Sews Thru Leather Like a Butter.....
 

i have a treadle singer 127 and just for fun i tried sewing thru my scrap leather (double) and my 127 sews thru it like a butter. sorry guys for my post but i am just in awed and so amazed.

Having nearly 3,000 messages in your inbox is more surprising, Singerguy :D

darn. ha, ha, ha - i didn't even notice that. hmmm time to hit delete button. my thumb will be sored for awhile..... thanks. :)

Wow! That's one heavy duty sewing machine!

This serves to illustrate a difference in manufacturing/sales mentality.

The idea then was to produce the best machine you could for the price and stand behind it accordingly.
Now the concept is to make it just sufficient to the task and charge as much as you can.

I was on a tour of a laptop factory in Singapore once and was privileged to hold and try out a new design. It was amazing, the quality and construction were light-years ahead of any laptop on the market. These days I would have said that this thing was made like an old Singer... I was about to tell them that I wanted to get in line to buy one when they let me know that this was the concept and layout model. it would never see the light of day. it was about to go through a 6 month process of evaluating every component and determining the life expectancy, then "correcting" any portions that had a life expectancy greater than +10% beyond the warranty! They were literally removing "excess quality"

yes it is. now i know what to use for leather sewing if ever i need to. didn't expect my 127 to handle this one. but it did....they do make awesome machine in the old days....the good old days.

My great grandmother was a professional seamstress, she used a Singer machine (no idea what the model is) and my grandmother didn't sew unless it was absolutely necessary. So when my grandmother moved into the "family" house when she retired, there were 2 treadles in the house and she moved the Singer out to the shop. (My uncle used to repair guns and radios so built the shop on the property.) I asked my grandmother why the Singer wasn't in the house, because the other treadle (a Damascus) they used as a vanity in one of the upstairs bedroom and she told me the man across the street would come over from time to time to use the Singer to repair leather straps and belts and she preferred to have him out in the shop than upstairs in a bedroom. Many years later I took the treadle that was upstairs because it still had the manual from 1925, and we brought the Singer back into the house and turned it into a vanity. My aunt doesn't sew - she owns the house now - the man across the street passed many years ago.

I love stories! Good story!

I have a Singer 15-30 wow - it sews anything, too.

I haven't attempted leather on my old machines yet. It would be nice to every now and then.
Rodney

I tested out a few machines. The 27 and the 15-30 were the best

The opportunity may present itself. I was already running late one morning and my shoe strap broke completely off.
My trusty Scholastic 6704 sewed it right back on with no hesitation.

Most of the domestic machines I see on eBay can sew leather, canvas, boat covers, sunbrella, upholstery...

They do sew it but not as nice as a big old industrial walking foot.

hahahaha with the sunbrella. That amuses me every time. That's EXACTLY what I want to sew with a domestic machine.

try it and you'll be surprised. The leather that I tried it on is the heavy kind and not the garment type leather. And I even used just the regular singer needle and not the needle for leather.

It works better if you do use the leather needle and yes they will sew heavy leather but for how long? Some times the foot will raise and then I worry what is going on if it doesn't have enough pressure to hold things down. The older heavy machines work best and to be sure it is a good idea to use a machine set up with a dedicated walking foot. If you are sewing for a task use a machine that is designed for a task.

I'm not surprised about the Singer 127. What needle did you use?

Any needle will work until it goes dull or breaks - best results for sewing leather is to use the leather needle.

The older the better for durability

like this?
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Steve, I don't even think they had invented leather yet...

;-)

oh no, this is a Howe Model C (long arm, heavy duty) wheel foot machine made specifically for leather sewing. Did the work too too, from it's birth til about 1925-1930 when it got barn stored.. Literally.

I sewed a Naugahyde ATV seat completely with a hand crank 127. I used it primarily for the control of the hand cranked machine, but was amazed at how efficiently it sewed through 3 or 4 layers of Naugahyde at seams. My belief is that with the correct needle, tensions and threads, almost any vintage machine will accomplish what we're discussing. The machines were not manufactured to do this, but like Steve says, they were something special back then.

gotta love those vintage sewing machines. my wife is using a very modern sewing machine that we bought for over $800 for it's fancy stitches. yes, it's made in sweden and all but it's all plastic. if i have known then what i know now i will never buy that plastic sewing machine even for $100. i could even buy a morse with fancy stitches for $50 and it sews leather. i tried using my wife's plastic machine on leather with leather needle and upholstery thread - bad idea. it will sew then will stop and you can hear the motor struggling. main reason why this vintage machines can sew on leather is because it's all metal and heavy duty and it's made to last. lucky for us who knows what good machines are.

Check out the you tube video of a 15 sewing through a tin can. Apparently, salesman used to do this as a demo of the machine. Sure couldn't do that with my new Brother machine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJMgayFXnYw

thats so cool. Nice video. Thanks. You're totally right about the newer sewing machines. They can't even sew thicker clothes without struggling. But this vintage machines are a different breed of sewing machines.