Featherweights sold at quilt shows?.
#11
Power Poster
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Mableton, GA
Posts: 11,355
I spent a long time on a quest for one. I wanted to come upon it, not order it from someplace and I didn’t want to pay a fortune . After literally years of looking I found one with a bobbin case but no case or attachments in a flea market mall. I paid $160. I oiled it and it works fine. Then about 2 years later I came upon one in a thrift store for $40! I got it too and it has a case and a few attachments. It works fine too. I was a regular at the thrift stores, garage sales and estate sales where I lived. But the first one I found when I stopped at that flea market mall on the way back from Atlanta. So one never knows.
#12
Unbelievable finds you guys have found. I was planning on no more than $1200 for a Magenta one similar to the one Bonnie Hunter had before it got destroyed at an airport. I need to follow several you guys around. Lol
#13
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Victorian Sweatshop Forum
Posts: 4,096
IMO prices for FWs are getting out of control again. If people wouldn't pay the outrageous asking prices, then sellers wouldn't be asking outrageous prices. There are bargains still to be found if you can be patient and be in the right place at the right time. And sometimes a person just gets lucky. I'm less than $100 into my FW and the cabinet for it, got lucky twice. Two years to find the machine and six for the cabinet.
Cari
Cari
#15
The demand. These are so hyped that people become willing to pay anything for them. I have two... one I bought for $20 at a garage sale and another I paid around $85 for, from an auction house. My 301's are much better machines and not much bigger or heavier.
#16
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2010
Posts: 6,430
I will say that a good featherweight has a lovely stitch that is flat and even. The machine is lightweight and easy to take to quilting classes. I carry mine in a square shopping cart. She goes in the bottom and my notions, etc, fit around her. When I get there, I set up and hang my supplies on the sides of my cart. Works for me.
#17
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 894
Search for Nova Montgomery. She has tons of information about featherweights and their maintenance. I own two. They are dependable straight stitch machines. At the Road to California show, Lloyd Askew sells beautifully restored and original but clean featherweights. He teaches maintenance classes and also restores them.
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Somewhere in Time
Posts: 2,697
Bought my Featherweight from a friend at an auction -- he had purchased it at a yard sale. He offered it to me for the same price he paid, $100, and, I could pay him $25 a week. However, I prefer to use my 301A, I purchased for $75 in 2004.
#19
In the past 3 months, my sister has picked up 4 FW off shopgoodwill or ebay for less than $270 each (yes, it's an addiction;-) The one from eBay was packed horribly and suffered damage that she was able to repair. Those prices are still inflated over what I saw a couple years ago, but that seems to be the trend. If you don't want to deal with the travel and interactions of CL, that would be another way to go.
#20
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Houston, TX
Posts: 9,783
I will say that a good featherweight has a lovely stitch that is flat and even. The machine is lightweight and easy to take to quilting classes. I carry mine in a square shopping cart. She goes in the bottom and my notions, etc, fit around her. When I get there, I set up and hang my supplies on the sides of my cart. Works for me.
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