My First Vintage Purchase Singer 221
 

Now I get to post to this section too, whoo-eee!

I just purchased a 1947 Singer 221 in great shape and working order with new belt and needle. I got it on ebay and it will be exciting when it arrives.

I'm hoping it brings good karma with it. I could use it, spending more time with a seam ripper than sewing machine lately.

My expensive "new" embroidery machine is in the shop because it won't sew a decent stitch.

I decided I wanted a reliable, lightweight, NO COMPUTER machine to piece with, and I think this will be great!

Any suggestions or advice will be appreciated.

Does anyone know what the part number is for a 1/4" foot to fit it? I saw a Pfaff foot that fits at a recent quilt show but that guy wanted twice what I paid for this machine so I didn't pay much attention.

I piece with my 221 all the time. I used a strip of credit card stuck to mine like Bonnie uses in her blog. I'm just careful to only put the sticky part on the silver plate and not on the finish just in case it could mark the paint. It's been working like a charm!

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/...-saturday.html

I love my 221 and have used it exclusively for my piecing for the past 20 years. I also use the credit card strip that Bonnie Hunter uses.

I love vintage machines and also have some others, now, and am learning to machine quilt.

There are two sources for items to use with your Featherweight that I would highly recommend. This first site is also on Facebook. http://april1930s.com/ The second on is another one of my favorites. I've ordered from Nova many times. http://www.novamontgomery.com/ Nova offers some great Featherweight maintenance workshops too!

That first one is the most expensive/overpriced source of sewing machine stuff I've ever seen. $40 for a single buttonhole cam is outrageous (I've bought a mint condition 'holer plus 8 cams for less money).
Most of these accessories are not specific to the featherweight: Seems that sellers add the word "featherweight" and triple the price.

I just ordered a few things for my FW's from this site, you might want to check them out. Quilters Connection. I'm not sure just how their site is listed at the moment, but here is their address: Quilters Connection, 9658 Plano Rd # 200, Dallas, Tx. 75238.

I noticed that when I was looking for feet for my 99. Drove me crazy!

I kept hunting locally and totally lucked out on a nice set of feet in an original green box for $5. Sure made me feel smug! I couldn't hand over my $5 fast enough, LOL.

Great idea, what do you use to tape it down? Painter's tape?

I think it will be fun hunting for more stuff too. I was almost diappointed I snagged my machine for my pre-determined price fairly quickly. :p

Thanks for the other links Karen and Gerbie and the advice too Manicmike.

How often do you I need to clean and oil it?

Most of the Featherweight specific sites turn me off too. Almost any low shank straight stitch accessories will work. As for cleaning and oiling, I use a basic rule of thumb for all my machines. Every time I set up a machine for a project I do a basic cleaning, oil it and do a test stitch out.

Cari