KLO

Maybe this has been discussed before but I have not seen it. I am wondering if any treadle machines came with stools or chairs. If so, what did they look like and if not, what do those of you who sew on a treadle use to put your rear end on? Inquiring minds want to know.

Rodney

I've wondered the same. What is an appropriate stool for a treadle machine? I don't remember seeing any Singer offerings until at least the 20s or 30s.
Rodney

Champanier

lI tried to find images (which I know I've seen) of people sitting at their sewing machines. It's a very good question, because any chair that has a seat that slants upward in the front is uncomfortable to use for treadling. Here's a page on ISMACS that has pictures of people sitting in chairs: http://www.ismacs.net/wheelerandwils...ne_factory.htm

I use an old chair that has a little padding, straight back, and medium height legs.

Linda

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I've wonder also. have never seen any.

I think back of the grannys and mothers, There was never a chair or stool next there treadles, but they were not working with them, There isn't place to store a stool or chair. so those would be at the machine.

I do know my mom used a kitchen table chair, flat seat. I use what I think would be called a sewing chair, again flat seat, I would think a wooden stool like whats known as a bar stool would be correct,, The round seat and spindle leg type, some places still have those in a kit form

pennycandy

I found a vintage piano bench at a flea market similar to this http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ART-...item54101d7e21 . It had been painted white but I repainted it with a flat black paint. Buffing the flat paint develops a sheen which matches my treadle cast iron legs. The most important part was finding something that was the right height.

KLO

Maybe something like this?

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/an...ece/1078011798

Looks kind of neat even though the ad mentions that it is an industrial piece ... and of course it is too far away and too expensive for me! But maybe it would be great since industrial sewing would involve a lot of long sitting periods, I would assume. Looks like the height is adjustable kind of like a piano stool. Oh, maybe that is what would work well .... a piano stool?!?! pennycandy did mention a piano bench so maybe look for a stool although I think I would like some sort of back piece. Ah the search is on!

(Champanier: I could not get your link to open to any pictures of people sitting in chairs.)

yobrosew

Don't know who/where to credit this pic to. Anyways, this may not be a bad idea for a stool for treadle!

ThayerRags

Other than the Singer Industrial Stool that was bolted to the floor at a machine that KLO pointed out with her link, I haven’t seen any stools that I would consider a “matching stool” for a treadle by Singer or anyone else. There was a Singer chair used in industrial settings with the H-leg and K-leg electric power stands like shown in one of my photos, but that’s about all of the Singer chairs that I’ve seen. I don’t think that the matching stool was available with treadle cabinets like it was with electric cabinets. Probably because the stool wouldn’t stow under a treadle like under the electric cabinets. People must have just used whatever chair was available. The matching stool was probably a sales aid during the electric years.

I have a couple of wrought-iron stools that I’ve used with my treadles both at the shop and at home, and they kind of look like they match from a distance, but on close inspection they’re obviously not a match. We use an old claw-foot piano stool at home also, but the stool came off of the homestead ranch where it had served as a piano stool. We don’t have a piano, so we use the heirloom stool with our treadle sewing machines. The height adjustment threads are stripped out, so we can’t adjust the height of it anymore. We also have a 4 ft-long wooden bench that works good when two of us are playing at the same machine.

Here the past 6 months or so, I’ve begun using office chairs and motorcycle stools on casters when using my treadle sewing machines. I thought that I needed a stool without wheels to keep from rolling away from my treadle, but since I only use one foot on the treadle, I’ve found that rolling chairs work just fine. I’m so used to having wheels under my chairs at my electric machines that I about tipped myself and the rigid stools over several times when pushing to move without realizing it wasn’t going to roll. I thought that I needed the height of the rigid stools too, but found out that I don’t, even on the Singer 29K70 that I have mounted on a trolley with wheels underneath. The trolley raises the treadle about four inches, and I put one foot on the treadle and the other on the trolley frame to keep all of the wheels from rolling, or at least the trolley and the chair rolling in unison the same direction.....

CD in Oklahoma

Rodney

It's almost a relief there are no actual matching stools. I don't have to keep my eyes open for one.
I like that old office chair CD. Nice clean lines.
Looks like the Victorian piano stool is a good match for the treadles. Even if they're for different purposes the same era's design sensibilities apply to both.
Rodney

KLO

CD, I was interested in reading about your thoughts on chairs with wheels for treadling. I too thought they would not work as I figured that I would keep pushing myself away from the machine. However, I use two feet for treadling so maybe a wheelie chair would not work for that method? Not sure so guess I should try an office chair to see how I do. Right now I just have an old wooden chair from my grandparents house that I use just because I have it and don't need it anywhere else. However, the wood does not match either of my treadles but I suppose that does not matter in the long run since it appears that's what people did back when treadles were the only machines around ..... meaning that they used whatever chair was available. Interesting topic .... oh and thanks for the photos. Still liking the piano stool idea even though it does not have a back.