Originally Posted by
maviskw
I'm new to this site. I never paid attention to vintage machines, although I own a treadle from way back. It's not at my house for reasons I will not mention here. About a year ago, I bought a Featherweight. I love it. But this last Tuesday, I was given a Singer with bentwood case. I finally had time to open it up today, to look at what was in there. It is a Singer with knee control, with terrible wires, but otherwise looks old, but OK. The number plate says "G0762263". I couldn't find a bobbin, so I called my sewing machine fixer man, and he said he had the long bobbins. Then I figured out how to open the bottom, and found seven bobbins and the BOBBIN CASE. There was a book in there that said "Revised in 1923". I finally got the bobbin threaded.
I would love to make a 9-patch for Ashlea with this machine if I can get it to work. I'm kind of afraid of the wiring, but will try it anyway. The directions in the book say: "To Make the Electrical Connection Unwind the electric cord, screw the plug at the end into an electric light socket and turn on the switch." Apparently the plug has been changed, as it has a plug that will fit into my outlets.
I'll work at this and let you know (if I'm not electrocuted first, LOL).
Wow! Thank you Mavita!
That Singer was a great gift. ISMACS has a list of Singer serial#'s. If I'm reading things right your machine is a Singer model 128 with an allocation date of March 19, 1924. The allocation date is the day that group of serial numbers was authorized for production. Very interesting to me that it originally had a plug to screw into a light socket. Many houses if they had electricity at all may have only had a light in the room with no outlets back then.
Your 128 is a 3/4 size machine. The larger version would be a model 127. As long as the wires aren't bare you should be ok.
Welcome to the vintage section. I think you'll enjoy sewing with your 128, possibly enough that you won't look at new machines the same way again. You may want to take a look at the sticky on cleaning and using these old machines and be sure to watch Muv's videos. She makes it simple.
Rodney