In my quest for a cabinet I ended up with a White 3355 machine for free. It sews wonderfully and now I hate to not use it. :-) But I'm having a hard time with it. I found a manual online and it apparently came with 2 needle plates....one for zig zag (the one it has) and another for straight stitching (which it doesn't have). It also only has the zig zag foot. It will straight stitch now but the needle is all the way over to the left so using a 1/4" foot gives me a 3/8" seam. I'm just wondering if I go to the trouble of hunting down those two parts if it will make a difference or if I need to just figure out a way to use it as is?

One of my coworkers has a neighbor (age 90+) who retired years ago from doing the maintanence on the machines at the sewing factory. I'll have my coworker ask him your question.

My thought is that it should sew just fine as is, but you would need to tape the 1/4" mark on the throat plate based on the current needle position.

MOM-6 is absolutely correct! Drop the needle down and then measure over 1/4 inch...lay a piece of tape down and place multiple layers of tape on top to create a ridge to abut your piecework against as you feed it into the SM, you should be able to sew a perfect 1/4" seam. Cheers, Cathy in MA

My great aunt had an old White sewing machine. Those things were built tougher than a boot. I recall sewing on it some when I was a teenager. Often wondered what happened to her old machine. I'd say it will be sewing probably long after all of us on this forum are gone.

so far its really nice and its a pretty color of turquoise. It has the knee pedal on it and I'm liking that! I didn't think I would but I do. I'm up to 4 machines and dh is talking about getting me another one from a buddy of his! I like the old machines though. I made dd a little purse for Easter today on the handcrank. It was fun.

My White Age?? the place where you wided the zigzag- is a, sorry I had to look at mine so I would to call it. Ther is a finger hold switch with - little left arrow mark--move switch show the needle in left position - Center position - little right arrow mark- show the needle in right position. the little finger switch , has three position - left - center- right. Mine is stiff yours maybe to. I hope you understand this. Theresse

Gennie you were on line when I started my message to you let me know if it works

The only switch on mine is the one just below where you adjust the zig zag. It won't stay in any position by itself and when you turn the wheels to hold the needle in the middle it does a zig zag stitch.

I have an older white that I used for clothing sewing. It's about 25-30 years old and still works great (as long as I keep it oiled). When I started quilting, I just marked the 1/4 inch with a strip of tape.

I'm sorry my advice didn't help, maybe some one else can help you Theresse