Thread: Vintage Sewing Machine Shop.....Come on in and sit a spell

Originally Posted by grayhare

Thank you, I will have to keep my eyes open for a Necchi cabinet.

I might know where one is...a friend in Vallejo has a few. PM me if you are interested and I'll get you her email. The Necchi group always says that a Singer cabinet can be used IF you are willing to enlagre the holes that the hinges go into on the base of the machine. You might want to join it (yahoo) and check the archives, I recollect a fair amount of discussion on this. However, i am in the phase of collecting where cabinets have to be pretty special or I just ditch them at the local furniture consignment store, where they sell nicely as occasional tables. Laura

Originally Posted by chris_quilts

Good to know and thanks for information re rubbing alcohol and qtips.
Pictured is the latest helper giving me her opinion of what I need to do. This is Lily who is also the feline unit of the quilt police.

what a little stinker! so cute! laura

Originally Posted by Candace

Well, the alcohol took enough of the marker off that I'm satisfied. Thanks Up North for the suggestion. Here it is. It's a Brother 221 Galaxie and I'm guessing it's from the 70's. I got it for not much, because there's no foot control. I have an extra that I need to rewire for a permanent solution. I spent about 2 hours degreasing and lubricating. The reverse and stitch length arm were pretty stuck. All the innards are metal including the cams. However, there are two nylon gears. One has a small crack but it still sews great and all the stitches are nice. My Morse has a similar crack and also sews great. So, I'm not going to worry about it. What I think is pretty cool are the built in stitches. I've never seen a machine this age with built in duck, butterfly and fish stitches. Neato! I like the lemon color and I'm glad I was able to get it running.

Candace,
I'm putting a decorative stitch border on each of my denim quilt squares. I do not have a duck, bat/butterfly, or that style of fish. If I were to ask real sweet, kind of like ... purty please ... would you be willing to sew a border of each on a square for me? I'll cover the postage both ways and supply the thread too.

Joe

Sure Joe. And it would be good practice for the machine:> Don't worry about thread. I have a ton of it. PM me and I'll give you my address.

Nancy, absolutely no rush. I have a feeling it's something I should intuitively be able to do, but I'm also a bit hesitant when it comes to changing the original machine and tinkering with electricity. So, I've just put it off. Cathy was really sweet to gift it to me. And I like to try to fix it .

Joe posted a thread on spending more time using his machines. I have the same feelings of focusing in on sewing projects and quilting over rescuing vintage machines. I have a very nice grouping of machines that are screaming at me to be used. My to do list of quilts has grown as well as fabrics for those quilts. Now, I just need to stay focus on those projects.

So, I'm off to tackle my list of quilt projects!! I'll be around, but I'm going to try to stay off this list so that the projects do get done.