Look what I have found! Vintage hand crank Singer Sewing Machine
 

My son and I were just wandering through a charity shop on Sunday and he spied this lovely machine in the shop underneath a machine at the cashier's table. I was amazed that this machine was there because I have never seen one in a charity shop before.

I asked the shop assistant and was told it was for sale and highly collectible. (I knew that before he told me of course! LOL!) He said that there was a part under the plate where the feed dogs were that needed replacing. The crank would not make a complete revolution and was stopping short of a complete revolution. I paid £20 for it and then took it home convinced that it needed a service.

I am not savvy about old machines but went on the internet to look for someone to service the machine here in England. I came across a blog spot called 'oldsingersewingmachineblog'. it is manned by Sid and Elsie. Here is their link: http://oldsingersewingmachineblog.com (you may red to copy and paste the link). I email Sid and with his advice, managed to find a knot of thread was causing the problem! So now the machine is working though I have not tested it yet but will do after we have moved.

I thought I would post some pictures here on the board. I will take my time and clean it up as best as I can and hope that I can bring it back to its former glory. At least I have a piece of history and I can pass some of that on to my children.

My great great great grandfather and the grandfathers 2 generations after were all tailors and used hand cranked machines. Unfortunately, these machines did not survive the war. The only machine to have survived was my grandmother's treadle machine but that has since gone awol. I learnt to sew as a child on that machine. I hope to find one in the future.

Enjoy the pictures!

Congrats!! We'll look forward to seeing the pictures!! :)

Isn't it a thrill to find a treasure! Can't wait to see your pictures----congratulations!

Hello B Lizzie,

Lovely to hear from a compatriot. I keep telling everyone here that we have fantastic machines in England waiting to be picked up.

Well there's a thing, my great great great grandfather was a tailor too, but I doubt he ever used a sewing machine, that's going back to pre-Famine Ireland. He was followed by three generations of tailoresses in this country, who I expect spent many hours on treadles.

Looking forward to hearing more about your machine and what you make on it...

check for the missing plate in with bobbins and accessories.....when my Daughter bought one that is where the missing piece was hiding.

Thank you for the link you posted. I really enjoyed it.

Great find and nice that you were able to get it going again. What a fantastic price too ... even in pounds. I wanted to thank you for the website you included in this posting. I started reading through it and could hardly pull myself away. Loved the history and story about the 99K someone bought from this couple. Also, I never thought about all the machines that were lost during the war ... along with so many other things including the most important loss: lives. It was nice to read about your find. Hope it sews perfectly for you when you try it out. Hope to see pictures of it when you get it cleaned up and going.

KLO,

My friend Mary, who was born just before the War, has an 1893 28K that her father bought for her mother as a wedding present for thirty shillings. They lived in London and their house was bombed. Her father was able to salvage the sewing machine and a clock, but not much else. It's a wonderful machine - it has that well worn look.

Looking forward for pictures~~love those old machines.

Been having problems with uploading pictures, tried everything I can think of; resizing, cropping, all sorts. Will try and post the pics. Please bear with me….