Originally Posted by vintagemotif
mpeters, I'm new at all of this too. Started collecting machines last summer. I would have only been collecting Singers if it hadn't been for this site and the wonderful folk here posting pictures of their beautiful machines, and/or talking about them. I have spent hours researching info. I see something on CLs or ebay and then google the info to learn more or see if the information is correct.
I didn't know what a cam was either. I learned to sew on a Necchi Supernova that had cams; just that my mom never showed me how to use them since she didn't use them (she was an excellent seamstress that made all her Vogue clothes).
It wasn't until Purplfiend, Sharon, posted her zig-zag machine that got me wanting a zig-zag machine to treadle, and then an interest in finding a machine that does decorative stitches that can be treadled-and cams!
There are different types of cams for different machines.
Photo of flat cams for my 328k and a photo of the Singer 328k in treadle.
So those are cams. The machine has to have those to make decorative stitches right? How do they work? Having one on, does it somehow change how and when the needle comes down to create the stitches? While those are super neat and I've not seen them before, they would seem to make a machine really complicated to use.
Thanks for posting pictures. It was hard to picture in my head what those look like. The light bulb went on and I understood!
My mom sewed all our clothes for as long as she could. She would skim through penny's and ward's catalogues and pick things for us. We got to pick one or two things we liked. Then, we'd come in from playing one day and the clothes would be on our beds to put away. I had no idea that she made them, especially without a pattern, until much, much later. I only have a couple memories of when she had the machine out.