Traveling with a Featherweight
 

Good evening! I will be flying to Dallas Thursday morning to surprise my sister for her birthday. I just found out that she gave her "spare" sewing machine to her daughter-n-law. I know we will both want to sew while I am there, hence the title of this thread.

Has anyone carried their featherweight on a plane? Thanks!

BTW, we will be able to go to the Dallas Quilt show, too!!

I've recently done a search on here for the same reason and someone brought up a good point that's made me hesitant about trying to carry my FW on. More and more, on full flights, people are asked to check their carryons if there isn't space in all of the overhead bins, especially if its a smaller commuter plane. I'm not sure if I want to risk this. But I would like to get a machine down to FL.

Maybe if her d-in-law lives nearby, you can borrow it back for your visit.

I'm in Arlington and a trusting soul. I have a spare you can borrow. Or, yes, you can fly with a featherweight. Just tell security that it is a sewing machine before they scan it or they will want to open it and examine...ugh. You have the right to refuse to put it below with the other luggage....

I recently took my featherweight on the plane with me. On flight over, FW was put in the overhead bin, fit just fine. On flight back, overhead bin was not big enough, so I put my other bag up there and kept the featherweight under the seat in front of me. There were no problems at all through security. Put case with FW in the grey bin and it went right through the x-ray. My trip was Montana to Seattle.

I took an EQ7 class with Shiela Williams and she said she travels all the time with her featheweight no problem at all. It is less than the allowed carry on weight allowed (18 lbs i guess). Just make sure you take the needle out or any tools and put them in your luggage.

I have taken mine a few times. I found a rolling backpack and I can fit it under the seat in front of me fairly easily. I prefer to put it there as I dont' like to hoist it over my head! (I have visions of the overhead bin coming open in flight and my sweet Fw clobbering someone on the head!) 1st time I traveled with her, she got swabbed for drugs (she was SO humilitated!) and on the way home, they never even took her out of her bag. As she traveled thru the xray machine, the tech popped his head over the top and exclaimed "thats a sewing machine, isnt it?" I'm so glad he recognized it! Restored my faith in mankind! lolol

I travelled with my featherweight on Southwest Airlines last November - I put her in my carryon suitcase, and let the TSA folks know that I had a sewing machine in there. No problem. And then, she went into the overhead bin - again, no problem.

I have to take smaller planes to get to a large airport. FW's don't fit under or over well on them. I ship mine ahead. Bubble wrap around the machine in its case. Then get a slightly larger box and pack with bubble wrap around the case. As long as nothing can jiggle around in the case or the case in the box it will ship just fine and its there when I get there and I didn't have to worry about it getting put in the cargo area because there was no more room in overhead.

Definitely. It fit in my carry/roll on and there was no problem. I put it in a tote and packed my 'needed' items around it. It didn't even get airsick.