How to Market a Black 15 Clone

Distinguishing characteristics of the 15 clone

Hello dear readers.  Lots going on this summer and if I get a minute I'll blog about it.  Lol.

But as you continue to wait in suspense for the 2,000 photos of my trip to Newfoundland, here's something about sewing machines.  I know you are here for the sewing machines.

I have written about Singer 15s and their clones before.  And I wrote about them again when I was Interviewed by Leah Day for her video podcast.  Which you can watch here if you missed it last year.  Or if you just remember how good it was and want to watch it over and over again.  Kind of like Princess Bride.

I removed the original motor and added a modern hand crank to this one.

I got an email a couple of weeks ago from a quilt guild buddy who wants to offload an old machine and asked for advice about selling it.  I gave her the quickie version and now I am going to share the bad news with everyone here, which is

Good luck.  You are going to need it.

There are a bazillion (technical term) fantastic vintage sewing machines out there.  Millions and millions certainly.  At least half of them are straight stitch only machines.  And only 3 people in your state are looking for one*.

*not verified scientifically in any way, statement not subject to review or approval by any intergalactic legal authority.  Your mileage may vary.

Now quilters love Featherweights and so do I.  They love them because they are cute and trendy and portable and so do I.  They fall in love with that absolutely perfect straight stitch.  And fail to realize that grandma's old machine down in the basement will do the EXACT SAME PERFECT STRAIGHT STITCH.  There are serious engineering reasons why a straight stitcher makes a better straight stitch than a zigzagger but it boils down to this:  straight stitchers were designed to do only that one thing.  And they do it brilliantly.

I have been buying and selling vintage and antique machines for about 10 years, only as a hobby and I do NOT make money doing this even if you DON'T factor in the labor costs.  So I have some idea of what does not sell in my market (I'm halfway between Raleigh and Greensboro NC).

Vintage zigzag machines I can sell all day long (what that ACTUALLY means is that they only spend a week or two on CraigsList).  All my machines are fully serviced and guaranteed for 30 days btw, which helps them sell.  If they are a pretty color they sell better, and I ask more for them.  And sorry, but I never ever put any pricing info on this blog for a multitude of reasons.  But for the price I ask for an excellent vintage machine you could buy a plastic wonder from Walmart, designed to last for months rather than decades or centuries.

Vintage multistitch machines are a MUCH harder sell even though I tell buyers that we can set it up for the zigzag stitch and they never ever have to turn those scary dials for the other stitches.  Doesn't matter.  Many buyers find those extra functions intimidating and just don't want them.  Modern manufacturers seem to be missing this point btw.

Scary

Scarier

Scariest.  These are all the same machine btw.

As for the straight stitch only machines, I do sell the pretty colored ones, often to a savvy seamstress who is looking for an extra machine in her studio and knows why she wants it.

But I had no luck selling the much more plentiful black straight stitch only machines until I stumbled on a marketing strategy.  Which I am going to share with you after the disclaimer that after the first donor machine in the story I  have sold a grand total of TWO on the following basis.

Here's the story:
My friend Nancy asked me to check out her plastic machine.  When I went over there to pick it up her partner Don threw in a black 15 clone from his workshop.  It was a very sorry and beat up looking machine.  He said he just wanted to get rid of it and would I take it?

The front of Don's 15 clone BEFORE cleaning

Little did he know, mwahahahaha.....

So I cleaned and oiled Nancy's machine and reset the tensioner.  Machine was fine for a plastic machine.  Then I tackled Don's.  Thorough cleaning and oiling and maybe a new bobbin winder tire (this was years ago).  Replaced the slide plate.  Scraped off the flaking areas of paint and touched them up with a Sharpie oil paint marker (not a regular Sharpie).  I won't claim that it looked like a million bucks after that but it looked respectable.

The back of Don's 15 clone AFTER cleaning

And then I loaded a size 18 needle in it, which is the largest size that a domestic machine will take (and still work lol).  I wound a bobbin with heavy duty thread.  NOT buttonhole thread which has a waxy coating and is not meant for machine sewing.  I set both the upper tension and bobbin tension for that thread.  I got some heavy duty canvas and tested how many layers it would sew through.  And got that lovely perfect straight stitch.

When I took Nancy's machine back I also took back Don's. I explained to them which one was the better machine (although hers does do zigzag which is definitely a good thing).  I suggested that he keep his as a workshop machine and that it would be perfect for boat cushions, a project I knew he had done before.

And then I went on to sell other machines (uh, the aforementioned two) using the technique highlighted in bold above.  I have a standard description of the wonders of vintage machines I use for CraigsList ads and to that I add a headline of "Workshop Sewing Machine" and stress the heavy duty nature of it and mention the boat cushions.  I also advise that this is not an industrial and if they are planning to manufacture boat cushions (or whatever) and run a machine on heavy duty stuff all day for weeks at a time,  what they really need is an industrial.  But this model is perfect for home workshop use.

So Susan from guild, if you made it this far I hope this might be useful information for you.  And for all the vintage sewing machine addicts out there who also need to offload some machines, let me know if this marketing technique works for you.

I do my best to avoid accumulating black straight stitchers these days but if another one shows up on my front porch, this is how I will attempt to get rid of it.

Playmobil Gender Issues

I'm a big fan of podcasts, and my favorite sewing podcast is Sewing Out Loud by Zede and Mallory Donahue.  They are a mother and daughter team with two lifetimes of sewing experience.  And they are very funny, one of my personal prerequisites for a podcast.

There is also a Facebook group, The Self Sewn Wardrobe, run by Mallory.  She stresses that this group is for EVERYONE.  And if you don't play nice, there is no whining and moaning by Mallory--she will just toss your worthless self out of the group pronto.  I really, really like this.  Cussing is absolutely allowed but criticism of anyone's body or lifestyle is absolutely not.  And the group is very helpful to any sewing person dealing with any kind of fitting issues, including those of body parts not appropriate to one's gender identity.  Have I been both appropriately specific yet vague in my vocabulary?  In the group one may be as explicit as one wants or needs to be.  It's been a real learning experience for me.

All this is background for my latest experience of being just-so-hilarious-I can-hardly stand myself.  But first, one more bit of background data.  My BFF is a real, honest-to-goodness professional archaeologist.

Now on to the story:
I was excited to find a Playmobil sewing set and I quickly ordered it.

Playmobil set 9437, Fashion Designer

The set was supposed to include a dolly, her dress form, and various sewing tools.

The red things represent tools that can be clipped into the dolly's hand.  These were missing from my set.  But I didn't care one little bit because what I got instead was an extra dolly.

So, here we have the dressmaker and her client!  Fantastic!  (The decals in the back are decorations you can add to the garments.)

Not long after buying the Playmobil sewing set I saw a Playmobil archaeologist.  Had to have that too.

Playmobil set 9359.  Archeologist (not the way I usually spell it though)

Just one problem with the archaeologist though.  He is very definitely male.  And Playmobil did not offer a female version.  As I was thinking about being bothered by this I realized that I had not given one tiny thought to the fact that the only option for the sewing set was female.  Get with the 21st century Playmobil!  (and me too!)

Archaeology is a dirty messy business! 

Can you see where this is going?  Mwahahahah....  YouTube was my next stop....

Where I discovered that Playmobil people CAN be dis-assembled.  Apparently this is quite a big thing, with people customizing the heck out of them and selling them online.  So I had to give it a try.

Voila!  A female archaeologist!  I packed her back in the original box with all the archaeologist's tools and goodies and sent her off to my friend, who was appropriately amused.

And the other dolly became a guy in a dress.  What is his story?  Lots of possibilities, but

I think he's an entertainer, a drag queen, and he is visiting the dressmaker for a fitting.  He didn't bother to shave because he's not appearing in public, just having a private visit.  Which is also why I am calling him "he", because he is not really in his female persona at the moment.

Gender vocabulary has changed as our society has opened up.  I'm doing my best to keep up!

Spartan does Steampunk Viking

Never heard of Steampunk Viking?  That's because I made it up.

About ten years ago I bought a large piece of leather for $5 at a thrift store.  SIL Mary says I shouldn't bother to say "I bought it at a thrift store" because I buy almost EVERYTHING at thrift stores.  She says it would be more efficient to only mention it when I buy something that is NOT from a thrift store.

Anyhow, this item was obviously once the cover for a large ottoman.  It had interesting seams and variations in color and was not noticeably worn.  Unfortunately that particular thrift store had a very moldy smell and when I got the leather home I realized that it smelled moldy also.

So I washed it.  In the washing machine.  With hot water.  And detergent and BLEACH.  Because mold is horrible and only $5 was at risk.  And it came out just fine.  I dried it on the line rather than in the dryer though, on the don't-push-your-luck-any-more-than-you-have-to principle.

Then I shoved it in a drawer and it took up one whole drawer of a lateral file cabinet.  And pondered what to do with it.  About 5 years ago I decided that it would make an awesome heavy duty apron.  About 2 years ago I decided that it needed to be a Viking themed apron.  Because Lagertha of the TV series Vikings is my role model.  Except for all the bloodshed and killing, of course.

And this year was the year I finally got that leather out to work on it.

Once I had opened up the corner seams so that it would lie flat I discovered that I could get at least two aprons out of it.  Nice, because I have two daughters.  I only had vague notions of how to Viking it up but I cut the aprons out.

Once of the categories of things I hoard is metal belts.  I pay less than $2 for them (from guess where) and I have accumulated a lot of them over the decades.  By "metal belts" I mean the kind one wears around one's waist, not anything industrial.  Chains, interesting metal shapes, hearts, butterflies, in gold, silver, and bronze colors.  I thought they would be interesting on the aprons.  Because I just never find chain mail in the places where I shop.

So I got the two aprons cut out without any clear idea of where I was going next with this project.  One of the things I do while having insomnia (a nightly occurrence) is plan the sequence of events for sewing or craft projects.  This time there was a sudden flash when all of the pieces fell into place all at once.  I love it when this happens.

And this was my revelation:  Leather loops at the top or neck edge and waist edges.  Split rings in the loops.  Lobster claw clasps threaded on to the split rings.  THREE lobsters per ring.  One is for the neck strap and waist ties.  The other two can hold the decorative chains.  Pockets and other decorations attached to the chains.  All of this in a blinding flash of less than a second, I kid you not.  So much for absorbing lots of insomnia time.

To sew leather you need the right tools and the right attitude.  The tools:  a roller foot, a leather needle, and some heavy duty thread.  The roller foot is cheap, at least for low shank machines.  There's one on amazon right now for less than $5.

roller foot

The leather needle is a must because leather is totally different from fabric.  With fabric, the needle more or less slides in between the fibers.  This varies, of course, with the type and weave of the fabric and the size of the needle you use, but that's the general idea.  With leather, the needle has to punch a hole in the leather and it has a wedge shape to the point to accomplish this.  On leather this weight I used a size 16 leather needle.  On garment leather a 14 would be better.

And you have to have the right attitude because you get ONE SHOT at whatever you are trying.  There is no ripping out and re-sewing.  Once the hole is there it is there forever.  And you had better have a long stitch length because if you have tiny stitches you have just created a line of perforations that could easily lead to a tear along that line.

For the same reason you can't pin it, although leather this thick wouldn't take pins.  Handy little seam clamps work just fine.

I tried a sample of three layers of the leather (mocking up the loop configuration) first on my modern(ish) Pfaff and got the results I expected:  the Pfaff just laughted at me.  Fortunately I knew I had a machine that just might be able to handle it:  A Singer 192 Spartan with a retrofit hand crank.  The Spartan is the budget version of the Singer 99, both are 3/4 size machines.  I keep the Spartan in the studio for sewing persons who are also children to use.  And sometimes even adults get to use it.

Years ago I read a blog post by a leather worker who raved about the abilities of a Singer 99 to handle leather.  Something about superior torque, which I only slightly understand and not well enough to tell you about.

Now there is leather and there is leather.  Thin garment leather can be sewn on just about any machine.  Saddle leather can be sewn on giant machines manufactured specifically for that purpose.  I got to try one once--you stepped INTO the machine which wrapped itself around you.  Awesome sewing experience.  That leather was 1/4 inch thick.

Folks, I won't kid you.  Yes, the Spartan managed this furniture weight leather, but just barely.  It was hardcore hand-to-hand combat all the way, especially over those seams!  I was able to use the hand crank about 80% of the time, but the other 20% I was turning the hand wheel by hand.  And there are a fair number of skipped stitches.

No backtacking either, but you can pull the threads through, tie them, and use some Fray Check on them.

After I had the first two aprons cut out I realized that I had two pieces left that, if sewn together, could create another apron.  Great, because one daughter has recently acquired a fiancee who is very handy around the house.  Nice addition to the family!  He obviously needs a leather apron also.

I had to piece the leather for that last apron and instead of just sewing on some leather loops I had to sew a long seam.  Then once it was sewn I had to find a way to flatten the seam open (it was just too bulky to leave it alone.  The original seams of the leather ottoman had some kind of seam tape glued over them.  I used my enormous hoard of yardsticks and c-clamps and got results that were acceptable.  Just.

There are yardsticks inside also.

After they were finished I wiped them down with neatsfoot oil.  Leather is an organic material that will dry out and crack.  I use neatsfoot oil on my leather shoes and bags twice a year.  It soaks in and disappears.

OK, aprons made, time to glam them up.  I'm sure I had 10 times as much fun making them as the recipients had receiving them.  I used all sort of things from old keys including a skate key, old dog and cat tags, the little tools that come with DIY stuff, and lot of other bits and bobs laying around.  And I went to the dollar store for the weapons.

I experimented with a lot of different designs.

And a bath towel draped around the shoulders that is supposed to look like some sort of cloak.  but sadly looks exactly like a bath towel.

So how do you wrap Steampunk Viking aprons for Christmas?   ummm, garbage bags.....?

Aprons on the 2 dress forms and a giant bolster.  Garbage bags labeled with names and titles in English and in Norse runes.  Of course.

They were received with hilarity.  One daughter didn't want to be seen and the other reasonably requests photo approval in advance, and right now I can't be bothered.

The practical daughter had all the bling whipped off so fast I didn't get a photo of  her with all the chains and weapons!

Jim has an appropriately Viking presence.

I had a ridiculous amount of fun doing this and it took a ridiculous amount of time.  Time, time I got.  Time has a totally different meaning when one is retired!

********************
Well, it only took me 6 months to finish telling you about Christmas.  I'm just back from a bucket list trip to Newfoundland and I'll  be writing about that.  Because I want to write about it.  And I do know, dear readers, that you are here for the SEWING MACHINES.  There will be a few, but only a few.

If I have any readers in or from Newfoundland, please let me know!  I'm already looking for excuses to go back.  Maybe I really need to meet you and have lunch.  With scrunchions.

A Singer 237 to treadle

I heard from free-motion-quilting guru Leah Day, who was looking for a Singer 237 to treadle. I had one but had done nothing with it since it came in the door several years ago.

If you are a free motion quilter you already know who Leah Day is.  Or you should!  About a year ago she interviewed me for her video podcast, in which we discussed vintage sewing machines and you can see my episode on YouTube here.  If you prefer audio podcasts, the same podcast comes in an audio only version.  Search your podcast player for "Hello My Quilting Friends".

This is the 4th time I have sold a Singer 237 for treadling, and it is a fine choice.  It has a zigzag stitch as well as the obligatory straight stitch.

It also has a needle position lever.

There are attachments to create zigzags on straight-stitch only machines, and they can (might, might not) create an acceptable utility stitch but they do it by moving the fabric back and forth, rather than (as in the case of a zigzag machine) having the needle move back and forth.  Some work better than others.  For NICE (rather than merely acceptable) zigzag stitches, you need a machine designed to do this.

Mostly this post is for Leah, to show her photos of the machine and tell her about its original condition and what was done to make it fabulous.  Because it is as fabulous as it can get whilst still being boring beige.  As usual, dear readers, you are welcome to join us as we explore this 237.

I started by pulling it out of the cabinet (you can have the cabinet if you want it, Leah) and was very pleasantly surprised to discover that my 2-month-old new shoulder was up to the task.  "Don't do anything stupid" was the going-away advice from my surgeon.  When I mentioned my habit of slinging around 40 pounds of cast iron sewing machines, he modified that advice to "Don't lift them up above your head."  Okey doke.

It was an ordinary amount of dirty and I didn't take any before pictures.

I plopped it into the big aluminum food service tray I use for cleaning machines.  And turned it on its side to clean the underneath side.

This is the "after" picture.  I use Tuff Stuff, a spray on foam cleanser, on the underneath side but ONLY ON MACHINES WITH A "MODERN" FINISH.  Definitely NOT on anything with delicate decals.  If the machine is a color other than black and the finish looks like a thick coat of poly with no cracks or crazing, then this or another spray cleaner should be fine.  YMMV, so test first.  Always test first!

I scrubbed the dirtier parts with a toothbrush and wiped it down with paper towels, and then oiled all the oiling points.  Always oil immediately after cleaning.  Don't wait until the next day even if you have more cleaning to do.  Yes, I discovered this the hard way.

For the top of the machine, which was not very dirty, I used a slightly damp microfiber cloth and just wiped it down.  Leah, I did not remove the motor and light assembly, so you will undoubtedly find a bit more dust when you do that.  And there is a small place where the finish is scratched and a bit rough but not in the "flight path" of the fabric being sewn.

And speaking of that motor:  It's crap.  It's noisy and sluggish.  I have left it on because it will give you (Leah) a simple way to test the machine when you get it home.  I have never learned anything about motors (other than how to take them off and put a new one one).  In this case the bad motor is irrelevant since it will be treadled.

I thoroughly over-oiled every point where metal moves against metal.  Over-oiling is a bad thing to do for routine maintenance, but when I have a machine that has been sitting for years I apply the oil  generously.

Then I used that crappy motor to "run in" the machine, meaning that I put a weight on the motor controller (aka foot pedal, and this one is the clamshell style) and let it run for 15 minutes to half an hour.  Before doing this I removed the needle and the bobbin case and set the stitch length to the longest length and set the zigzag to the widest stitch.  The idea here is to let all the moving parts do the most moving that they can.  You also need to make sure that the machine isn't going to vibrate off the table!  This machine did not vibrate like that.

Usually you can hear the sound of the machine change at some point, maybe 5 to 15 minutes in, as the oil works itself down into all the squeaky places and the running smooths out.  That happened with this machine too.

And although I didn't totally remove the  motor, I did take the motor belt off after this to test the machine.  SMOOTH AS SILK.

There were some of the usual, and easily correctable, issues.

The needle was rusty and I replaced it.  Nothing else was rusty so I found this a bit mysterious.

The feed dog drop was stuck.  The photo below shows the feed dog drop assembly on the underneath side of the machine.  These are often stuck.

I oiled it, but that had no effect.

On the underneath right hand side of the machine you can see the mechanism directly under the feed dog drop knob on the top side.  The problem is usually not here.

The problem is almost always on the left hand side, where a rod with a point end slides through a cylinder.  Old oil in the cylinder can glue it into immobility.

In the past I have spent countless hours heating up cylinders like this with hair dryers, trying chemicals harsher than sewing machine oil, etc.  I am older and bolder now and I just hit it with a hammer.  (Actually I tapped it fairly gently with a tack hammer).  This worked a treat.  A bit more oil, problem solved, and now the feed dogs drop.

The stitch length lever was working properly, but not completely.  I'll explain:

You are supposed to be able to set the stitch length so that it stops at a certain stitch length.  This means that you can throw it into reverse, and then throw it back into forward by moving the lever down without having to slow down to look at the machine and set the stitch length to a certain point.  It should stop at the point at which you set it.  This was set to a stitch length of about 10 and it would not move to a longer stitch.

Inside the lever is a tiny screw, and once I found a screwdriver the right size it was an easy matter to loosen this up.  The stitch length is now fully adjustable.  However, the feature that allows you to set it at a certain maximum length only works in the 6 to 10 stitches per inch range.  You can't set it smaller.

To summarize:  the stitch length lever is fully operational throughout the entire range of stitch lengths for setting a stitch length for stitching.  A minor function is not working however.

And speaking of the stitch length lever, let us now clear up a misconception about the Singer 237:  that it is all metal.  It is NOT all metal.  It is mostly metal but I'm going to detail the parts that aren't.  Like the whatever-you-call-this which is part of the stitch length lever.

Another piece which may or may not be metal on a 237 is the clutch knob.  This one is plastic, but I have also seen them in metal.

BTW, don't ever use the blow dryer on a stuck plastic clutch knob.  They will melt.  AMHIK.

Although this clutch knob did move, it WAS stuck inside.  So you could move it into the "release" position but the needle kept going up and down.  I removed it and the handwheel and there was something that I swear resembled rubber cement gluing the handwheel to its shaft.  Never seen anything like it before.  Alcohol did not budge it but #400 sandpaper did.  Followed this up with a drop of oil on the inside of the handwheel and now the bobbin winder works as it should.

The guard which snaps the bobbin race into position is also plastic on a 237.  I have never had a problem with one of those.  Sorry, no photo.

What is problematic on the 237 is a tiny plastic piece that lives deep inside the tensioner.  It is a tiny white cylinder with flanges that always reminds me of an Elizabethan ruff.  On about half of the 237s I have had, it was broken and if it is broken the tensioner is toast.  If you have a machine like this, all is not lost because the entire tensioner can easily be replaced and Jenny at sew-classic.com has them for around $15 (at time of publication).

However, on this machine the tensioner was NOT broken.  It needed a simple adjustment but other than that it was fine.  On the principle of if-it-ain't-broke-don't-fix-it, I did NOT dis-assemble it.

The photo above shows the adjustment I will describe, but I want you to know that my fingers do NOT glow red.  I tweak all of the photos to show sewing machine details to their best advantage, even if this throws off the color.

The problem was that the numbers on the tensioner were set wrong.  THE NUMBERS WERE JUST SET WRONG, THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE TENSIONER.  Yes, I was shouting just then.  I wish more people knew about this, and there would be significantly less sewing unhappiness in the world.

So when I got the machine the tension was working properly for two layers of cotton, but the number read "1".  (One).  This means that you've got practically nowhere to go on the downhill side, so if that tension is too tight you can only loosen it up a tiny bit before you get to "0" (zero) and it won't move down any farther than that.

You're not going to believe how easy it is to fix this.  Unless you already know.

You can push in the disc with the numbers on it, and this releases the pins that are holding it in place.  Then you can just move the number disc around to read any number you want.  Release the number disc and the spring behind it will push it back out.  And your problem is solved.  I set this one at "4".

I have amazed and impressed at least one person in my quilt guild by "fixing" her Featherweight in five seconds flat.  Now not every tensioner is made this way, but if yours is set wrong it can't hurt to check and see if the number disc is moveable.

Now for the test stitches.  I always use two different colors top and bottom so that I can assess the tension better.

Top thread.  Stitch length, zigzag width, and needle position all tested and working.

Bobbin thread, showing nicely balanced tension.

So there you are, Leah.  Machine is lovely, as long as you take the motor off!