miriam

I had a phone call from a kid last night trying to sell me his grandma's sewing machine. He had it up on CL and wasn't getting any action. He wanted an arm and a leg for it... He wanted some money to buy presents for Christmas... Someone told him to call me. Ahem. No I don't want to buy your Grandma's baby. I asked him what model Singer. He told me so we talked about it enough to make him realize it was one of the good ones. So I told him what he needed to do to try again to sell it. Then I told him he needed to sew a swatch. I walked him through that concept. Then I told him where to find a free manual. By the time I was done he wanted to keep the machine and learn to use it and make his Christmas presents.... I love it when that happens. I sold that kid his own Grandma's sewing machine...

Grandma's sewing machine... I would wager if you go on your local Craig's List you could find some sewing machine that was owned by 'Grandma' - it will say that right in the ad... I'm all for getting them and making them sew but some of those people live in Lala Land... seriously.

I know.. I know... I know.... I don't just only service ugly Grandma's machines but they are the ones that are the most interesting. They start out dirty, stuck and ugly and they seem to fall short of beautiful no matter what but they are a dream to sew with. There is something about the worn looking machine. I can set two identical models side by side, test them out but give me the worn one after is has been cleaned up... Anybody else out there have a worn machine that you just love??? Shoot a pic of it. Tell us about the worn and ugly old sewing machine. Seems like we see plenty of pictures of pretty ones and a lot of people seem to be drawn to the pretty ones. Anybody else out there love a somebody's Grandma's ugly machine???

Here is one I just got running. First the before pic - it doesn't do it justice as far as how nasty it looked when I dragged it home. Oh and I dragged home two really pretty ones - which one do I start with??? Yup... old ugly...

I did a routine clean up of the bobbin area, took the bobbin case apart and cleaned it up... It really wasn't too bad. Then I did the upper tension. It was in working order but the spring was a little bent. Just cleaned and cleaned. Then I used Glenn's French Polish method. I was amazed how nice the machine looked compared to where it had been. Miss L came over and we played around making some little hand warmers. It sews like a dream now.

Dried up crud all over the chrome and everywhere else:
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magnificent pin rash:
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and the finish on it was pretty bad looking:
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I'll post some work in process pics in a few minutes.