I see machines on EBay and Craig's List that have a 2" wide fabric strip wrapped entirely around the machine head. Why do people do that? To hold pins?

ok, I want to know too!!!

My mom did that, as well. It's their pin cushion. :)

Thanks Kathy! I have be questioning this for a long time. It is great to hear the reason!!! I was thinking someone on the board would know but I didn't expect an answer so soon !!!! Thanks again :thumbup:

I wondered too. I thought it was a pin cushion. Wonder why it seems so many folks did the same thing? I saw an old Singer tv commercial on you tube weeks ago. They did not show the pin cushion on the ad... oh well, some things we will never know.

I bought an old machine and it had the cloth wrapped around the arm. There were actually old pins stuck in it! but I can't figure out why they would use this strip. It wouldn't hold the amount of pins I use. There were some needles stuck in it, too, so maybe it was just a neat way to hold their needles.

Seen a lot, prob is it took the paint off where pins scraped.

There was a thread on this forum a few weeks ago that had a link to someone's blog where they showed how to make a pin cushion to attach to your machine. It's tied to the machine with ribbon so it's easy to remove. I immediately made one and I love it! I'll try to find the thread, but I think the subject line was something like "hey, this is really clever" or "look how cute this is", so I kind of doubt if I find it.

The one I made is filled with batting and I used a piece of thick template plastic that fits against the machine, so no scratches.

Yup...the paint gets all pitted and looks bad from the pins. I wouldn't do this with any of my machines.