Originally Posted by
wakrueger
My siblings and I are going through our parent's house after the death of dad and mom in a nursing home. We found an old singer machine that is in pretty rough shape. Is there somewhere we can take it to see if it's worth saving or should we just not worry about it. It's an old treddle machine. We have all the pieces but they are not together anymore. Any suggestions?
I personally feel that family machines are worth saving. Singer machines are (seems to me) fairly easy to bring back to working condition. They make a great straight stitch - particularly good for piecing quilts. My brother and I refurbished the treadle my sister learned to sew on. She was quite pleased with having it usable and enjoys using it on occasion. She sent me a quilted table runner she made with it and it is beautiful. I had tried to treadle a long time ago and couldn't "get it." After doing hers and her telling me how much she enjoyed sewing on it -- I finally got a treadle and practiced on it and it really is fun. I'm not sure I would want to make a garment with a treadle, but piecing would be great.
There are lots of people here that can help bring it back to working condition and "stickies" telling how to clean and use. There are several threads that have brought old "rust buckets" back to useful, serviceable and enjoyable machines.
Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.