dominicv

Hello all,

I have always wanted to learn how to sew on a machine, and I am finally going to give it a shot at age 63. Today I picked up “The Free” machine. I love all things mechanical and have always been fascinated at the invention of the sewing machine. I never looked into the guts of this “simple” machine, but I am going to start now.

I was looking to get an old-school Singer, but then I stumbled on this thing. It looks pretty much like a clone. I love how simple and beefy this thing looks, and all I really want to do is learn how to do a straight stitch. Nothing fancy. But first I need to learn the fundamentals. I have the owner’s manual and I already started looking at some YouTube videos. I heard that these old school machines excel at simple stitching. Plus, I much prefer a machine like this, rather than a “newfangled“ computerized gadget.

One of the things I am curious about is when this machine was made. The serial number is not entirely clear. It looks like “CE77100.” Fortunately, the machine came with a warranty paper, which does indeed refer to that very serial number. Someone posted a link to a few pages of serial number information. But the only CE series that I saw was numbers 88,969 thru 89,254. The document indicated that these were made in 1936. since my number is a little lower, I guess maybe mine was made a couple of years before that? From the research that I have done so far it seems like there is not a lot of reliable history on these machines, at least not like there is for the Singer brand.

Anyways, I’m glad I was able to join and any information would be most welcomed. I am going to try to add some pics.

Thanks,

Dominic