Hello: I just "won" a LBOW 3o1 today and cannot wait to receive it. I am nervous and hope it sews as well as described. Since I am very new to Vintage Machines, I have lots of questions. I will start at a simple level: is it possible to purchase needles and bobbins for the 301 in local stores, i.e. Joann's? Thanks and I am so excited!

You can get needles at Joann's. you can buy bobbins there too but they arent as good as the vintage bobbins or the ones I've ordered from Sew-Classic. Jenny also has the attachments for sale.

The Singer 301 uses the same bobbin case and bobbins as the Singer Featherweight 221. I purchase all my parts, etc, for all my vintage machines from Jenny at sew-classic.com. Good luck with your 301...you will love it!

I 'need' another 301. AnnieRose and I finished my son's quilt. Now when I set her up to FMQ it, how will I piece my granddaughter's Spicy Spiral table runner? I checked ebay today. No luck there, though there was a 15 that was calling my name but I resisted. I want a 301 and a Redeye - nothing more.

When I got my first 301, it had a terrible roaring noise at fast speed. Someone told me to loosen the wheel as far as it would go so the needle wouldn't go up and down and rev it up for a bit. I did just that and when I was about to give up on it - it worked! No more noise.

I have a 301 and I love love love it for FMQ. As a matter of fact, it is the only machine if have been able to FMQ on sucessfully.

Hi tenngal,had the same thing happen with 301, it wasn't a roar but an annoying sound.Fiddled w/the fly wheel and the noise did go away when fly wheel is adjusted 'just so' had to play w/ it to find the sweet spot..thanks for the info share...

The short beds have pretty much the "usual" amount of bed area to the left of the needle as most portable machines; the long beds have a little more. I sew with both long and short bed 301's and I honestly never miss the "extra" space when using the short bed ones. I've got to say, I leave my expensive, computerized machines setting and always go to my 301's for piecing as well as free motion work. In fact, I have much better success doing FM on a 301 than I do using my Bernina 630 with or without the BSR foot! So why then did I spend all that money for a 630????
Anybody want a 630?

I haven't FMQ on my 301 yet. but I'm already a fan of the stitching quality of it. I have the black long bed I purchased from another QB member. I love it, love it.

I was adding borders yesterday (or trying to), my 301 would stitch fine for about an inch and then is it would slow way down and the stitches would get very small. Ended up switching out machines.
I have not used the 301 much since getting it this summer. Is there something I can check on, I don't want to have to pay for a repair at this time.