Can you wash Singer buttonholer cases in the dishwasher?

Here at the DragonPoodle Test Kitchen, we seek to answer the questions it would NEVER occur to you to ask.

Such as this one:  Can you wash Singer buttonholer cases in the dishwasher?
As mentioned before, I am always looking for the easy way out.  That is NOT a good personality trait for someone who collects vintage sewing machines, btw.

before, obviously

after, just as obviously

The answer is a resounding YES.  Finally, something was easy.  There was minor paint loss off of the button snaps on the front, but nothing I couldn't live with.

I have quite a collection of buttonholers, including a green and a pink Jetson.  I did NOT put those in the dishwasher.  They have smooth surfaces and didn't need it, plus I was chicken.  I love those things.

I ran them on a regular cycle, and about halfway through I opened up the dishwasher and flipped them upside down.  I took them out before the rinse and dry cycles.  I wanted to spare myself the scrubbing but not stress them out too badly.

The green ones are for low shank machines, and will work on ANY brand low shank machine, straight stitch OR zig-zag.  The red ones are for slant shank machines, also straight (Singer 301) or zig-zag (400, 500, 600 series.  Even beyond, if you are foolish enough to venture into the later Touch 'N Swears).



Did you know that all of these work on straight or zig-zag machines?  I didn't, until I started messing around with them in preparation for bestowing a 401 on a friend of the DD.

Did you know that this model and the Jetsons model are identical except for the housing (metal housing in the rectangular boxes, plastic housing in the Jetsons boxes).  Just remember to set your machine for straight stitching and let the buttonholer do all the zig-zagging by itself.

They make beautiful buttonholes.  You do need to stitch out some tests on your fabric. Play around with the width settings and tension.  Use stabilizer.  Just like machine embroidery, when in doubt use MORE stabilizer.  It really is easy if you are willing to take a bit of time up front to test stitch.



There's a later model that came in a cardboard box, and its mechanism is different.  It has plastic cams and has 20 of them, versus the 10 available for the earlier ones.  I just love me some vintage Singer buttonholers. 

And, speaking of mechanically washing vintage sewing items, a fellow showed up briefly on one of the boards and described how he had cleaned some treadle irons:  he put them in the back of his truck and drove through the car wash.

You can imagine for yourself the HOWLS of OUTRAGE that greeted his comment.  Needless to say, he has never been heard from again.

So be gentle with those less knowledgeable than yourselves.  Or St. Peter may greet YOU with a howl of outrage when you meet him at the Pearly Gates.  and you would never be heard from again.

We would miss you.  You DO know that there are hand cranks in heaven, don't you?  The treadles are too heavy, they would fall out of the bottom of the clouds.

Recent Graduates of the DragonPoodle School of Anarchic Sewing

School Motto:  Patterns?  We don't need no stinkin' patterns.

You met Michael back in July.  He came over for a third and final studio session, in which he proceeded full speed and I puttered around the studio.  He reports that he completed a third pillow at home.

Patterns were never an option.  He brought a pillow form and knew what he wanted to do.

btw, this is another post that was written earlier in the summer.  That ole Life has been acting up again, so I haven't spent much time in blogland recently.

The Totally Out Of The Blue Surprise Student:  DD Emily

Em was here for a visit and because she is a good daughter she lets me talk about my sewing machines.  I think the whole family is bemused by the sheer quantity of machines that have come to live here.  Em tried sewing in high school and did not fall under its spell.

She spotted a little Singer 99 with the crinkle or "godzilla" finish and was immediately attracted to it in the midst of all the shiny black ones.   She walked over to it and turned the hand crank and was a goner.

She spent the next two days sewing (amongst the family visiting) and she left with a lovely tote bag.  She also, needless to say, left with the 99.  And its cabinet.  Mother love is a powerful force, more powerful than sewing machine love.

We did briefly consider using a pattern but that didn't last long.

The fabric she choose was one she had given me years ago, a plush upholstery weight fabric.  Because the tote was for her kindle and netbook she wanted padding, so she lined it with a prequilted solid yellow.  The straps are a repurposed metal belt.  All of these were thrift shop finds.

And if you are thinking that it was a crazy thing to do to take a formerly sewing averse person and encouraging her in her desire to make a tote bag with upholstery fabric and a quilted lining as a first project on a new machine, well, this IS the DragonPoodle School of ANARCHIC Sewing.

Emily did almost all of the sewing.  We broke a couple of needles, probably because I never remembered to upgrade the needle size from a 14.  The last seam, in which we encased the raw edges of the inside seam in bias tape, was a toughie and at the end Emily turned it over to me.   The Singer 99 lived up to its reputation as a small workhorse. 

This is why I collect old Singers: 1) they are wonderful and 2) reading about them and experiencing them are two entirely different things.  The feel of the 99 as it tackled the multiple layers of heavy material will stay with me.  I now totally get the 99 and especially get why people love to hand crank a 99.  Awesome experience, awesome machine.

Prior to all this, in preparation for Em's visit, I took a break from sewing machine repair to do some cleaning.  I announced to the DH that all the sewing machines and tools were gone from the top of the workbench (aka the dining room table).

His response:  Will you give me a map?
Me, with my usual verbal elegance: Huh?
Him:  Without the usual landmarks, how will I find my way through the house?

.

Hot Fun In The Summertime. Fools Rush In.

Hot Fun In The Summertime
(This took place last month. I guess the heat cooked my brain and I forgot to publish this post!) 
 
It was 104 in the shade.  Who knows how hot a black cast iron sewing machine gets when it sits in the full sun?  Perfect for freeing up a sluggish machine.

I've worked on this little 99 a couple of times before, the first time when I got it.  Cleaned the lint out, oiled it, tried it with the motor, didn't like it.  Put a hand crank on it, and I liked it.  Months later I tried it with the hand crank and it was hard to turn.  Oil improved it only slightly.  So when the first round of 100 plus temps hit I put it out in the sun and sprayed it several times a day with PB Blaster.  It took a while, but eventually it was turning freely.  Brought it back in, a week later it was sluggish again.

Did you spot the error in procedure above?  I'll wait while you go back and figure it out.

I should have followed up the PB Blaster with sewing machine oil.  By not doing this, the remaining crud and PB Blaster hardened and gummed it up again.  Lesson learned.

In the meantime, I discovered the sewing machine repair manual at Tools For Self Reliance.  The machines they find useful in Africa are the cast iron Singers, specifically the 66, 99, 15 and 201.  The manual illustrates how to refurbish these machines.  With its help I removed the bobbin case on this and another 99.  Pretty yucky in there.  I should have taken the hook out also but I chickened out.  End result:  machine was still sluggish.

This time I stuck with sewing machine oil only, oiling all the movement points every time I took the poodles out.  After the first day it was turning freely, and after a night in the AC it was only hanging slightly.  After two days it was still turning well in the morning after a night in the air conditioning.  Day three and when I spun the hand wheel it kept on spinning.  

Fools Rush In
I confess, what I am really seeking is a magic wand.  I want the crud on the exterior of beautifully decalled sewing machines to simply disappear.  Without spending 20 hours to make it disappear.  Without destroying the decals.

I've tried a bunch of stuff, most of it worked, all of it took a lot of effort, and in every case you have to be super careful of the decals.  I want the magic crud-melter.  I recently read that someone uses a kerosene soak for this.  I consulted the treadle on board, and nobody really recommended it.  Did that stop me?  ha!

First problem:  I didn't have kerosene.  what I did have was a couple of bottles of lamp oil.  same thing, right?  well, apparently not.  did that stop me?  ha!

Second problem:  a couple of bottles of lamp oil is not enough to cover a sewing machine.  I thought that if I had the whole thing bagged up, I could squeeze the air our and it would be covered.  well, no.  dtsm? ha!

assembling the tools:  tall trash can, heavy duty plastic bag, and scrubbies

a layer of bubble wrap pads the bottom of the trash can

The plan:  heavy duty trash bag hopefully will not puncture and leak out all the lamp oil.  Did it actually work that way? hah!

The plan: scrubbies are spacers so the bag does not stick to the machine in critical areas.  Did it actually work that way?  Guess...

air bags and more bubble wrap are stuffed down inside the trash can to push the sides of the bag in so that it won't take as much lamp oil.

The end result:  the lamp oil came about halfway up on the side of the machine.  I couldn't squeeze the bag together enough to get it to cover the machine.  I decided to let it sit for a couple of days out in the heat to see what happened.  Maybe it would explode and burn all the crud off.

Why do this against all advice and basic common sense?  It was 104 and the heat wave had been here off and on for weeks.  Going out was no fun.  Staying in was no fun.  Maybe exploding a sewing machine in the front yard would provide some diversion.

End result?  The sewing machine survived.  The gunk coating it survived.  The decals survived.  It was perhaps a teensy bit easier to clean the gunk off the half of the machine that had been soaking in kerosene for three days during a North Carolina heatwave.

Would I ever do this again?  You must be joking.  Do I regret it?  Not for a single minute.  This is a hobby.  It is supposed to be fun and if I'm not having fun I just don't do it.  I don't mind making a complete fool of myself.  I did it just for you, you know, so that you would be spared from making the same long chain of foolish decisions.  Seriously.

No sewing machines, front yards, or tall trash cans were harmed during the production of this blog. Even the scrubbies survived unscathed.

eBay humor: battery powdered sewing machine

Check out this listing for a Singer 206.  At least they claim it is a 206, but the ad is so full of unintentional humor that I wouldn't take their word for anything.  I've never seen a 206 in the wild.

the title is the first clue that some chuckles are coming: "SINGER SEWING MACHINES MODEL 206K"
How many machines?  One, apparently.

Cruise on past the grammar, punctuation, spelling and capitalization errors to the end of the listing which states
"original electrical cord + battery powdered box"

and just in case you think I am being too tough on the seller, remember I DID just tell you to cruise on past all the tell-tale signs of a non-native English speaker.  That's not what I am laughing at.  Honestly.  If I wrote a listing in Spanish, which I might just manage, it would be on a par with this.

it's the "battery powdered box" which cracked me up.  That, and one of the photos.  Top row, second from the right.  Just what IS that object shown with the motor controller?

Why, it is an audio mixer of course.  I'm just SURE you also use an audio mixer with the battery powdered box on your sewing machine.  Don't you?

Michael Makes A Pillow

Michael came over for his second sewing lesson today.  First lesson was basic machine orientation and choosing a project.  He decided on a covered throw pillow.  Piping AND a zipper right out of the gate, ambitious AND challenging.  But I firmly believe that the best way to teach anything is to have the student plunge right in to a project they want to do.

Fortunately he didn't want to make a tuxedo.






The phrase "duck to water" springs to mind.  He claims never to have used a sewing machine before.  He figured out how to use features of the sewing machine to solve problems on the fly. Then told me how he did it. 


He bought a pillow form, a zipper and some fabric at Walmart and recycled the piping from an older pillow.

Pretty impressive for a first time project, eh?  He got the whole thing finished up in one afternoon, too.

Let's hear it for Michael!

Tuesday Thrifting. Top Hat Trade.

On Mondays my favorite charity shop, motherlode of sewing goodness, is closed for restocking.  I'm usually there on Tuesday mornings.  I wasn't going to go this week, but when a lunch date fell through at the last minute I hit the road.  And the sewing trinkets jackpot.

If you are just willing to wait, almost anything will show up in your price range. If your price limits are low, this just keeps the thrill of the hunt going that much longer!
  

My price limit for boxes containing feet, cams or attachments is $5.  I knew that sooner or later I would find the pink Jetsons slant-shank buttonholer and this was my lucky week.

No modern machine with "automatic" buttonholes can match a good Singer buttonholer.   Ask anybody who has tried both.

This one has 5 cams, but they are interchangeable and I have several other Singer buttonholers, and all the cams.



Here's the find of the week: a zig-zagger for the Singer 301, in the box, with the manual, and discs 1-4.  The 301 is a straight stitch machine and the zig-zagger moves the fabric back and forth.  Do you know if this is the device known as "the penguin"?  If you know, please leave a note below.

This is an example of "I want it because it is just so cool" rather than "I want this because it works so well" (like the buttonholers).  The general opinion on the boards is that this object is a waste of time.  But just so cool. 


I bought a bag of miscellaneous feet for $2 because there was something in there that I had never seen before, and I am a total sucker for presser feet.

The mystery object is a Chadwick zig-zagger.  I also bought another Chadwick ZZ in a box.  From 0 to 3 zig-zaggers in one fell swoop.  The Chadwicks are for low shank machines. 

I have big plans for one of these Chadwicks.  Watch for an upcoming announcement from DragonPoodle International.

Turns out the rest of the bag was a nice set of snap-on low shank feet.   The triangular object on the left is a mystery.  It has the letter "R" on it.  Any ideas?

I adore feet and attachments of all kinds, whether I use them or not.  I do use a surprising number of them, but I am even fonder of the oddball ones. 

Finally, I bought a box of Singer 638 attachments mostly in the hope that the bobbins would work in a 603E that I am hoping will chainstitch for me one day.  Nice slant shank feet too.  And a bunch more top hat cams, which are threatening to take over the studio.

So, if you need a set of top hat cams, Nos. 1-7 (you can google the patterns), feel free to offer any sewing related trade.  I'm looking for the rare 0 (zero) zig-zag cam, and the 23 basting cam (don't know if this is rare or not).  You would be crazy to trade a rare one for the very common set I have.  So make me an offer!  anything sewing related.  The odder the better.

I'll even throw in half a dozen class 15 metal bobbins if you need them for another one of your machines because I am suddenly wealthy in class 15 bobbins.  All this treasure from one unplanned visit to the thrift shop.

The Fine Print
Offer expires July 31, 2011 or later if I don't get any offers by then. 6 class 15 metal  bobbins and Singer top hat cams Nos. 1-7 only (no box or other cams or attachments).  If you don't know whether your machine takes Singer top hat cams, then it doesn't.  If you don't know whether your machine takes class 15 metal bobbins or not, then put down the scissors and step away from the sewing machine.  Offer that appeals to me the most will be accepted (dollar value is totally unimportant).  Postage paid for by senders (you and me).  Second place winner will be offered Singer top hat cams Nos. 1-6.  Told you I have a boatload of cams!

Review of Two New Fix-It Blogs. And a Dragon.

Disclaimer:  this is in no way a comprehensive guide to sewing machine fix-it blogs.  Lately I have been amazed and astonished by the work on two new blogs, and want to share this with you. 


The Vintage Singer Sewing Machine Blog
"Find 'em, get 'em, fix 'em, clean 'em, and use 'em"

The good, the bad, and the ugly

This is a new blog that describes in wonderful detail the work he is doing to his vintage Singers.  Lots of great photographs, excellent descriptions and details.  If you fix up vintage machines (Singers or otherwise) you will find this fascinating.

Lately I have been absorbed by his discussion of screwdrivers.  Screwdrivers have been the bane of my existence for the past year (the length of my obsession with vintage machines) and thanks to Rain I now know why, and more importantly, what to do about it.


I would also echo everything he says about vintage Singers in his first post, Why Vintage Singers? 
I don't limit myself to Singers, but I do limit the amount I will spend on a machine, and it is mostly Singers that come my way in my price range.


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My Sewing Machine Addiction
"This is about the strip down and restoration of a 1940 Singer 201-2 sewing machine, and probably some other random thoughts along the way."

Singer 201s are reputed to be wonderful machines, and high on my wish list.  One will come my way sooner or later, but if it is totally rusted and non-operational, I WILL JUST WALK AWAY FROM IT.  This woman took a different path and is doing a TOTAL strip down and restoration of a rusted out 201.  She makes it clear on her blog that this is not for everyone.  She used to restore classic cars, and is still driving a 1967 Chevy Malibu that she restored.  My kind of woman!  and my kind of vintage, too---I graduated from high school in 1967.

I have often wondered what it would be like to take a machine totally apart, and thanks to Elle I get to live through the experience vicariously.  She also puts up lots of excellent photographs illustrating her process.  I'm learning a lot from her that will be useful even on non-total strip downs.

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This one is not strictly a fix-it blog, but a nice story of a woman restoring a "Lampzilla":  a Singer 127 or 128 that had been turned into a lamp.  She also recently restored a Necchi cabinet.

I have a couple of machines that I plan to paint someday, so I am always interested in seeing that process illustrated.  Lampzilla will be a nice shade of robin's egg blue, one of my own favorite colors.

yarn, kids, dogs, and a few wierdos


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Finally, why is there a picture of a dragon teapot at the top of the page?  Because a blog without photos is like a day in Florida with or without Anita Bryant, depending upon your philosophy.  And the Anita Bryant reference is a time trap:  if you "get it" you are probably as old as I am!


Really, it is an eye candy gift to my blogging buddy, the "other" Cheryl at Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting.  I don't collect teapots (six is not a serious collection, and one addiction is plenty, thank you very much!) but dragons do perch here from time to time.

A Machine for Jenn: SMAD* runs rampant

*SMAD:  Sewing Machine Acquisition Disorder

one of the DDs asked me if I would be willing to teach a friend of hers to sew.  Silly question!  I made contact with her friend Jenn, and Jenn indicated that she needed a machine.  I easily convinced her that what she REALLY needed was a wonderful vintage machine, and not plastic crap.

so I trolled the thrift shops for the next week and also dug into the "archives" to see what I had squirreled away on the shelves.  My MIL asked me if I was really going to be able to find one I was willing to part with.

Here are the results:

The lavender Kenmore mentioned in an earlier post (and henceforth named "Brigadoon" for its ability to appear and disappear) reappeared at my favorite charity shop.  Apparently they have a new volunteer who knows something about machines, and she included a lengthy note describing its condition and what she had done to it in a way that gave me a lot of confidence about the machine.   Enough confidence to bring it home with me.  It does straight and zig-zag but nothing else.  It just purrs.  Lovely machine.  But you may have noticed that I tend to fall in love with ALL of the machines that come home with me.

A nice shiny Singer 66 in a modern plastic case.  I'm not a big fan of the 66's, but this one does reverse, and it is in marvelous condition.  This is probably the model I learned to sew on (more about the confusion in a future post).  And a 66 is certainly a cast iron workhorse.  I didn't think a straight stitch machine would be best for Jenn, I just wanted to show her the options.

 A Taiwanese green machine badged "Aldens" and almost identical to the green Dressmaker that I discussed in an earlier post.  This machine was super cheap at the Goodwill, and for good reason.  It looked horrible.  It was filthy.   I bought it in the hopes that I could cannibalize the tensioner off of it and put it on the Dressmaker.  When I got it home and opened it up I was amazed.  It was very clean inside, and with a few drops of oil it sews smoothly.  It is all metal inside, no plastic gears, although parts of the face plates are plastic.  It takes cams, although I don't have any that fit it.  It does zig-zag without a cam. The paint on the handwheel is badly chipped, but other than that it cleaned up to be a beautiful machine.  I could now cannibalize the green handwheel off the Dressmaker, but I still have hopes for that one.

A 401, with a nice set of feet and cams, and a repro manual.  I expect to get some serious money for this one some day, and I didn't think that Jenn would want to invest this much in a hobby that she is just diving in to.  Also just an option.

and a note on pricing:  on all the other machines I am just expecting to recover my investment, NOT including my investment of time cleaning, oiling, fixing, etc.  Very few people can make money on vintage sewing machines because there is an enormous supply and practically no demand, except for a few models that have caught the attention of collectors (famously the Singer 221, and less so for the 301, 401 and 500).

And speaking of the Singer 500, The Rocketeer

This was one of the first ones I collected when the SMAD bug bit me, and I made some mistakes.  It did not have a controller (foot pedal) nor a bobbin slide cover.  Now I know what those things cost to replace!  The soapdish works fine (top cover) but the left hand cover hinge pin is broken, which is a common flaw on these machines.  I'd rather let it go to a friend now than invest even more in parts in the hope of making a profit in the future.  This one also has a nice set of feet, cams, and a repro manual.

I have read that the 500 is identical mechanically to the 401, and that these are considered to be "the best machines that Singer ever made".  In fact, it says this on the cover to the manual, so it MUST be true, right?

Jenn likes this one, but she also wants a cabinet and the only one I have that will fit it is plywood covered in blond wood-patterned Formica.  It is not only the sewing machines that went downhill over time, the cabinets followed right along.

Cases, on the other hand, went from bad to worse.  The exception here is the case to the lavender Kenmore, which is the most attractive vintage case I have seen.  Not flawless by any means, but sturdy and covered in a black and white tweedy vinyl, I think.










Most of the vintage cases I have look more like this, filthy and shedding their original coverings

and if funky vintage plywood covered with something like vinyl wallpaper or cloth does not float your boat, there is always the modern alternative:  white plastic!


Jenn is debating between the lavender Kennie and the Rocketeer.  I've suggested that she can switch back and forth between them during the lessons and test drive them much more extensively.

A Machine for Michael!

The Emdeko, a vintage Japanese machine
This blog post continues the previous posts in which I searched for a machine for my friend Michael.  Scroll on down to see the earlier posts.

After the green Dressmaker fiasco it finally dawned on me that I had an almost identical machine in my hoard that I  had forgotten about.

A year ago I restored my MIL’s Singer 66 Red Head treadle and fell in love with the whole process of bringing an old machine back to life.  I was beginning to read vintage sewing machine bulletin boards and was in search of another machine to play with.  The Emdeko came my way at the Good Samaritan thrift shop, $15.  I brought it home, opened it up and LO! It was pristine.  I’m talking factory-fresh. 

The fact that the exterior was immaculate and you could do your hair and makeup while looking into the chrome should have been a clue.  Oiled it, put in a new needle, and it sewed perfectly.  Built in zig-zag and the possibility for decorative stitches with cams. 



Now it’s not really possible to be disappointed that a $15 machine turns out to be a gem, but I will say that I was nonplussed.  It didn’t come with cams, but by now SMAD* fever had set in and cams started coming home with me—finally one set of them did the trick.  One of the cams is a blind stitch, and the machine has a built in zig-zag.

*Sewing Machine Acquisition Disorder

This fall will be the 50th anniversary of my journey as a seamstress, and it has been fun thinking about what a newbie would like in a sewing machine.  The Emdeko seems to go out of its way to communicate clearly with the operator (unlike, say, a Singer 401).  The stitch length dial says “stitches per inch” in nice large letters.  There is a giant button marked R for reverse. 





The zig-zag  selector has icons showing the size range of the zigs (or zags).


I just love this machine.  There are other nice touches:  a marked throat plate, AND it came with a seam guide.  There’s a button to drop the feed dogs down, and another one that changes the height—all the way up is for normal fabrics, and halfway up is for lightweight fabrics.  The cam operation is fairly intuitive and the cams are easy to insert and remove.  The thread spool pins are metal and hinged so they fold down.  There is a needle position lever.  All of these things make sewing easier and all are working flawlessly.  And miraculously I found a manual online for free.  Now a generic manual for Japanese machines is fairly easy to find, but this is the exact manual for this model. 

I think this machine could take Michael anywhere he wants to go.   Two thread spindles allow for twin needle sewing.  A 1.3 amp motor and the solid steel construction ought to handle any home dec project up through occasional upholstery.  Put a roller foot on it and I’m betting it could handle leather.

Which leads to the single drawback to this machine:  it is high shank.  It came with a zig-zag foot.  I bought an adjustable zipper foot for it.  If Michael comes up with any needs beyond that he is in the realm of full-retail-price.  I have only ever seen one set of high shank attachments at a thrift shop, and needless to say I bagged them for my Lady Kenmore 89 (Queen Of The Studio, a Pfaff 280 in disguise). 

and, oh yes:  Michael was quite pleased with his new machine.

TOGA: Days 2 & 3, sewing and a tale of two machines

Day 2 of the TOGA (Treadle On Gathering and Academy), Monroe NC

Lots of things happen at a TOGA.  Machines for sale.  Other stuff for sale.  Classes.  A guy doing scissor sharpening.  Young kids sewing and helping people and otherwise behaving impeccably.  I"m not making this up and I'm not exaggerating.  I had a marvelous time but most of this post is just about sewing machines.  What a surprise!

I took three classes and I did take pictures but I am not comfortable with posting people's faces without their permission.  Besides, you have all seen rooms full of women sewing.  What you may not have seen is a room full of women sewing on ALL kinds of sewing machines, from antique hand cranks through vintage electrics and vintage electrics converted to hand cranks, to the very latest whiz-bang electronic plastic wonders.  (No, I am NOT sneering at them--I own two of them myself.  They are just fine as long as you keep them in their place.)

Of course I was hoping to find a beautiful antique machine that rang my chimes and was for sale at a price that would not stop me.  I did see the EXACT machine that I would have bought and it belonged to a lovely young woman named Ada.  Lucky Ada.  This machine has inlaid mother-of-pearl and what looks like hand painted ornamentation.

I had a terrific time looking at everyone's machines and came home with a new lust-obsession:  a Singer 316G.  O.M.G.  What a beast!  The most muscular looking Singer I have ever seen.  No pic, stupidly.

When I returned to the hotel after Day 2 the DH was surprised that I had not bought a machine.  I did see an adorable chainstitch treadle.  The treadle pedal looked like two footprints.  I couldn't face trying to get a treadle home with us.

The DH asked me how old my oldest machine is (1921).  He then told me that I "needed" to buy a machine from the 1880's.  After more than 20 years of marriage he still manages to astonish me at times.  I do talk to him incessantly about sewing machines.  He talks to me incessantly about sports.  I always assumed that we were both paying an equal amount of attention to one another.  Does this mean that now I will have to start following his discussions of college football coaching strategies?  

On Day 3, sitting on the floor along the wall, I found this sad looking little machine.  Tag was marked "National (?)  $5".  It has the leaf tension and bullet shuttle that I associate with machines in the 1880's and is almost certainly older than my next oldest machine.  The price was definitely right.

I can find neither a brand name nor any kind of number on it.  This style of machine certainly does go back to the 1880's but machines like this continued to be produced through the teens.  Apparently this is not good enough for the DH.  He says I should keep looking.

I wish I could convey how hilarious this is, Mr. Football having any kind of opinion about sewing machines.  Totally out of the blue.  Are you reading this, honey?

It is rusty, not only on the chrome (?) parts but on the body and the rust extends under the paint.  It was, of course, frozen solid.  The chrome on the bobbin slide plates appears to have bubbled up off the underlying metal.

Instead of the liquid-wrench-and-a-hairdryer trick, I sprayed it and set this puppy out in the North Carolina summer sun.  It "only" got up to 96 degrees F today, but that was enough to do the trick.  Had to tap the slide plates gently with a hammer, but I have it stripped down now.  The mechanism is still frozen, and tomorrow I will clean off all the drippy Liquid Wrench and miscellaneous gunk and take a closer look at what might be stuck.

A quick swipe with sewing machine oil reveals the remnants of some lovely decals.  In most places the decals are completely gone, with only an outline of glue to show where they once were.
















The most amazing thing about this machine:  it weighs in at a mere 16.5 pounds.  For a cast iron machine, that's almost "featherweight".

If I am ever able to identify it, it will probably be from this access port cover on the front above the stitch length lever.  If you recognize it, please leave a comment!