davis vertical feed question
I went to look at an "1883 Davis sewing machine" from CL today in hopes that it would be one of those vertical feed machines that has gotten praises here for its quilt binding capabilities. However, I am not at all sure what I was looking at. Unfortunately I do not have pics. My understanding of the vertical feed machine is that it has no feed dogs and the needle bar goes back and forth as well as up and down. Well, this machine had no feed dogs, but the needle bar only went up and down, not back and forth. It had some gizmo in front of the needle that looked as if it would push fabric under the needle from the top. Was this an earlier model of the VF, or was it the usual VF machine with the back and forth motion frozen and some sort of pleating attachment on it? That is all I can think of. I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on this! Thanks!