My Vintage White Rotary!
#1
My Vintage White Rotary!
Hi, All,
No questions here, just wanted to gush a little. I recently fell back in love with my first love: a cast iron white rotary machine. I've been told it was one of the first models of electric sewing machines and that it's dated either 1913 or 1918. I bought it for $25 in a Seattle vintage shop in September of 2000. I'd just graduated from college, was living in a city for the first time in my life, and knew not one thing about machine sewing. I bought the machine on a whim and sewed my first quilt on it (which I still have, though it needs some patching).
I moved A LOT in my twenties and my White ended up in my mother's basement. I rescued it from there recently, almost sold it, but instead had it tuned up and used it last night for the first time in ten years. Even though I now have four machines total (Juki 2010, Juki F400, Janome MyStyle), I'm SO glad I didn't surrender this machine. Sure, it's loud and it's heavy, but it sews a stunningly beautiful stitch and has this satisfying chugga-chugga sound as it feeds the material. It was sewing through six layers of duck cloth without missing a beat!
Just wanted to share!
Best,
A
No questions here, just wanted to gush a little. I recently fell back in love with my first love: a cast iron white rotary machine. I've been told it was one of the first models of electric sewing machines and that it's dated either 1913 or 1918. I bought it for $25 in a Seattle vintage shop in September of 2000. I'd just graduated from college, was living in a city for the first time in my life, and knew not one thing about machine sewing. I bought the machine on a whim and sewed my first quilt on it (which I still have, though it needs some patching).
I moved A LOT in my twenties and my White ended up in my mother's basement. I rescued it from there recently, almost sold it, but instead had it tuned up and used it last night for the first time in ten years. Even though I now have four machines total (Juki 2010, Juki F400, Janome MyStyle), I'm SO glad I didn't surrender this machine. Sure, it's loud and it's heavy, but it sews a stunningly beautiful stitch and has this satisfying chugga-chugga sound as it feeds the material. It was sewing through six layers of duck cloth without missing a beat!
Just wanted to share!
Best,
A
#3
Oh yes, gotta love the olde-but-goodies. Especially that they can sew through *anything*. When I tell people at fabric shops that my antique machines can go through 8 layers of denim without batting an eye, they always look stunned.
#5
Alas, no longer in Seattle. I only lived there a year, before moving to Montana. I live in Ohio now. If I remember correctly, there used to be this wonderful quilt shop near Pike Place. Is it still there?
Best,
A
A
#6
#7
Super Member
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Round Rock,Texas
Posts: 6,135
I have a 1917 White Rotary treadle, it had a motor on it when a friend gave it to me. I bought a treadle cabinet for as soon as I could.
The machine was in the family home since it was new, well cared for and always inside. It was a treadle when new and the motor was installed sometime in 1930 or a little earlier. It was too heavy to keep lifting and putting on a table to sew with. Its a wonderful machine, was quite an adjustment for me, only ever sewed with Singer treadles.
I am currently piecing log cabin blocks with "Susie.".
Sharon in Texas
The machine was in the family home since it was new, well cared for and always inside. It was a treadle when new and the motor was installed sometime in 1930 or a little earlier. It was too heavy to keep lifting and putting on a table to sew with. Its a wonderful machine, was quite an adjustment for me, only ever sewed with Singer treadles.
I am currently piecing log cabin blocks with "Susie.".
Sharon in Texas
Last edited by purplefiend; 06-17-2015 at 10:23 PM.
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