitch length, etc. I'll get her dialed in just right.

Before jumping into my quilted blanket project, I'm going to practise a bit on smaller scraps and then put together two pillow shams that will match my blanket.

*edit: for some reason, the forum's embedded video thingy isn't working. So here are the links to the videos.

https://vimeo.com/429985642

https://vimeo.com/429976799

[Stoff]

I can't help much on the quilting front, but on the singer Model 27 treadle sewing machine that is an entirely different matter. I personally use a 1911 Model 27 treadle when doing ALL my sewing. As to how much, well, on top of my drafting business i also have a tailoring business and I put my self through college making historic clothing. There is an online group that you might want to check out that is devoted to acquiring, repairing, and using vintage Singer sewing machines; it is <https://groups.io/g/vintagesingers>. They have access to everything from owner's manual to spare parts. Check them out.

Stoff

[Pleater]

I am 'Pleater' due to my making of English smocks, and I constructed the flat parts using either the old Singer treadle, or a hand cranked 'Gamages' table top model.

Both machines were perfectly happy to work on small margins - I joined the pieces wrong side together with a quarter inch seam, then turned then right sides together and enclosed the edge with a second line of stitching, which is how the standard 5/8ths on an inch seam allowance came about, I suspect.

When properly put together, clean and oiled, then adjusted to suit the sewing you are doing there is nothing like the old Singer treadle for eating up the seams.
As you have such fine control of the mechanism you can, with a bit of practice, sew continuously sorting out minor problems on the fly, where with an electric driven one you'd need to stop and maybe unpick, or have some pieces which can't be rescued, with the treadle your output is usually better in many ways.

Anne the Pleater

[Tobus]

I can't help much on the quilting front, but on the singer Model 27 treadle sewing machine that is an entirely different matter. I personally use a 1911 Model 27 treadle when doing ALL my sewing. As to how much, well, on top of my drafting business i also have a tailoring business and I put my self through college making historic clothing. There is an online group that you might want to check out that is devoted to acquiring, repairing, and using vintage Singer sewing machines; it is <https://groups.io/g/vintagesingers>. They have access to everything from owner's manual to spare parts. Check them out.

Stoff

I appreciate the pointer to that group. I posed my question to them about the bobbin winder overtravel, and it seems that others have the same issue but I haven't seen a solution yet. Just workarounds. If yours is a 27, I'm assuming it has the same low-mounted bobbin winder that engages the drive belt, right? As far as I can tell, the issue is that the little heart-shaped cam that steers the guide arm needs to be adjusted inward (i.e. toward the center of the geared wheel that holds it) by just a millimeter or so. This would decrease the range of motion at the extreme limits of travel of the arm, solving the problem. The heart-shaped cam has a slotted hole where it is held to the outer portion of the geared wheel which would suggest it could be adjusted, but the centre hole where the whole assembly rotates doesn't seem to have any in-out adjustment. I'm sort of scratching my head on this. If I could find a replacement heart-shaped cam (haven't found one yet), I would try grinding out the centre hole to give it a slotted shape and see if I could get it screwed down in just the right place. But I'm hesitant to do it on the original.

The other problem that I've been fighting is thread tension. Even when I back off the tension nut so that it's not even compressing the tension spring, I get a stitch that's just barely laying on top of the fabric. The under-thread (from the bobbin) is pulled up through both layers of fabric and looped over the top thread, but the top thread is not getting pulled down into the fabric to make the lock-stitch in the middle of the 'sandwich'. So at this point, if I can't lighten the top tension any further, I may just have to try tightening the lower tension by adjusting the shuttle spring screw to see if I can find a balance. First, though, I'm going to swap out the shuttle and try replacing the top tension parts (takeup spring, disks, tension spring) and see if that helps.

In a way, it's sort of fun to get all these minor kinks worked out. Fiddling with the fine-tuning of the machine is a good way to learn how it operates. But it's also frustrating, because I'd like to start actually sewing something besides test scraps.

[Tobus]

So, I've been tinkering with this sewing machine for a couple of weeks now, off and on, trying to get everything adjusted properly for my material and the thread I'm using. While this old Singer will plow right through many layers of 16-18oz wool with heavy linen thread, it took a lot of trial-and-error to find the right combination between needle size, needle thread tension, bobbin tension, presser foot pressure, and stitch length. I think I've finally got it where I need it.

Today I started piecing together the tartan squares and broadcloth sashing for the pillow shams. For someone who hasn't done any appreciable amount of machine sewing since probably 1986, I think it's turning out rather decently. Still going through the learning curve on the pillow shams before I get to the blanket!

These are the "rows" that will form one pillow sham. Next step is to put the sashing strips between the rows. Then the lining on the back where the "quilting" stitches will be done, and then the closure fabric that holds the pillow.