Spring TOBE and the people powered machines

The Treadle On folks hold several block exchanges a year.  TOBE = Treadle On Block Exchange.  The blocks must be pieced on a people powered machine such as treadle or a hand crank.  The spring exchange this year was a simple rail fence and I decided to join in.

Somehow I always manage to fall into projects that take on a life of their own.  I had never been in a block exchange before, and originally I was just going to make a minimum number to see how it worked.  Honestly.

A year ago when SMAD (Sewing Machine Acquisition Disorder) first struck, I didn't take the DH's grandma's Singer 66 out of the treadle to clean it because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to put it back together properly.  Those two tiny screws are no big deal to me now.   After making the first set of TOBE blocks I began swapping machines in and out of the treadle like mad.  I tried the hand crank on everything in sight.  I learned a lot along the way and finally bonded with the little Singer 99.

Singer 128 hand crank conversion.  Too small to fit in the treadle.

Singer 99K hand crank conversion, also too small to fit in the treadle.  I hated this machine when it had a motor (I think the motor needs some serious work), but as a hand crank it is lovely.  I have since performed a motorectomy and  bought it its very own spoked wheel and hand crank.   Next I will try it with leather.  Leather workers love this model with the hand crank.

Singer 127, The Sphinx.  Lovely as a hand crank or treadle.  Just lovely in general.  Sigh....

Singer 309K two-toned, acquired while I was working on the TOBE blocks.  I also have another, MUCH uglier 306W.  Both of these worked fine in the treadle with the spoked wheel from the Singer 66 (or any other spoked wheel AFAIK).  This was great news because I have plans to paint the ugly 306 and put it in a treadle.  Neither one of these worked with the hand crank, however.  There just was not enough clearance for the wheel to turn.  I have seen 306 hand crank conversions, but to do it you have to drill a hole in the solid hand wheel.

I ended up sending the maximum number of blocks for the exchange: 60.  I received the blocks from the other participants and they are lovely.  Because everyone has their name and town on them, I don't think I should share them here, but I will share some of the ones that I made.  Enjoy!

This was the first block exchange I have ever done and it was fun.  The purpose of Treadle On is to encourage the use of (rather than merely the collecting of) people powered machines.  It's a very friendly group and there are some novice quilters there who got into sewing through owning the machines, rather than the other way around.  The most intimidating part of the whole thing was all that PENMANSHIP.  Never my strong suit when I was young, it is a nightmare with a hand with a couple of old-lady-type-frozen-up-finger-joints.  But I surprised myself and surpassed my very minimal expectations.  I think they were all legible.

I also learned why you can't treadle or hand crank a Singer 15-91.  Of course it is obvious once you know, but seeing is worth way more than a written explanation.  In short it's gear driven rather than belt driven.  Taking off the hand wheel and peering into the gears was a revelation for me and now I "get" it and understand that machine much better.   I took the opportunity to pick out the 50 years old lube and re-lubed it, too.

Smackdown: Singer 201 vs. Pfaff 131, from Anne Graham

Here's another contribution from guest blogger Anne Graham.  
You too could be a guest blogger.  Write about your vintage sewing machines and send pictures.  It really is just that easy!  You KNOW you have a lot to say about your machines, why not share?

Anne writes:

I have finally gotten to the final test of the series.  This one
included two known favorites of mine, the Singer 201 and the Pfaff
131.  Both machines were made approximately the same time and for the
same purpose.  The countries are different and the condition they came
to me are also different.  Each one was a freebie.

The Pfaff 131 was a gift from someone who had in turn received it from an elderly neighbor.  She was, like her machine, from Germany.  She was also known to be a fine seamstress.  I know this to be quite true as the machine was in immaculate shape when I got it.  The tools were missing but the bobbins were neatly stored according to color and weight carefully in a front drawer.  It needed new external wires from age and a new belt but that was all.  I promised to give this a good home and did.




The Singer 201 was along for the ride when I bought the cabinet it came in.  It was inoperable and very very dirty.  Because of the fine reputation this model has I took it and spent some serious time in cleaning.  I bought some parts to replace worn and missing ones.  All the while I wondered if I had truly lost my mind.  It was so enjoyable.  I do not know why I am compelled to do this.  After a while I did get it to turn and eventually run nicely.  There is more work to be done but it is up to the test.

I am now at a point in the sewing of my project where quilting is all that is left.  Each machine needs to be able to use a walking foot or feed the fabric and batting through evenly.  Each machine will have to
be able to use clear nylon quilting thread easily.







Singer 201 Pro's:  She took to the walking foot like it was made special for this machine.  It is not the special strait stitch kind either, just a common Alphasew model.  It pulled the fabric through and stitched with no tangles underneath or pulling off center.  No problem with clear thread and held tension in bobbin too.   The light placement is nice - in front of the machine.  I prefer this to the back.   It is fairly quiet considering the strength it has.  On a side note, Because it is in a case I can take it's powerful sewing ability wherever I want.  It just needs a luggage carrier.

Cons:  The machine's motor still needs some work so it is a little slow.  It will improve with more work.  This machine is a biggie, so to use it in a case means you have to raise your arms to sew with it.
The height is inconvenient when on a table and if you are doing quilting it is a lot of time in that position.



Pfaff 131 Pro's:  This baby is smooth.  It is beautiful, powerful and fast, fast, fast.  The manual it says it is a lightweight high speed machine for corset and shirt production. It may have been intended to be a home machine only.  One thing for sure, it is not lightweight in the literal sense.  It is so heavy I could not use it in a case, it had to go in a cabinet.   It sews perfectly with the quilting thread.  I like that I can open the cabinet and let the quilt lay flat while working on it.  That helps me a novice quilter by keeping it all
smooth and not bunched up.  It is a low shank like the Singer 201 and also takes a walking foot nicely.

Cons:  I have no idea why, but the Pfaff has the dumbest bobbin access of any machine.  Unless I am doing it wrong, you have to tilt the machine up each time you change a bobbin.  There is an access plate for the bobbin area but I can not get my hand down there far enough to replace one.  It's hook is vertical just like the 201, by the way.






Very very close in this segment.  They are almost exactly alike but...........the winner is the Pfaff 131.

Cheryl at DragonPoodle comments:
Anne wonders if she has lost her mind.  Many of us wonder the same thing.  Why is it so satisfying to work on these machines?  There are a million reasons, what are yours?  I love bringing them back to life by revealing their beauty and restoring them to operating condition.  But it goes much deeper than that, doesn't it?


and about that Pfaff bobbin set up.  The Singer 306 is the same, you have to tilt the machine back to change the bobbin.  You get used to it---unless you treadle it.  Then it is a real pain because you have to release the belt to do it.

King Tut and Geek Quilting

Saturday morning was gray and gloomy but the BF and I slipped away to my new favorite thrift shop, which seems to be the motherlode for all things sewing.  It is, in fact, so good that for once I am unwilling to share the information!  Regular readers of this blog will know that I almost always provide links to any place that I shop.  This one I am hoarding all to myself--and the thousands of other people I see in there.  If you live in the NC Triangle region and really, really want to know, email me and I will probably come across with the info.  I will accept bribes, such as the names of YOUR favorite local thrift shops.

I came home with even MORE fabric, despite having recently taken the pledge to stop buying fabric "unless it really rings my chimes".  As a pledge that has proved to be pretty worthless because there are lots of fabrics that ring my chimes.  This week it included fabric with people playing beach volleyball.  How could I possibly leave that behind?



And then there were the giant blue polka dots.  I can never resist polka dots of any size.

Finally, the piece de resistance:  A lovely white damask fabric from Dakar, Senegal, printed with purple stripes of King Tut. 

Purple!  Stripes!  King Tut!  From Senegal! 

Any quilt I make with King Tut should be pieced on The Sphinx, I think.

I should mention that thrift shop prices for cotton yardage are in the 50 cents to 1 dollar per yard range around here.






A bag of vintage presser feet caught my attention, as well as another box of Greist attachments (I already have a couple).  The Greist box included a tucker, which had previously eluded me.  And the bag had vintage left and right zipper feet (and an extra right foot as well).  It was the zipper feet that pushed me over the edge to spend the $2 on the bag.  Not because I want to use them (I prefer the infinitely adjustable cheapo generic one) but because they are just adorable.





The threatening skies turned to rain, so I spent much of the rest of Saturday updating my studio spreadsheet.  You all keep records of every foot and attachment you own in a spreadsheet, don't you?   This is one of the reasons why one of the DDs calls what I do "geek quilting".






When the vintage sewing machine bug bit me I needed a way to keep track of the sewing attachments and accessories, hence the spreadsheet.  I had it more or less organized and could sort by manufacturer, name of attachment, shank size, etc. but it had too much stuff on one page.  So I created a new page each just for cams, machines, and buttonholers and the like, leaving the presser feet and other accessories on the original page.

I used to be a management analyst for the Defense Department, and although that job only lasted two years (me and the Army were NOT a good fit) in many way the job was a perfect one for me.  I just LOVE to organize things.  Give me a closet to clean out and I am happy as a clam.

downstairs parts cabinet

So I started thinking about how to store the feet and attachments that I want to use in "Studio North" aka the living room.  The main studio is the former downstairs family room.  Downstairs I have a parts cabinet with one type of foot per little drawer.  Anything that lives upstairs has to look like it belongs in a living room.   Plastic parts cabinets do not qualify.






I pulled a small side table with three little drawers from another room and into it went the parts box for the Singer 306 and its bobbin box, and ditto for the 15-91.  I weeded everything out of the recently acquired Greist box except for the parts that fit on the attachment post (the hemmers, edge stitcher and binder).



The problem with keeping all these parts in their original boxes is that they are jumbled up in there and hard to see.  So because I already had everything listed in the spreadsheet, I was able to make sliding paper covers for the boxes with the contents itemized.  Geek quilting at its finest.

The Singer boxes are pretty fragile.  I doubt if Singer gave much thought to making cardboard boxes that would last 70 to 100 years!  I opened them, slid the top under the bottom and then slid the paper cover over all.  This minimizes the wear and tear on the fragile boxes.

99% of the sewing I do in Studio North is just straight piecing on the Singer 15-91, and I use the gauge foot for small pieces or the walking foot for long seams.  But during the next power failure it is nice to know that I can pop the Singer 306 into the treadle and sew any darn thing I want with any fancy presser foot.  I won't, but I sure do like knowing that I could!

Smackdown: Clash of the Pinkers

I recently bid (but not high enough) on a vintage Singer pinker, the kind that stands on a table.  You turn a crank and feed the fabric through the pinker. I've seen one in the wild recently at a thrift shop I visit, but thanks to eBay they want $85 for it and they have it locked up in a glass case. 

Fortunately I was outbid early in the auction and decided it was time to investigate the unused pinkers I already own.  Two are vintage thift shop finds, one I purchased within the last 10 years but don't remember ever using.  All three appear to be in mint condition.



The Florian Pinker
This is the mutant offspring of a pizza cutter and a pair of scissors.  I say "pizza cutter" because this contraption predates rotary cutters.  It works like scissors, and like scissors you have to keep moving it along the fabric.  Unlike scissors, this thing keeps its grip on the fabric as you move it along.

The blade is very sharp and it makes a nice cut.  It takes a bit of effort and coordination to push the mechanism up, down and along.  It's an unusual motion, but if you ever learned to roller skate you could probably master this.  My hand tired pretty quickly.

On the back of the box, faintly in pencil, the previous owner noted the store, town and date when she bought it--in 1946. 


 

Stellar Pinking Shears


These are just a normal pair of pinking shears, albeit in a cute vintage box.  Both the box and scissors are in lovely shape and the scissors are nice and sharp.  They are heavy and clunky to operate, even after a drop of sewing machine oil at the hinge point.






 

Mundial Sewlite Pinking Shears
These modern pinking shears are longer than the vintage ones, but lighter in weight.  Nice and sharp.  I had no problem cutting across two widths of fabric.  Hands down the winner.



The purpose of this exercise
Most of the fabric I buy comes from various thrift shops, but wherever the fabric comes from it gets washed in hot water and put in a hot dryer.  "Know the worst right away" is my motto (along with "kill the lurking insects right away" and "wash out the formaldehyde right away').  Raw edges ravel in the wash, so currently I serge the cut ends of yardage prior to washing.  I thought that pinking the edges might be faster than getting the serger out.  Although the REAL story is that I got to lusting over that vintage Singer pinker but could never bring myself to spend the bucks to get one.

Clash of the Pinkers:  Results
For one or two pieces of fabric, pinking just might be the answer.  But even with the light weight Mundials I think my hands would get tired if I were pinking more than two pieces of fabric.  Your (non-arthritic) Mileage May Differ.

So, am I going to get rid of the vintage pinkers now that I have discovered that (at  least in this one narrow instance) modern is better?  No way!  The vintage ones are just so cute.  And you have to love a mutant pizza cutter that looks like a whale.

Besides, it is three years older than I am and it is still sharp.  Wish I could say the same for myself!

Do you have an unusual vintage pinker?  Send me a photo and I'll share it here.

Guest Blogger Pits a Spartan against a 15-91.

No blogging in quite a while now.  It's that darn Life acting up again.  Oh, well.  
Fortunately we have another posting from our special correspondent Anne Graham.
Anne writes:

Here is the second part of the challenge.  I thought this would be an
easy one but was a closer round than I expected.
The machines:
Singer Spartan vs the Singer 15-91

Both Singer machines this time.  One is a very low end model and the
other a mid range one.


Singer Spartan: 
 Made in 1960, this a small and very simple machine.
It does weigh what feels like a ton.  Not a feather weight....

Sewing:  It does sew very well.  I use this when I want a simple non fussy machine either for me or for a new seamstress to borrow.  It is hard to mess it up.

The stitches were great.  The threading, tension
and bobbin all are easy.   It takes all low shank attachments so the
1/4" foot works great on this.
Cons:  It is loud and rattles in it's case.  The machine definitely
outlasted it and a replacement is not possible.  The bed is small so
for larger quilts it would not be be practical


 
Singer 15-91 
This was made in 1949 and sits in a case.
Sewing:  It does an excellent job with stitch quality.  It has a smooth solid feel making sewing with it a pleasure.  It is quiet to operate.  The free motion work is excellent though I did not test it this time, know this to be true from other projects.  It takes a quilting foot and walking foot attachments making the job easier too.






Cons:  It is a fussy machine.  I forget between sessions that it likes
thread on the spool pin just so and the bobbin set just right.  It
like new needles and to be oiled each time.  That said, these are
small things and if done, it works like a charm.  I just get annoyed
with poor performance until I recall these things and do them.





Winner:  Singer 15-91

Cheryl at DragonPoodle concludes:
I've got a 15-91 that I'll be reviewing soon.  I wish mine was born in 1949 though, like Anne's.  Then we would be the same age (me and the 15-91, not me and Anne).

Smackdown: Singer 66 vs. Elna Grasshopper

Here's another entry from our special correspondent Anne Graham:
Smackdown Round One
I began this process with great interest as I too have several strait
stitch sewing machines.  One was already up and going on a project so
it will be the first competitor.  It is the making of this project
that I will be testing them out on and showing in pictures.  it is
just squares sewn together so not complicated but as I sew for others
as well, I like a very simple thing to relax with for myself.

There are a few machines that fit the bill as far as strait stitchers
but are not included.  This includes hand cranks, a sideways sewing
Wheeler Wilson, 3 treadles and a Wilcox Gibbs chain stitch.  I am
trying to keep it simple!

The ones that are in the challenge are:
Round One:  Singer 66 Treadle vs Elna #1 Grasshopper
Round Two:  Singer Spartan vs Singer 15-91
Round Three: Singer 201 vs Pfaff 131.

Singer 66 Treadle

Made in 1941 and sits in a strait leg treadle cabinet of bird's eye maple.
This machine is one that has tremendous sentimental value to me as it was a gift from my late husband.  I can't help but think of him while I use it, he was so excited when he brought it in the house.
Sometimes it is something like this memory or simple the "cool" factor
that makes a machine seem to work better.

About the sewing:  Excellent stitch quality and is the easiest of all
my treadles.  It has one feature that the others do not - a back tack.
 Back tacking on a treadle is a little odd.  Treadling forwards and seeing the needle going back just takes some getting used to but is really a time saver.  The bobbin is easy, threading is simple and generally not fussy.



The reason I started with this is not related to stitch quality but may be another consideration.  It is a very quiet machine.  Because it is not electric I can move it into a good spot in the living room and sew while a movie is on.  Very handy.

Cons: I have never done free motion quilting with this so am not sure how it would do.


Elna #1 
The Grasshopper

This one is a machine I use for simple quick projects as it can be brought out and set up quick.  It weighs 11
pounds and takes up little space.  It also takes low shank attachments so I can use fun things on it like walking foot, 1/4" foot and a zig zagger.  It has a LOT of the cool factor.  It is just fun to use.

Sewing Tests:  Stitch quality is good.  Threading is easy, bobbin placement is fast and hold tension well.  There is a problem with it though, as it was operating very slowly.  That is not usually how it is so I need to check her out.

Cons: Not a lot of power and this too has never been used for free motion quilting.  It requires a darning plate.

Winner - The Singer 66.

Closing comments from DragonPoodle, aka Cheryl:
Wow, a Singer 66 treadle that back tacks!  and a Grasshopper.....how I long for a Grasshopper..... 

Guest Blogger Sneaks A Viking 2000 Into The Smackdown

 Today's post is from guest blogger Anne Graham, aka yarndiva.
Apparently she has tried to send other posts in but this is the first one that came through.  So hopefully we will be hearing more from Anne soon.

Anne writes:
Just a quick progress entry to your strait stitch smack down.  I bought for
$15.00 a Viking Husqvarna 2000 at a rummage sale.  It was made in 1964.  Of
course I immediately had to try it out!  Because my current non work project
is my yellow squares quilt, I slipped it in to the competition briefly.  It
is a strait stitch only but that is only because it broken, a cracked cam
stack.  This is a very common, if not 100 percent guaranteed problem with
6000 series Vikings of which this model is the first.  With a repair, it has
the capacity to do zig zag and other deco stitches so it does not qualify to
compete, but still, here it is.

This brings up a topic common to older machine aficionados: is it worth
repair?  I needed to try this one out for a while to be sure.  The part
alone costs $50.  It also had stuck feed dogs.  This might be why it was in
the rummage pile so long.  No one could get it to sew.  I was able to fix
that and lubricate the machine thoroughly.  With much testing, I have
decided to let myself bond with it - it is a great machine.  Sews great,
very precise and takes low shank attachments.  Easy to thread and the foot
control is the most well designed of all my machines.  Very sensitive so it
allows more control while sewing complex items.  The stitch quality is not
to par with the 15-91 or even the treadle 66 but it is still very good.
That is usually the case with zig zag machines.  I digress....

Back to the strait stitchers.  Singer 201 is next.

Anne Graham
Snowy Sierras

Cheryl (aka DragonPoodle) writes:
Its all about love with these old machines, isn't it?  Your Viking looks lovely and maybe you will get lucky and find the cam stack for a decent price someday. I love the free arm. 

"Is it worth repair?"  Now there is a question with no answer.  Here in my area I can get a terrific vintage machine at just about any time for under $50, usually for WAY under, although Vikings don't pop up too often.  So, do you repair, or just wait for another, even better one to come along?  Or both?  lol

We Interrupt This Smackdown To Announce The Discovery Of The Holy Grail

That would be my own particular Holy Grail, not the one that the Knights of Camelot were searching for.

A Singer 127 with the beautiful "Sphinx" decals.  $35 on Craigslist, already cleaned up, oiled and lubed.  and it sews an absolutely beautiful stitch.

I removed the blue 1950'S era motor (not original to the machine) and controller and added a hand wheel.  The blue motor just looked silly on it, and I wanted to use it to participate in a people-powered quilt block exchange.  I also removed the bobbin winder, which was not working.  I've got a working bobbin winder on my 128, and removing the bobbin winder reveals....

as you can see the decals are not in flawless condition, but they are in terrific shape.  They are a bit more worn on the bed as one would expect, but still darn fine...

I've been trying to figure out a natural way to work the word "shrubbery" into this post but so far have failed.

so there you go.  enjoy the eye candy and bring me a shrubbery!

ni, ni

Smackdown Test #4: Feet and Stitches

THE PRESSER FEET

The Gauge Foot

This foot did not work on any of the four straight-stitch sewing sewing machines being tested in this smackdown.  The presser foot screw interfered with the gauge.  There is an indentation on the side of the gauge foot that looks as if it was meant for a smaller screw.  All of my presser foot screws are the same size, however, so I had no way to test this theory.

I adore presser feet and attachments, and plenty of them come my way and in my price range.  I may not see well enough to follow a cross-stitch chart anymore, but I can still spot a green Singer box across a crowded thrift store.  This is a cute foot and a keeper.  Perhaps it will be bait for some mysterious small presser foot screw.


Flat 1/4" Foot

This is an absolutely flat foot which is 1/4" wide on the right hand side.  Quilters mostly use a 1/4" seam.  The foot obviously has other uses (all those markings!) but I have never bothered to learn what they are.  So many presser feet, so little time.

As far as I remember this is just a cheapo generic snap-on low shank foot.

This foot worked fine on all of the machines.




1/4" Foot with Guide

This snap-on foot came with my Janome Memory Craft 4900, but other companies also make/sell them.  The right hand side is 1/4" with a vertical guide at the edge. I prefer this foot to the plain flat foot because it's easy to keep the fabric shoved against the guide.  This takes less skill than keeping the edge of the fabric aligned with the flat foot.

This foot worked on the Dressmaker 132, the ModernAge 250, and the Singer 15-91
and did not work on the Singer 99.  On the 99 it would take 3-4 stitches and then make a bobbin thread nest. 


Straight Stitch Walking Foot
This foot sat straight and aligned with the feed dogs on two of the four machines, and on the other two it sat at a slight angle and therefore didn't line up exactly with one of the feed dogs.  If it mattered to me I would check back with Jenny about it, but since I knew I was going to keep it I didn't bother.  (Sigh)  So many presser feet... 

It worked just fine on the Singer 15-91 and the ModernAge 250, a line-for-line 15 clone.  It didn't sit as straight on the Singer 99 and the Dressmaker 132.


THE STITCHES

I tried each foot on each machine, and stitched together five blocks per foot.  I wanted to check the quality of stitches from one machine to the next, and the accuracy of my seam widths from one foot to the next.

There was minor variability from block to block but not so much foot to foot and none at all machine to machine.  The walking foot did produce the best results overall on the two machines that it fit.  BUT

Here's the real story:

• All of the machines made a nice stitch, once I played around with both the thread tension and the bobbin tension and got them set correctly for my thread and fabric.  Since all I will be doing with these machines is piecing two layers of 100% cotton, they are now set for life.
• The accuracy of the seam depends almost entirely on how much the machine operator is paying attention to what she is doing.  Skill is more important than the toys in this case.  

The moral of the story:  Toys are fun.  Fun is good.  Have fun, but don't expect it to make you a better seamstress.  or seamster.  (I'm boycotting the trendy word "sewist".)

COMING NEXT:  LEATHER
and the answer to this question: 
What two statements are guaranteed to make a sewing machine bulletin board burst into flames? 
The word "leather" is sort of, but not entirely, a clue to one of them.