lowjane, it is hard to figure out who you are asking. a name perhaps?

Not quite a zombie thread... so I hope I'm okay posting?

My three babies:

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1930 Singer 101 in type 40 cabinet. A curbside rescue in a thunderstorm. Machine was locked up tight. All the wiring was brittle and needed replaced. Every piece of cabinet had an issue. Bent leaf hinges... missing slide plate, the 'need' list went on and on. Took two weeks of evenings and a rebuilt carbon pile. Yeesh. But worth every minute. (forgot to put the light cover and slide plate on for pic? What was i thinking?)

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1948-52 Necchi BU. Found in the dark dingy back of a pile of junked machines from an old repair shop. Was in same shape as the 101 but no cabinet, case, or pedal. Not a single piece of wire insulation left, had to redo all the way to the motor leads. Took three days to get the internals moving again and a whole lot of elbow grease. Sews as well as the 101, except smoother and it's so quiet the loudest thing is the needle punching through the material. I'm still in awe of it.

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1957 Kenmore 117.740 sold by Sears, provided by White, manufactured by Gritzner-Kayser. Also a frozen machine with a twist - the light fixture in the front had snapped a wire strand. If I hadn't have checked... I would have lit the deck. It's a very heavy machine, the bobbin plate is in the wrong location... and it just sews like mad. Excuse the photo, that was taken on day one, hour one - long before the rewire and spit shine. =)

Sure it's okay to post. This thread used to be a sticky(it stayed at the top of the page) but one of the moderators took it upon herself to downgrade it and one or two others.
Nice machines. I had a 66 I couldn't stand and gave it away(kept the cute little cabinet it was in) and I didn't much care for my BU either so I sold it and a parts machine. Funny how a machine can make one persons heart go all aflutter and to another person it's 'meh'.

Cari

I think that for me... when it comes to the vintage machines... it's often a matter of just how much 'will to survive' does the machine have. Both my 101 and BU were abandoned for reasons and I'm just far too modest to think that my amateur skills alone were the only thing that brought them back to sewing. That they did come back and sew as well as they do now... seems like a testament to how well they were made to begin with... and I can appreciate that. Seems to be a difficult quality to find these days.

For future reference, you don't really need to go through all that hassle selling old BU's, Novas or Miras. All those strange people and the time lost sewing... Just box them up and send them to: Steelsewing, Next to the Perogi Shop, Pittsburgh, PA. It's just way easier. =)

The only other Necchi I have is a 510 Lelia and that one I like. But I can send you some of my doubles, how about a Riviera or a Flairmatic? I'm a huge Brother fan and also I'm a sucker for straight stitch machines for some reason. I want to thin my herd of 80+ machines and really need to cut down on the clones and other ss machines but it's so hard to let go of these machines that will sew a bumper to a Buick without so much as a hiccup.

Cari

The only reason I've never brought one home...

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is because Mom ordered her Flairmatic 190 new in 1962
It survived my learning to sew and service,
and it's still fine.
No problems.

There's a reason to be huge Brother fan. =)

My mom bought her Prestige(can't remember if its a 270 or 280) in 1964. I gave it to my oldest DD several years ago but I have a couple more of them. I have a tan Flairmatic that I love and one like yours. I also have a couple of Rivieras, same as a Flairmatic but with needle position selector. And a whole bunch more, about half my herd are Brothers. Here's a few of my favorites, a pink Riviera and my twin Pacesetters.
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Cari

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Love that pheasant decal!

My "vintage" Pfaff...
 

My 1222E has served me well for the last 41 years and still does....the picture after coming home from the last servicing....:)