Yard sale find

[dreamshark]

Usually when I buy things I don't really need at yard sales it's little things like scarves and small pieces of luggage. Today I bought a sewing machine, even though I already have one almost exactly like it. It was just such a good deal I couldn't resist. A perfectly preserved 1948 Singer Electric, of the sort that is built right into its own little table, for only $38. The guy who was selling it couldn't guarantee that it worked, as he had inherited it from his grandmother years ago and never actually used it. Although I already have a 1948 Singer Featherweight, I've always yearned for a table-model. The portable is handy if you are actually moving it from room to room, but if it's just going to sit in the sewing room a model that actually folds away into the table is just the coolest thing.

Well, we hauled it home and plugged it in, and it sews just like Grandma packed it away yesterday. Wow. Those old Singers - can't beat 'em.

I get a kick out of the manual: "The machine is especially designed for operation by electricity," it declares primly. Instructions follow for determining whether your local service from the "Electric Light Company" is Alternating Current or Direct Current, and if the latter, what voltage. I think the manual hadn't been rewritten since about 1920.

It's in great shape, with every possible accessory carefully packed away in little Singer boxes, including the absolutely terrifying Buttonholer attachment. My Featherweight has most of the attachments too, but not the buttonholer. I never learned how to use any of them. Maybe I should. Automatic double-hemming actually sounds like a good idea.

I probably should oil it. It really doesn't seem to need it, but the manual shows a bunch of oil points, and the former owner thinks it hasn't been used for 30 years. I can't find any oil around the house. I think I'll walk down to the hardware store and pick up a can of 3-in-1.

Comments

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That's a marvelous find. Maybe I should ask you to teach me to sew.

K.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I'm not really a very good seamstress. As I said, I never figured out how to use any of the special attachments, and I don't even know how to zig-zag (since Singers made before 1953 don't zig or zag). I just sew forwards and back, which is enough to hold two pieces of cloth together.

Of course, since I now have two sewing machines, we could sew together. If you have a simple project you would like to make, I'd be happy to start it with you. You could take the Featherweight home with you to finish up.

If you decided that you wanted to buy yourself a nice basic little machine that actually zigzags, I can recommend the perfect model. I did a lot of research before buying Amber a sewing machine last Christmas.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I don't have any especial confidence in identifying simply projects, and none at all in finishing them up all alone.

K. [not to mention having no place to work on an extended project]

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I don't have any idea what zig zag is suppose to be an improvement on.

K.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Zig-zag is good for mending, or for applique (sewing a decorative patch onto another piece of material). It's also the basis for making buttonholes, where you need to go back and forth with tiny little sidewise stitches to bind the raw edges of the buttonhole. Apparently the clever Singer engineers figured out some way to do that with a straight stitch machine, but the add-on device that's supposed to do it is pretty intimidating.

I'm going to oil the machine tonight and maybe try out some of these attachments. If you're curious, you're more than welcome to come over and help me. I might make a few pillowcases out of random leftover material.

As for a simple project - what would you like to make? (If you have no desire to make anything, there's probably no point in learning to sew.) Simple sewing projects are ones that have mostly large pieces sewn together with straight seams. Simple skirts, boxy jackets, vests, capes. Last summer when Amber was home she asked me to help her make a skirt. She'd been looking for one of those tiered, floaty skirts made of white cotton and couldnt find one she liked. She thought it would be a fun mother-daughter project, and it was. We went to the fabric store, bought a pattern and some material, and made the skirt in about 2 days. She thought that was so much fun that she asked for a sewing machine for Christmas.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Parts of Manhattan were on Direct current up through the 1950s.

In the 1960s, I lived for a while in a building which still had live DC sockets. Every now and then, someone would plug an appliance into the wrong socket.... (It's been explained to me that this couldn't possibly happen, because the plugs wouldn't fit those sockets. It happened.)

[jbru.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure 3-in-1 is the sort of oil you'd need for such a thing, but I'm sure the manual will tell you better than I could. If you were up to hauling the machine around a little more, Ericka does a good job of cleaning and oiling machines and showing people how to do their own. Or maybe that's something that you'd like for your featherweight.