The Machine That I Fiddled With Today
OK, most of us vintage sewing machine enthusiasts have several machines, and we try to accumulate even more. Some of us have machines that we fix and re-home, (or, flip for profit if you will). Some of us have machines that we have had stashed away from years ago, maybe received from a family member that “dumped” them on us, and we’ve finally decided to take a look at it. Some of us have been searching for and finally found that one machine that we’ve been coveting. Some of us have picked up a sewing machine at a yardsale and don’t know a thing about it yet.
Whatever the circumstances, let us hear about what machine you’ve been fiddling with today, and what happened..... What is going on with you and your machine?
I’ll start: It’s not a quilting machine, but lately I’ve been re-working a machine that I came upon that once belonged to a long-time upholstery icon within the neighborhood. His name was Jim, and he did re-upholstery in my small rural town for a long time. He did the community upholstery work from 1961 until 2008. That’s 47, or 48 years, depending on how you look at it. That’s a very long time!
I got my hands on one of Jim’s old walking foot upholstery machines. It’s a German-made 1959 Singer 111W156. After going through it, I think (hope) that it was a machine that he must have bought from someone to help them out, and that he never actually depended upon it for his work. His main machine (that I saw him use) was a Pfaff Industrial. This Singer machine was a basket-case, and he never could have sewn on it in the condition that it was in (at least, its condition when I received it). The timing was out of whack , parts were missing, cheeshe! It couldn’t have sewn as it was, but I am certain that he owned it at one time, and that he had it in his shop.
Well, today, after weeks of tweaking this and tweaking that, then searching for help and waiting for parts, it sews! I had test-sewn it a few days ago, by simply hand wheeling it. But today, even though it was possibly the coldest day of the year in my Bikeshop, I fired it up and sewed with it in a power stand! Whoohoo! It sews like Champ!
I love it when things come together! I’m going to put this one into my lineup of “go-to” machines!
Please share your experience of fiddling with your machine. Photos would be nice, but not required. What machine did you fiddle with today? Tell us about it!
CD in Oklahoma