Featherweights are out there.
 

Just wanted to pass along some happy news. I have a friend who Garage Sales with her husband most Saturdays. It's their thing. She has always wanted a Featherweight. She had total faith that one was out there. Lighting struck this past Saturday. $25.00 at a Garage Sale. When she sent me a photo. It is a white Featherweight in a Green case. Looks pristine like it has either been redone or never sewn on. I told her, she won the Sewing Machine Lottery. So, keep looking y'all. Not only keep looking, if you have one, put a note in it to not sell it for less than a certain price. Someone knew, someone didn't know what it was worth.

I see them at used/collectable gun shops and a lot in my area. Why gun shops have them I don't know but they seem to go with the used guns. Very reasonable priced too. Most are not over $200. Anyone in this area that wants one can find one. I have the 'white' one. I don't like sewing on it that much. I'm too spoiled for the new machine features.

Were featherweights made in white, originally?
My thoughts are no ... but I am far from a FW knowledge source.
Someone here, will know, for sure!

Here's to your friend having many happy sewing hours with her FW!

The 'white' or really celery green color ones were made in Canada I believe in the 60's. They have a smaller fold down table than the black ones. Has a different light bulb fitting and a different inside belt too that I was told if it breaks game over. It's nice to have one but I would suggest to get a black one if you plan on sewing with it a lot.

I got caught into the craze about 10 years ago. I now have two found out "in the wild". And now I don't want them anymore that live with me here in metro Atlanta. I'm not listing them on the forum

Well of all things, if you read about my dinosaur quilt for Maverick, his great grandmother came to our congregation a year ago with her hubby and I was handing out frozen strawberries and raspberries from my stash as I usually did every year to clear out the small freezer for the coming season. I gave her some for her family and later that summer I heard she got sick and eventually passed away in August. She heard I made quilts and such so she told her husband to see if I'd like her Featherweight machine 1948. Of course I'd love to have it. I also got lots and lots of threads to go with it plus many of her clothes as we were about the same size. So that's how I got a Featherweight.

A couple of ladies in my sewing group have feather weights. I would love to one but at a garage sale price-lol - I’m glad your friend found her ‘needle in a haystack’.

I had a white FW that I sold because I didn't like the way it sewed compared to my black ones. I got 700.00 for it and paid originally around 200.00. I just sold one on Ebay for 400.00- a black one. I'm keeping my favorite but am no longer obsessively searching for them. I'm also spoiled by my newer machines although I do use it sometimes.

I'm down to four of them. I keep thinking I should find them homes so my kids don't end up dumping them after I'm gone. I've warned them about their value. However I've got an singer attachment collection that is worth quilt a bit more than all the FW's combined, and those really don't look like they'd have any value at all. Though the machines got the nickname Featherweight a long time after they went out of original production.

They came in black (both closed and open arm) and tan. Later the celery (white) version came out and that has a hardwired cord and pedal. And much, much later, Singer made a model actually called "Featherweight" but it's a small plastic machine and not like the 221 model.

I've also got a folding table, and the earliest model of the cabinet - the one that has the lift up tray. Later ones were fixed and you manually lifted the machine from the storage shelf to drop into the opening in the top after removing the cover.

I have one I found at a garage sale about a decade ago for a couple hundred dollars. I never use it. I wonder what they're selling for around here.