This post is for Amy

Dear readers,
In addition to using my blog as a sales tool, I sometimes use it to communicate to one person.  You are more than welcome to listen in.  I know you are here for the photos of vintage sewing  machines!

For information about how I am handling sewing machine sales during a global pandemic, see my previous post about a Singer 185 that I have for sale.  

Cheryl

Amy,
I'm putting this on my blog because I can show you photos, and because I have a lot to say and would forget half of it on a phone call.  Normally I spend about an hour demonstrating the machine to a potential buyer but we will not be doing that in the middle of a pandemic.  Feel free to come back after there is a vaccine!

There is information here that will be valuable to my regular readers.  And they want to see the photos!  So this post is a hybrid--half of it for you, half of it for my readers.

I told you in an email that I had two zigzag machines and at the time I thought it was true.   However...

The one and only "zigzagger-only" that is working and ready to go is one of those "high end" machines I mentioned that will be more expensive than the number we originally talked about on the phone.  It is a Necchi BU Nova.  If you compare a Singer sewing machine to a Ford automobile, then a Necchi is a Ferrari.* I have given you the price in an email, and if you think you might be interested I will post photos and information in another blog post here.  The other "zigzagger-only" that I thought was ready to go was not in fact ready.

*I would classify this Dressmaker as a Chrysler, lol.  A step up from a Ford.

I'll be discussing my discoveries about the Necchi BU Nova in a future post

I do have another machine that will fit your needs, the white and teal Dressmaker in the photos, and now I am going to try to convince you that this is true.  You mentioned that you want a zigzagger and not one with multiple stitches because they are more complex machines and I understand.  Basic zigzaggers are the machines in most demand.

I swear it is not as complicated as it looks

All zigzag machines have either knobs or levers to adjust the stitch width and length

 

The knobs below the stitch width allow you to lock the width for sewing.  Turn to the left to return to straight stitch.

Push in the button marked "R" in the middle of the stitch length knob to reverse

Machines that make multiple stitches either have those stitches built into the machine OR they need cams inserted to make the stitches.  Cams are flat discs with indentations on the outer perimeter.  A finger inside the machine follows those indentations and moves the needle to make the stitch pattern.

Cams to make the extra stitches would be inserted here if we had then.  But we don't!

Multi-stitch machines SOMETIMES (but not always) have a built in zigzag stitch.  I have a machine like that.  I don't have the cams for it, so it is NOT a multi-stitch machine right now, although it looks like one.  As is, it is zigzag and straight stitch only.

Fortunately on this machine the zigzag cam is permanently built in

We COULD just put painters tape over the illustration of all of those stitches on the front of the machine!

LOL

It is very clean on the inside.

It was this clean when I bought it.  No build up of gunky old sewing machine oil inside

It originally came to me with a broken tensioner and I replaced it.  I think I replaced it with a brand new one (and it looks new), but that was a couple of years ago and I'm not sure.  It might have been harvested from another machine.

Tensioner

The original light bulb was burned out and I replaced it with a new LED bulb.  As I mentioned to you, the LEDs are a nice upgrade because they are brighter and they don't get hot.

New LED bulb

It came with the original manual.  This is unusual for a machine from this era as most have been lost long ago.  I estimate the date on this one to be from the 1970s and it is an all-metal machine made in Taiwan.  Having the original manual is a big advantage.  There are manuals for many but not all vintage machines available online for a fee.

Originally $339.95.  That translates to about $1600 in today's money.

There is a threading diagram in the manual but I will leave the machine threaded so that you can take photos of the thread path if you feel that would be helpful.

Threading diagram and instructions

I cleaned and oiled the machine and tested it thoroughly.

I will include the test strip of stitches, all of them labelled, and with notes about the two things that went wrong during the test.  At one point when I was rotating the fabric, the thread got caught on a screw next to a thread guide and as a result the thread broke.  Just a fluke, not a problem with the machine.

Thread caught on a screw and then broke

The other problem wasn't a machine problem either, just a good reminder of why we should always test stitches before putting the real project under the needle.  l was testing the "triple stitch" function (more about that in a moment) and the thickness and build up of the stitches meant that I needed to adjust the presser foot pressure.  All of that is covered in the manual.

Presser foot pressure needed to be reduced for a very dense "triple stitch"

So, to summarize so far:

Needle position:  left, center, right

• The machine will straight-stitch, and there are three needle positions:  center, a bit to the left and a bit to the right.

Built in zigzag cam

• The machine has a built in (and not removable) cam that creates a zigzag stitch.  You can adjust both the length and the width of the zigzag.

 

• Although originally this machine came with additional cams that would create several other stitches, those cams are no longer with the machine.   

Lever to select regular or triple stitch function

Triple stitch function.
This machine will use the straight and zigzag stitches in a two-stitches-forward-one-stitch-back method that makes a thicker stitch that can be used decoratively.  The straight version in a long stitch length has a bit of stretch to it which is useful for topstitching knits.

You can, of course, choose to ignore this stitch!

I only sell machines that I am confident are in good working order and that I can stand behind.  The cost and warranty information are included in the email I am sending to you.  This machine sews very smoothly and should be a workhorse that will last you for many years.  Probably decades, as is true of most of the all metal vintage machines. 

regards,
Cheryl

Pandemic Sales Plan

Regular readers might remember that I occasionally use my blog for sales purposes.  This is one of those times.  It's the easiest way for me to share photos and detailed information with potential purchasers.

FOR SALE:  An all-metal Singer vintage sewing machine, model 185.  A 3/4 size straight stitch only machine.  Cleaned, oiled, tested and ready to sew!

Singer 185.  A straight stitch machine is all you need to sew face masks.

A lot of people are stuck at home and returning to old ways (baking, sewing) or trying them for the first time.  I have heard through the grapevine that sewing machines are sold out in the stores.  Lots of of people are making masks.  My quilt guild buddy Jo has made over 400, and my buddy Molly has made over 700.  I have made and distributed more than 125 and have another dozen on hand.

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I used this machine to sew ties on to pleated face masks.  It sewed through six layers of quilting cotton and 2 layers of bias tape like they were butter.  Please note, though, that material thicker than quilting cotton is too heavy for a pleated mask, although it would be fine for a shaped face mask.

It is early June 2020 and I have been in lockdown since March 14, although for the first three weeks I was still getting drive-through fast food.  It has been long enough now that I am pretty confident that I don't have the virus.  Although my advice to others is to realize that when you trust someone else you are not only trusting them with your own life, you are trusting them with the lives of others close to you.  So I am going to describe in detail how you might purchase a machine from me during this pandemic.

The machine will be plugged in, threaded up and with fabric available, and sitting on a table on my front porch ready for you to test it.  My front door has a window and we can talk to each other by cell phone while you are here.

You will need to wear a mask and gloves while you examine the machine, and a mask and gloves will be on a table at the beginning of the sidewalk before you get to the machine.  You can keep the mask and gloves whether you decide to purchase the machine or not.

The machine comes with a vintage Singer carrying case.  As with all vintage cases, you should keep a hand underneath it and not rely on the handle.  This handle and the latches on this particular machine are sturdy and secure but why take a chance? 

If you decide to buy it, you can leave the money on the table.  I'll trust you about that.  (The price will be listed in the Craigslist or Facebook marketplace ad.)  If you don't decide to buy it, I will wipe everything down with a bleach solution AND I will let four full days go by before showing it to another customer.  I couldn't find any specific data online about cast iron sewing machines, lol, but the National Institute of Health found that the virus can live for up to three days on stainless steel.  And that's without a bleach wipedown.

That's as safe a way as I can figure out to sell a sewing machine during a pandemic.  If you have additional ideas, please leave them in the comments below.

My idea is to provide a complete kit of everything needed to make masks. Much of this comes from thrift stores but some things just have to be new to be worth using (needles and scissors for example).

These items will be included with the Singer 185

In a semi-vintage plastic sewing box I will provide:

• extra sewing machine needles, new
• hand sewing needles, not previously used
• a plastic thimble
• Partial spools of several colors of thread, polyester (which is strong and does not "go bad" over time)
• extra bobbins.  This machine takes class 66 bobbins which are widely available
• seam gauge
• tape measure
• pins
• pin cushion 
• a piece of tailor's chalk
• two screwdrivers, the kind that come with a new sewing machine.  
• scissors, new
• snips, new 
• a bottle of sewing machine oil, new (the ONLY thing you should use on a sewing machine)
• a lint brush
• at least 6 "fat quarters" of quilting cotton 18" x 21".  Each fat quarter should be enough for a couple of masks. 
• four yards of quarter-inch elastic
• a seam ripper but no guarantee that it is still sharp!  I personally don't care for them but I acquire them with other thrift store sewing supplies sometimes.
• I will even throw in an iron upon request and at no additional charge.  It won't be a steam iron but a spray bottle of water or a damp cloth can provide you with steam if you need it.

A threading diagram and description for this machine can be found here.

If you just need a machine and not all of the supplies in the kit, the price will be reduced. However, this is an all-or-nothing deal.  I won't, for instance, just sell fabric, or a pair of scissors, etc.  I'm not a store, heck I'm not even a business.  I have a limited amount of accessories and supplies that I have hoarded from thrift stores over the years, but that stuff is for my sewing students and the sewing friends with whom I regularly swap stuff. 

Ridiculous/Fabulous Purchase

I go to thrift stores ALL THE TIME.  And although I have been doing this since 1968, these days I claim it is physical therapy.  And  it is true.  In the last six years I have had four major joints replaced:  two knees, a hip, and a shoulder.  For the knees and hips I need to get out and walk every day.  The easiest way for me to do this is while holding on to a shopping cart.  The cart gives me safety and lets me walk with a good upright posture.  I have no idea why walkers require you to bend over.  And don't tell me I have set the walkers to the wrong height, because two different physical therapists set it the way they thought was right.

So to get in a good walk, I just go to a giant grocery store, hardware store, or thrift store.  I only need a hardware run about once a month, and the big grocery store maybe twice.  But there are many big thrift stores around here and they restock with unusual junk treasures every day.  So I go to two or three of them two or three times a week.

I have really slowed down on buying stuff as I try to declutter my house (thanks for the inspiration, Marie Kondo).  But vintage sewing goodies will always tempt me.

Hence my purchase of "Deluxe Clover Portable Dressmaking Utensils".

I spent years hoping to find buttonhole cutters and finally put them on my Amazon wish list.  And this year for Christmas I got one with a replaceable blade.  Havels Ultra Pro II Seam Ripper and Buttonhole Cutter.  As always, link provided for your interest only, I get no kick-back from Amazon.

So of course about a month later I found this dressmaking kit which included two buttonhole cutters.  This is one of the immutable laws of the universe.

15 mm

and 9 mm

and this piece was originally a mystery to me, but as I searched Amazon for my Havel cutter so that I could provide you with the link, I discovered what it is!

It's a keyhole and/or eyelet cutter.

The eyelet cutter had occurred to me, but it does not feel very sharp.  And I still don't understand the slot on the side.  Unless it for those time when you need to cut 30 eyelet holes at a time and as they stack themselves in there and push their way down, you can pull the cut circles out of that slot.

Leave a comment below if you can enlighten me!

 There is also a nice sharp awl.  I probably have half a dozen awls already.

 And a pattern marker.  Have a bunch of those too.

A ring shaped thimble.  Don't think I have one this shape among the dozens I do have.

And a metric tape measure a meter and a half long.

This was only ridiculous as a purchase because of the price.  And it my rule not to post prices of anything here on the blog.  I occasionally break this rule with Amazon stuff just to give you a heads up on whether you want to click and check it out or not bother.   (That Havel cutter set is a bit under $15 at the time I wrote this).

And in case you are wondering if I will use this stuff or merely hoard it, let me assure you that I will proudly hoard it.   And use my brand new Havel cutter with the replaceable blade.

But if I ever decide to go to a dressmaking workshop and up my skills, I will take these with me.  To show how classy I am (pause for laughter).

Although I bought this at a thrift shop, it is an unusual thrift shop staffed by lots of hipsters who know a thing or two about cool vintage stuff and price it accordingly.  (Scrap Exchange, Durham NC. Technically a "creative reuse arts center.)  So it cost about 10x what it would have cost in a regular thrift store. 

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What have you over-paid for recently?  Feel free to share your shame below, with or without prices!

Riccar 3600: The Good, The Bad, & The Pretty

I buy very few sewing machines these days.  I would be happy to downsize the herd.  But every once in a while something tempting comes by.  What made this one irresistible?

Riccar:  a couple of them have sashayed through here and they were terrific machines.  Didn't automatically mean that this one would be though.

It has a free arm.

And obviously, the REAL reason I bought it:  It's PINK.

And the price was thrift-store-reasonable, so it came home with me.  I spent zero time in the store checking it out.  Sometimes I do much more, taking top and bottom off to check for plastic.  It's mostly a question of mood.  Sometimes I just feel like rolling the dice.

So which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?  Should I extol the many virtues of this machine and discuss all of its features, building the excitement to a fever pitch?  Only to reveal the (possibly future) fatal flaw?

Guess I'll start with the bad news.

I don't know what to call this part.  Gear-thingy is my best attempt.  It goes around.  It has fingers sticking out.  Those fingers push on the bars you see to the left and extending to the left edge of the photo.  They meet the cam stack off to the left and drive the cams.

When I first saw the crack I thought it was threads caught on the gear-thingy, but no such luck.  And there is another crack of a different shape on the opposite side of the gear-thingy.  Definitely cracks, you can feel them easily.

So that's the bad news.  Yet I am not heartbroken.  Tell you why later.  However I am EXTREMELY IRRITATED with the fools who designed this machine.  As I cleaned it I did not find any other plastic parts.  The cams in the cam stack are metal.  The top gear is metal.  WHY, OH WHY???  Why this one critical part in plastic?  If I had a time machine I would go back and slap them in the face.  With a really nice pair of long leather gloves.

While you are waiting for me to reveal the ultimate fate of this machine, let's talk about all of its good features.

It has a free arm, which is a relative rare feature on a good vintage machine.  (See this previous post on the difference between good vintage and crappy vintage.)  Sleeves and pant legs, among other things, are much easier with a free arm.

There's a handy ruler.  And FYI you can buy rulers-as-tape and stick them on the edge of your sewing machine cabinet.  They come in both a paper or plastic tape and as steel tape.  I can't imagine life without them.

It has a convenient handle.  And although it is quite heavy, it is not as heavy as a Singer 237.  Specifically that one because I picked one up last week.  Sorry, I forgot to weigh it.  And Google doesn't know.

The part-which-removes-to-create-the-free-arm contains an accessories tray and half a dozen posts for the bobbins.  Which are class 206 bobbins, not class 15.  Rather unusual.  The bobbins came with the machine.

This the coolest feature of this machine.  With the free arm in place you can flip open the top of the accessory tray, flip down the bobbin case access door and change the bobbin.  No need to remove "the part-which-removes-to-create-the-free-arm".  Extremely easy access to the bobbin in other words.

It is a multistitch machine

I tested the zigzag and blind hem only (so far) and they work.  Stitch length and width work.

Needle position works.

Next I looked on the top for the bobbin winder.  No bobbin winder.  I had noticed the bump on the handwheel side but hadn't checked it out yet.  Indeed it hides the bobbin winder under a hinged cover.

I then looked for thread guides and didn't see any.  So I just threw it on there.

Don't do it this way.

And I got the lousy results that my lack of attention earned.

Experienced sewing people know that the way that the bobbin is wound really, really matters.  Thread spooling up off a bobbin wound this badly will feed unevenly which will mess up your stitches.

So I slowed down a bit and took a closer look at the machine.  And wound the thread off of the badly wound bobbin onto another bobbin.

The bobbin winder thread guide/tensioner hides on the back right corner of the machine.

And as you pull it out into position, it stops the needle motion while the bobbin is winding.  Same thing that releasing the clutch knob on the hand wheel on the more usual vintage machine does.

In the photo above I have highlighted the thread path in red.

And using the machine correctly produces a much better-wound bobbin!

It came with a nice selection of presser feet, most of them snap-on.  The snap-on shank and zigzag foot are on the machine.

Top left is an attachment screw but the others are a mystery to me.  Any knowledge gratefully received, leave a comment below.

 I feel like I should recognize this spring, but it isn't coming to me.

 Things end up with sewing machines that are not sewing machine related.  Or maybe came from a different machine entirely.

 Like this broken feed dog, which I think came off of a sraight stitch only machine.

A cheap plastic case is better than no case at all.

And a poor paint job in PINK is better than any other paint job in black or beige.  In person these are obviously paint job issues rather than wear.  And even if it was wear, that would also indicate a poor paint job.

I did not find any "Made In ..." on the machine, but the motor was made in Taiwan.  By a Japanese company.

There are a lots of clues here that this was made very late in the "good vintage" era of machines.  I confess that I have only done a one-minute Google search, mostly looking for a free manual.  Didn't find one.  I may look for for information later but right now I really don't need to do that.

So, lovely machine, everything works, very cute, free arm, etc, etc.  Problem is, I can't sell it.  Because of that cracked gear-thingy.  Those aren't just surface scratches, they go deep.  One of these days it will fail.  Could be tomorrow, could be 20 years from now.  I can't sell it.

And I'm trying really, really hard not to accumulate more machines.  But I have a plan for this one.  I have recently taken on a couple of sewing students, and this is a good machine for student use in the studio, right up until the minute that gear-thingy blows.

So even with the cracked piece I'm still quite happy about this acquisition.

* * * * * * * * * *
As always, I look forward to your comments below.  If you know anything about this machine I would love to hear it.  And I'll try not to feel guilty about being too lazy to search for the information myself.

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And because we all enjoyed the recent troll, I have decided to begin sharing with you some of the comments that I delete from the blog.  I'm not sure what the posters get out of this, but they turn up on OLD blog posts.
 
First, there comes some strangely worded praise of my blog;

  Paul Brown said...

This article gives the light in which we can observe the reality. This is very nice one and gives indepth information. Thanks for this nice article.

 

Next comes a link to a business.  Not included here for obvious reasons and I have never clicked on one.

Regards,
DragonPoodle
providing "the light in which we can observe the reality"
Thanks, Paul Brown (probably not your real name)