Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Vintage Singer Sewing machine fetish


(I put fetish in the title of the blog, because recently I've had lots of people link here from rather naughty sites. I just wanted to mess around with them because this post has nothing to do with underwear, boobs, or sex.)



Last summer I was given a Vintage Singer sewing machine. It's portable and very pretty. The thing is, I don't know a thing about her. Since I have a sewing class I want to take in March, I need to fix her up.

The reason why I didn't take much notice before is that she's electric and I wanted either hand crank or better still treadle. I already have a fantastic electric machine that was my grandmother's and has a Zig Zag function. But, it's not portable.

It's time to turn my attention to Bentwood Box Electric Singer.



Right away I cut off the electric cord. I just wasn't safe and I didn't want to be tempted to plug it in.



I thought that a new cord was all that was needed, but apparently I should have taken a closer look. Is it suppose to have felt in the bobbin area?



The parts that should move are very reluctant. Hopefully a good cleaning will do it.

5 comments:

Gryffinitter said...

YEs, yes on teh felt! Do not removes teh felt! Teh felt is your FRIEND...

Ok, now that I got that out of my system...

Do not carry the machine by the handle on the case - it's really for lifting the lid. You have to carry them from underneath. I suggest a large canvas bag like Land's End sells, or a fireplace log sling, or just one of those nifty luggage carriers that are so hard to find now that all luggage is born with wheels...

Great machine. I can't tell from the picture if it is a 66 or a 99, but I have a Spartan and a 185, both of which are basically 99's, and they are simple and keep going like the Energizer bunny...

Sarah said...

Did you know that Claudia has a collection of antique sewing machines? She might be a great resource for you...

Erika Mulvenna said...

Yep, I think what you have there is a good old Singer 99K. You can find the "birthdate" of the machine by checking the serial number against Singer's serial number charts here: http://www.singerco.com/support/serial_numbers.html

Shahan said...

You have a beautiful Singer 99. I have a Singer 99k, which is almost identical to that one there.

LEAVE the red felt where it is. It's there to lubricate the machine so that you don't have metal rubbing against metal.

The good thing about these machines is that they're very easy to clean, oil and use. If I can do it, anyone can! I'm currently restoring my gran's Singer 99k from 1950, and it's a beauty!

silverarrow said...

Did you ever get around to fix up the old 99? I had mine rewired and I have never regretted it. It sews fine, anything I throw under the pressure foot and turns out perfect stitches.