Thrift store find!

[veg-o-matic]

Picked up this Featherweight a while back for 25 bucks! They go for crazy money on ebay (quilters love 'em), so that's where this baby's heading. It came with the carrying case, foot control, attachments, extra bobbins, instruction manual, even the original tube of (you should pardon the expression) lube.

It's really quite a nice piece of engineering. Very small, yet very sturdy and substantial.

 

[veg-o-matic]

And while we're on sewing machines...

This is my beloved Futura II. When it first came out in the '70s, I knew I had to have one. 'Course, they were mucho money back then, and it wasn't proper for a teenage boy to want a sewing machine!

So here I am as an adult, and I can do anything I want. Nyaaah.

I always thought this was one of the best examples of industrial design.

 

[veg-o-matic]

And my Daily Driver

The Fashion Mate. Only reason I use this most is because it's in the cabinet. Does a nice job, not as fancy as the Futura.

 

[maytagbear]

Veg-

Does the Futura use the plastic two-piece bobbin that winds in place?

I always thought that was so cool.

However, my Ma for some reason I will never know, didn't teach me to sew. She taught me cooking, and laundry, but not sewing. I regret that.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[spiralactivator]

Is the Featherweight really "featherweight"? A few months ago I almost wrecked my back carrying a Montgomery Ward portable.

 

[toggleswitch]

AHHHH that yellow thing is Mom's singer to this day.

What year is it fellas?

 

[petek]

Nice little Singer Veg..Some of those were made to be handcranked and then retrofitted with motors. A woman I know has one similar with the hand crank which she takes everywhere on their travels around the world just in case they're somewhere without power. My nan who was a professional seamstress and owned/ran a fairly large knitting and tailoring shop back in Manchester UK used one of those early Singers till the day she died, she would never upgrade it. I always remember her telling me, cause I was fascinated by it, "you always have to remember to keep it oiled up"

At the flea market I work each weekend there's a guy who usually has a sewing machine or two for sale, he's had a very nice looking "Necci" (sp), Italian machine I think..It has such a nice rounded look to it I've been tempted.

 

[toggleswitch]

Would anyone like a pic posted of my grandma's foot-treadle (non-electric) Singer machine?

Complete with leather belt (a long thin band stapled togther to form a ring) to transfer foot-power to the machine?

 

[tomturbomatic]

We had mom's treadle in a tiger oak cabinet in our den for a long time. Just before my sister was born, the "head" as they call it was traded in on a new Singer. The hideous cabinet remained for a while and it was fun to open it and use our hands on the treadle to get flywheel going very fast and then break the rhythm.

 

[veg-o-matic]

Lawrence: The Futura uses the plastic wind-in-place bobbin, but it's not the two-piecer. I think those were only used on the Touch & Sews.

I love watching the automatic buttonholer do its thing.

Spiral: The Featherweight really is light. I think the ads for it said 11 pounds-something. Even in the case with all the accessories it's pretty light.

We, too, still have my Grandma's treadle Singer. Not sure if it's valuable or not, but it was Gramma's, so it's staying. You'd be hard-pressed to tell it wasn't brand-new, too.