hobo2000

This was a wonderful thing you did for your mom. I loved this thread. You girls are great. I have my grandmothers' Singer Red Eye treadle. Same story, started in 1919, went across country from Baltimore to Oklahoma City. Grandmother started sewing at age eight she was apprenticed to a cotourier in Baltimore. She actually helped sewing hems. By the time she was twelve she was designing and sewing for the fashionable women of Baltimore. She,also, design and made incredible hats to go with the outfits and became so popular they added her name to the front door. At fourteen she was tutored and finished the eighth grade. The store paid for her tutor as they didn't want to lose her presence at the store to take the time out to go to high school. She received her HS diploma at 16. She was a beauty at 16 and designing her own clothes made from leftovers from the store, she became the store's model at private teas. When she met my GF and decided to move to Oklahoma City, it was a blow for the shop and they only lasted another year without her designs. She made all of her clothes her entire life and for my mother and aunt. When I came along in 1938, my mother and dad were doing war work And I went to live with my DGM. She always dressed me like a little princess clear up into my teens. She would keep up with fashion and I had the latest styles before anyone else did. In addition, she sewed for so many wealthy women in Oklahoma City, St. Louis and Little Rock, AR. She continued doing sewing into her late 70's.. All of this on this dear old Red Eye that I learned on and now belongs to me. The stories this machine could tell. It is beat up from moving so many places. I have redone to wooden parts but there are deep gouges in the metal from her buttonhole maker, I guess. The machine sews like a dream. My DGM would never use an electric machine, she said you have no control when you use an electric sewing machine. I treasure this old machine and use as the table for my FW. It's one or the other that I use for everything even tho I have two beautiful Janome's.
I would love to hear stories about other heroic machines.

purplefiend

You can clean your machine yourself. Many "professionals" don't have any idea of what they're doing with the older machines.
Lots of good info at this website: http://www.featherweight221.com/fwrx/index.html

Also join the Yahoo group Featherweight and you'll have access to the manual for the machine and also good tips on cleaning yours up.
Sharon W.in Texas

mysewingroom

These machines have to have a lot of abuse to be no good anymore. I have just gotten the one my mother bought when I was born. It sewed all my clothes, my mothers and a lot of my brothers little out fits. They are one tough machine. Have fun redoing this one. You're off to a good start!

Janis

Miriam, thanks for the wonderful pictures and story of your mother's machine. You really need to put this all in a little photo album with the pictures and story to keep with her machine. And keep a copy of it yourself in case her copy gets misplaced. What a wonderful machine and mother you have there. If you will send me your address in a PM, I'll gladly send you a little crocheted spool pin cosie to use in place of that little red felt thing that goes under the spool of thread. If there is a special color she'd like, let me know.

Hobo2000, you also need to write up the story of your machine and grandmother to put with the machine. It is a special story that goes with a special machine, and if you don't do it, the machine won't have it's voice. If you would like of of the crocheted spool pin cosies, I'll send you one too.

Thanks again to the both of you for sharing your special stories of your machine. I just wish I knew the stories of mine. I can start from here and tell what I do know about them from here on.

miriam

I believe each little mark on the machine has a little story all its own.
Each little mark means that machine made something at home.
Was it made by a grandma sewing her wedding dress?
Was sewing a wedding quilt?
Was someone sewing the family's clothes?
Was it made by a kid learning to sew?
Was someone sewing up a torn tent?
Was sis making a new neck tie for dad?
Did the living room get totally redecorated with new curtains and new upholstery on the couch?
Prom dress?
bicycle clothes?
school clothes?
baby clothes?
What do the scars represent???
I am beginning to look at the pristine looking machines in a different light. I think I've actually seen more wrong with the nice looking machines than the old beater machines. It really didn't take much work to clean that machine for mom and get it running in top shape once again. Mom called last night and I read this all to her. She brought up more and more memories. This is good. Mom has a lot of problems with her memory. She loved Hobo's story especially. I think I will print out the stories and give it to mom.

mimiknoxtaylor

Miriam, thanks for the inspiration to get my little FW cleaned up. Adjusted the tension & thanks to your photos put the bobbin race in correctly to hold the bobbin case & now she (Sally) sews like a dream!
Joyce

Nanamoms

Miriam, my "tale of the tiny screw" is that I'll never take that thing out again. My grandson finally got it turning and out for me so we were doing the happy dance. Uh huh...never dance too early! (sigh). We moved the gib to the right as shown in the manual and I pulled the last of the thread out (I hope) so....now to put it back together. Grandson has gone to bed so I said "I can do this...I am WOMAN!!" So using the magnetic screwdriver, I put that tiny sucker..I mean screw..on the end and gently place it in the hole...about 10 times later after throwing up my hands, I rested. Deep breath, try again, then I drop that @#%& screw and it bounced off the thick placement I had it on. I looked high, low and in between. Got out my magnetic wand (the long one for mechanics), ran that thing over every surface, under my couch (we won't discuss what came out from under there!), cleaned off my coffee table and even got out of my pjs carefully to make sure that @#%& screw wasn't stuck in them. Ok, that's it....take drugs and go to bed...new start in the morning (this morning), So get up, my calm restored, and search for screw again....after about 20 minutes I picked up my tiny flexible magnetic flashlight to shine light around area and THERE WAS THAT STINKING SCREW ADHERED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE FLASHLIGHT AND IT HAD NEVER BEEN MORE THAN 6 INCHES FROM MY MACHINE!! Ok, nice girl sends a big Thank You to God above.

Now gotta get that screw back into the gib and base. I tried for about 20 minutes and then my grandson tried. Now he's 21 and has large hands. I'm sure that he can't get that thing screwed in. He played around with it and thankfully didn't utter too many bad words in front of his grandma. I told him not to stress over it but in a few minutes I heard him yell "YEAH!" Success, it's back in."

Wohoo! We are on a roll. Wait!!! I put the bobbin in the bobbin case and put the bobbin case in the base . So far so good. THEN, I replace the throat plate checking to make sure that Position Finger (A2) enters the Notch (B2) of the position plate attached to the underside of the throat plate. NO GO!! There is no complete rotation of the bobbin/needle, etc when turning the handwheel. Neither will the top thread pick up the bobbin thread. I have positioned the base just exactly as shown in the manual and then replaced the throat plate exactly as stated. I am totaly aggravated when this is suppose to be something soooooo siimple. I even used my white FW as a model for what I was doing!

What could I possibly be doing wrong? I'm so bummed out that I'm ready to throw her in the car and take her to the SMRG although it will cost me $65.00. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!

Maybe I'm just not cut out to do any repairs on these machines.

miriam

Do you have a repair manual? Maybe there is something needing to be adjusted. I can sympathize but I can't advise much. I have a big honkin' Consew walking foot that gets thread tangled up in the shuttle shaft... To get the thread out you have to take off the shuttle and pull out the thread. One time it too me a month to get the thing back in time - I should have taken it completely apart and put it back together. I've fought with that machine for 10 years now and I can time one pretty fast. Last week I wanted to use it and figured out that one of the shuttle shaft screws worked it's way out and went AWOL. I would try to find a manual and see if there is some adjustment you missed. Maybe that is what was really wrong with the machine in the first place. Does it turn with out a needle in it? It is also possible that there is something wrong with the machine in another place. I've been saving up my problem sewing machines for a sewing repair class I'm wanting to take. Some times the LSMR guy is what you have to do - but if it happens again you have to take it right back... sigh

littlesurfer

These little featherweights are amazing! So glad you got it all cleaned up!

oowee

That is so awesome I so wish I had a FW from my great grandmother. They are the smoothest running sewing machines. Happy Quilting!!