Vintage Thingies Thursday...Treadle machine

It's Vintage Thingies Thursday again, sponsored by my friend Suzanne at http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/. Check out her blog for her collection and all the links to other people's vintage things.

If you've followed my blog, then you know I fell in love with a treadle machine on our last antiquing trip. Last Saturday, Rob took me back to get it. And, despite the really bad weather, we encased it in plastic and gorilla tape and brought it home. The rain even held off long enough for us to stop at the Hill Country Cupboard Cafe and eat the most delicious and bad for us meal ever. They boast the best chicken fried steaks in Texas. Rob had the steak, Sydney had the chicken fried chicken breast and I had the chicken fried pork chops...Yummmy! And, for dinner, we had cholesterol pills (just kidding). But, I digress.

It took me all afternoon on Saturday and a lot of internet research to get her working smoothly. Everything had to be cleaned and oiled. When I got there to get her, I saw that the gold decals were not in the great shape that I remembered them being, but since I wasn't buying the machine as a display piece, but rather to sew on, that didn't matter so much to me. While I was there, I changed the needle and threaded it and tried to make a stitch, which didn't work, and I used that to bargain on the price. I got it for $112.50, which is a great price for the cabinet. But, when I did research at home, I found that with less than perfect decals, the machine head has no real value. What a shame. That means most of these are probably ending up in the landfill, even though it makes beautiful and even stitches, as well as my more modern electric machines do.

The reason I couldn't make a stitch is that it has a bobbin shuttle instead of a regular spool bobbin and I didn't know how to thread it. As the needle goes up and down, the bobbin shuttle swings back and forth, locking the needle thread with the bobbin thread. Once I searched out the model number from the serial number and bought and downloaded an owners manual from the internet, I was able to get it to sew quite well. The treadle action is going to take a lot of getting used to, but I made a block on it Saturday night and it worked really well. The only problem I had is that there are no marks for a quarter inch seam allowance, so I was using a magnetic seam guide that I'd never used before and that also took some getting used to.

So, here are pictures of my 1925 Singer model 127 treadle sewing machine. (sorry about all the clutter around the machine. This is my sewing room and there's not nearly enough room for all my machines and quilting paraphernalia.)

You can see in this picture that it was well loved as the decals where the fabric would go and where your hands go to lower and raise it from the cabinet are well worn. just shows this machine was well loved in it's former life and it is well loved in it's current life as well. The oak veneer cabinet is in almost perfect shape and a little lemon oil hid any small scratches. The belt is leather and had to be tightened, but works perfectly and should for many more years.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great Thursday! Lane