sweetheart69

Smells stick to plastic, rubber etc. You can try crumpling up newspaper into a large garbage bag. Put the sewing machine in and surround it with crumpled newspaper, close the bag and leave 24 hrs. Repeat it necessary. I use this trick in my microwave when my Son burns popcorn.

carolynjo

I would try kitty litter and Febreeze. Also, Odorban might help. Good luck. I have also used crumpled newspaper.

LesterLou202

I have had great success eliminating smells/odors with a small dish of plain ammonia. You might try tenting the machine in plastic with a small dish of ammonia and see if that works. I eliminated the smell of an old oil cloth tent that had been rolled up in an attic for 30 years by setting it up with a dish of ammonia inside.

Judie

I would open everything up, set it out in the sun on a nice sunny day and let the fresh air and sun do their work.. It may take a couple days, but the sun will fix it up.... We all feel better with a day of relaxing, sitting out in the sun and watching the world go bye...

ArchaicArcane

Depending on the type of surface you're dealing with I've had good luck with a cup Peroxide, 1/4 cup of baking soda and a tiny bit of liquid hand soap.

The original directions were to put it in a spray bottle and spray it on then let it dry, then wipe it off with a clean wet (not dripping) cloth.

I prefer to liberally wet (not dripping) a rag and wipe it down. I would do this on one of the Singers with the baked enamel finishes (The 401/500/301 etc) for instance, I would think a plastic machine would be OK too. Don't do it to a shellac finished machine though (ie one of the old Black Singers - other than the 301)

The gotcha is you must be very careful that it doesn't get on anything that is unpainted metal. It won't damage it other than introducing moisture, which is bad.

I did this to rid a machine of cat urine and a few machines that reaked of cigarette smoke and not just the nicotine type.

jeanharville

The main thing I've learned in this discussion is to give any machine I'm thinking of buying a good "Sniff" before bringing it home. Getting rid of the odor sounds like a lot of work. Hope you are successful. I'm looking forward to your solution.

franie

Is it a Featherweight? It could be the box causing it. I used a Bounce dryer sheet to get rid of the odor that was not cig smoke but just "OLD SMELL". It works. Maybe it just needs cleaning inside the machine. Dust can hold the bad smell. Good luck.

Prism99

In case it saves someone time and effort, I want to mention that I tried a number of things to get rid of the musty smell in my featherweight case that did not work for my -- perhaps because the musty smell was so bad and/or because I am so sensitive to odors. I tried the bar of soap, Bounce sheet, and leaving open out in the sun for a couple of days (and probably some others I don't remember). None of these were enough for my case. It wasn't until I stuck the charcoal OdorEaters shoe inserts in there and left it for a couple of weeks that the odor was truly gone.

cannyquilter

I too acquired a machine that smelt strongly of smoke. I used about half a packet of baby wipes and cleaned the outside thoroughly. That seemed to work and don't notice the smell now. You should have seen the colour of the first few wipes!

Quilter 65

Good luck. My eyes swell and have even swollen nearly shut when around smoke. Since the machine works well, i hope you find a good solution.