Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Links to videos for the Singer VS2

This post is written for my friends Sadie and Patricia, whose grandmother's Singer VS2 I restored.  Everyone else is welcome to listen in, of course.  Many of these attachments work with lots of other machines too.

Winding the bobbin and loading the shuttle: by Lizzie Lenard.  She demonstrates this on a machine that has a rectangular bed rather than a fiddle base (and a hand crank rather than a treadle) but otherwise this machine is mechanically the same as yours.

Threading the machine:  by Lizzie Lenard.  Shown on the same rectangular bed machine.

Original attachments that came in the "puzzle box"

Here is a link to the manual for the attachments in the puzzle box.  (Printed and in your notebook, but please note that your box has a slightly different collection of attachments.)

Singer No. 12 Ruffler:  by FiddleyBits.  She shows how to do "puffing" (looks like gathering), ruffling (a series of tiny tucks) and shirring, using the shirring plate next to the ruffler in the puzzle box.  Shirring looks like puffing, but you can do many parallel rows of it.  I have not tested this ruffler, but I have used other rufflers so if you try it and it does not work properly, just give me a call and I will take a look at it for you (Sadie and Patricia).

Singer Underbraider:  by Lizzie Lenard.  This is shown on a different type of machine, but it will explain what an underbraider is and generally how one works.  I have never tried this myself.

Binder:  by FiddleyBits.  Binders Part 1 shows how to assemble it from the items in the puzzle box.  She also shows several other models of binders, but fortunately for you she shows the puzzle box binder that you have first, so you can stop watching the video after you see yours, and proceed to:
Binders Part 2 which shows you how to use a binder.  Again, she shows the puzzle box binder first and then moves on to show other models.

Hemmers:  Once you have watched Binders Part 1 you will know how to attach the any of the hemmers to your machine.  This video shows a very modern sewing machine, but hemmers still work the same way they did 130 years ago.  Your puzzle box has five different sizes of hemmers.  Hemmers are among my very favorite attachments.

Tucker:  by FiddleyBits.  The tucker she shows is slightly different than yours but I could not find a video of the one in your puzzle box.  Your tucker attaches to the presser foot bar rather than the bed but would work the same way.  This is another attachment I have never tried.

Quilting Foot and Guide:  by Xander Byrne.  He shows it on a different type of machine, but the foot is identical.  This allows you to create evenly spaced lines of stitching.  You will also use the quilting foot without the guide when you use the underbraider.  Xander is British, so the translation for "wadding" is "batting" in American!

Additional attachments

Edge Stitcher foot:  by Lizzie Lenard.  An amazingly handy device for connecting two edges RIGHT along the edges, or for attaching lace or other trims RIGHT along the edge.  There are samples included in the bag with your edge stitcher.

Cording/Zipper feet (two, one for each side).  I could not find a video for these.  I have included samples in the bag with the feet.  These allow you to stitch very close to a bulky edge such as you would have with piping or a zipper.

A final note to Sadie and Patricia:  Your Singer VS2 sewing machine has a standard low shank (where the presser feet attach to the bar) and theoretically any low shank presser foot would work.  However, several attachments I tried did NOT work.  I think it is the configuration of the feed dogs that prevented the fabric from feeding through with some of those other attachments, but that is just a guess.  If there is something you want for your machine, please call me before rushing to JoAnn's or Walmart to buy it.  I probably have it, and we could test mine on your machine first to see if it actually works.

And a note to my faithful readers:  YES, photos of the restoration of this Singer VS2 are coming soon!  I wanted to have this list of links up  by the time I deliver the machine to them on Christmas Eve, but I want Sadie and Patricia to be the first to see the amazing transformation of their grandmother's machine.