Goodwill Singer 15-88 Converted. But Does It Sew? (And Treadle 328 Gets A Cover)

Here is my quandary.  Right now getting more treadle parts is kind of not a happening thing.  I know where to get them.  My contact has plenty, but neither of us are all that excited about breaking home alone rules.  So I'm down to four sets of irons to mount machines in.  And two of those sets are Davis irons.  So while cleaning the new 15-88 I was also getting the black paint on a set of Singer irons (the boy does the gold after I get them painted).

Singer 15-90- nah, 15-88 From Shopgoodwill

This is number seven of Shopgoodwill.com purchases I've made.  So far the score for packing has been: 2 excellent, 2 average, 2 oh my god, how do you breathe!?  This one is the tie breaker. Let's see how Waco faired.

The Sewing Room Is Coming Along

I've shot some videos up in the sewing room, usually just showing the five or six square feet that wasn't silted under with crap.  This week the boy is on spring break from e-school so rather than just watch him play Mega Death Killer 39 for another fourteen solid hours, I dragged him up to the Sewing Room and we got some work done.

Singer 101 - My x01 Straight Is Complete

So even though I was traveling most of last year doesn't mean I wasn't still picking up the odd bit of sewing machine coolness on the way.

How To Make Decent Masks Video

The hospital in my home town decided after a month of turning down donated masks that, oops, they actually needed some.  My sister has started churning them out.

With so many people giving 'tips' on how to make them there is a lot of bad recommendations floating around.  So I thought I would add my own, but hopefully not as bad.

Great British Sewing Bee - Revisited

Oh well, it's still the only show on TV that has a bit of sewing in it I guess.  Series 6 is on the way, so here's what I thought of series 5.

Making Masks - Like Everyone Should Be

Yep, if you can sew you should be pumping these guys out whenever you can.  Even if your local hospital isn't taking donations (not very bright) you can always mail them to someplace like:

Yale New Haven Health System

Regional Operations Center

Attn: PPE Donations

600 Derby Ave. (Route 34)

West Haven, CT 06516

It's Been One Of Those Years

Hi all.  Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still around.  Got distracted by life (and Warcraft) for a while.  Have a few posts in the mill, not sure how soon they'll get up but quick run down includes a couple of Singer 101s, (Yay! my 01 collection is complete).  Also, some sewing projects (yep I'm sewing masks for our local hospitals).  I missed the NETOGA last year because of a minor family medical issue that forced, forced I say, me to ride my motorcycle to Oklahoma for an unscheduled vacatio- umm... emergency visit.  So I have a bunch of flying geese blocks I need to unload at some point, d'oh.  Still doing charity sewing each month, though we are on hiatus until social distancing is eased.

As like most everyone else we are sitting tight and not getting out much at all, but all here are good.

Do all you need to stay healthy.

Craigslist Rescue - Singer 404

Like I mentioned in the VS2 post, I'm a avid Craigslist cruiser.  Yesterday while making my usual rounds I stumbled onto an ad for this guy.

New And Improved! 1892 Singer Model 27

I don't have any great expertise on checking the providence of machines.  Pretty much what I do is look for sources online.  I don't have access to any secret documentation or anything.  Usually I trust what I read.  Unless it's a place known for egregious mistakes, like Wikipedia or Needlebar.  So from what I've read 1891 was the year that the VS2 transitioned to the Model 27.  This one just misses the cut of being a first year, and comes in as an 1892 machine.

My First Singer VS2 - Do Spiderwebs Count As Patina?

This was kind of a weird Craiglist find.  I scour it pretty regularly.  A couple of days ago I saw the ad for this guy, along with a 27 I'll post next.

Sewing For Charity At The Simsbury Public Library

I finally made it to one of the charity sewing meetings at the library here.  The last two I've tried to attend were snowed out.  Snow, another reason to want to leave Connecticut.

Feeling The Power - Singer 103 In An Industrial Treadle

The 103 is finally back together. Temporarily at least.

Twofer Cleaning Day On The Singer 15-30s

The 1904 was in pieces on the floor and I got to thinking that I might use some of the pieces of Hyman Workman's 1927 to get the '04 back together.  When all was said and done I didn't, but I did use it as an excuse to clean both machines.

Charlie Brown's Sewing Machine - 1904 Singer 15-30

I'm always on the look out for old, sad machines.  I really like taking one that has been beat down hard and getting it back in shape.  They don't get much rougher than this one.

Singer 201 Spa Day. Using A HA-1 Numbered Needle Plate On A 201

If you watched 201 treadle conversion video you may have noticed a couple of photos where I had the 1953 201 stand in for Swan Queen for some expounding on what I was doing in a couple of places.  When I shot those pictures it was pretty obvious that the 1953 needed a bit of cleaning.

Converting Another Singer 201-2 To A Treadle Machine

I was trying to keep the naming theme of the treadle 201s the same.  I couldn't very well call it "White Swan", it would be wrong just on the face of it.  So I went back to the original source for a name.   Introducing, Swan Queen.

128 Gets Its Singer Hand Crank

I have been toying with the idea of buying an original Singer hand crank for a 'portable' machine for a while.  I had the modern knock off that I've used for a couple of years with little complaint.  Once I got the 128 it just seemed like the right time to get an original.  Of course that meant hitting up Helen Howes.

Prepping For NETOGA, About Six Months Early

As I mentioned in this post, I wanted to have my quilting blocks done for the NETOGA (North East Treadle-On Gathering and Academy) before panic time set in around July.  Doing some experimenting I made four Dutchman's Puzzle blocks last week.  On Sunday I decided to get the other dozen completed.

Tuning Up The 401, Again. Supergirl Is Pure Fantasy

This 401 has been sitting on the shelf next to Black Swan's cabinet for a few months now, right next to the 301.  I had brought it in to do some zig zags to overcast some raw edges.  It didn't go well and I put a zigzagger on Black Swan to do the work.  Today I decided to see what was up.

Happy Valentine's Day. Making The Wife's Gift Using Black Swan, Wicked Queen And The 29K72 For The Win.

During one of our pilgrimages to Osgood Textile a couple of years ago we had bought some leather along with a few dozen pounds of other fabrics.  My wife had asked me to make her a bag out of it.  The same style as this one I had made her.

The Heartbreak Of Taking The 1949 221 To Market

Well the Goodwill 221 is listed for sale.  We'll see how it goes.  It's my first 'for sale' machine, so I made sure to get into every nook and cranny to clean it up.  Which it needed.  But dangit, it's so cute!  I'm not sure if I can really sell it. Even my wife is constantly commenting on how cute it is whenever I'm working on it. The 221s suck you in, don't they?  They are the tribbles of the Singer family.

Getting The 128 Ready For A New (Old) Hand Crank

If you read the post about the 128 my sister bought for me in exchange for the 221 I bought her, then you might remember this picture.

Cleaning Case For The 1949 221

The Goodwill 221 arrived a couple of days ago and is in pieces for cleaning.  I'm going to do a post about getting it ready to sale.  I thought the case would be just one part of that post but it became a day long job by itself and so I thought I would run through what I did in a quick initial post.

Playing Sewing Machine Detective

If you have read a lot of the previous entries you know one of the things I enjoy about collecting machines is finding out their history.  Well today I had an internet adventure thanks to the 1953 201-2.

Stepping Out Of My Comfort Zone

I've been sewing, casually, for about 39 years.  Sprinkled in that time there have been spans where I sewed more rigorously.  When I sew, it's usually things like this.

I Can Explain, Really - Another 221

See, here's what happened.  I put the bid in on the Shopgoodwill 221 about four days prior.  The auction hit my $160+$40 shipping limit so I figured it was going to slip away.

I was cruising Ebay and saw this:

Shopgoodwill.com Would Be Funny If It Wasn't So Sad - 221 (I won't say Featherweight, I won't!) And Jinyun Qilong Manufacturing Knows Awesome

I kinda like Shopgoodwill.com when I don't outright hate it.  I don't buy a lot off it, but it's good for picking up stuff that needs some work.  For some reason the shoppers on the auctions there will pretty much ignore anything with problems while going hog wild on the exact same object that doesn't list issues.

Case in point:

A Great Diehl In NY - Singer 103 In An Industrial Treadle

If you read my first post about the Revco Reverse you saw me mention the Philip Diehl 1914 patent (US1118271A).  The patent was applied for on December 12th 1912.  Singer started building this machine in February of 1913 (As far as I can surmise from my interwebs researching).

About a week ago I noticed this in an ad on Craigslist.  This is the best photo and there were no photos of the front of the machine.

It's Not Awesome, But It Works - Revco Reverse On 1908 Singer 27.

It installed the Revco a couple of days ago. The whole installation video at the bottom of the post. Here are the highlights.

The Great British Sewing Bee Is Back! ...please be better, please be better.

I just saw this post on Simply Sewing. It looks like the best sewing show ever is currently filming its fifth season after BBC and the production company made friends again.

From Joe Lycett's Twitter Feed

Dragging Old Singers Into The Post WWII Era - Revco Reverse

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of getting a Revco reverse regulator for a machine.  I've seen a few around, but unfortunately I would have had to buy yet another 66 to get one.  So I passed on them.  Then last week this one showed up on Ebay.

328K Is Singer For Awesome!

This is a follow up to my original post about coverting the 328K to a treadle machine here.

Taking advice from Leila from Grow Your Own Clothes here and some folks on Victorian Sweatshop  I replaced the 328K's stock hand wheel with a 9 spoke designed to be used with treadles.

Drag Racing The 301

There is a group that meets at the library here in Simsbury on the first Monday of each month to sew for charity.  I haven't been yet, but I'm going this coming Monday.  I'm not sure if the library provides the machines we sew on or are we supposed to bring our own.  So to be safe I'm taking a machine.

Unbanished! Treadlizing The 328K

This started out because of a post in the Vintage Singers mailing list.  Someone mentioned getting a 328K to put in a treadle.

One Of The Best Guys I Ever Met

I was digging around for some photos of a period outfit I did today and came across this one from around 2006.

Today On Pimp My Treadle - Singer 125379 For Black Swan

It hasn't been lost on me that this last batch of posts have all been about stuff I've gotten and not about working on the machines.  It was pretty warm here today, up in the 50s, so I decided to rectify the situation by looking for a project I could complete in a day.

Happy New Year - Another 66

I had been holding off on doing this post because I had mis-remembered the production year of this machine.  This was going to be a woo-hoo it's officially an antique built in 1919 post.  But it turns out that my newly minted antique machine is actually the 128 I got from my sister.  This 66-1 is made in 1913.  Yay, it's still officially an antique, just a bit older than I thought.

Happy Birthday To Me - 29 Treadle (...umm parts)

(14 Jan, 2019 edit.  Once again, I originally had the machine called out as a 29K73.  Oops.)

The problem with the 29K72 is that it is not as petite as a 29-4, or even a 29K71.  So a standard table for normal sized 29s is just a tad short for it.  Taking that in mind my wonderful wife went out and for my birthday bought up some pieces me and the boy and hack on to make a DIY table.

Merry Christmas (2018-3) - 1937 15-87

(Jan 20, 2019 Edit:  User Needle+thread in another post asked the difference between 15-87s and 15-97.  The difference is the bobbin winders on the 97s are the newer style, like 15-91s have.  The 87s have the older cooler style with the cams and moving thread guide.  A couple of weeks ago I got them backwards and relabeled my 87s to 97s.  Her question made me doublecheck the facts and corret my error.  Back to 87s)

My wife slipped out and managed to get to Norm and snatch this one up before I even had a chance to notice it at his place.

Merry Christmas (2018 - 2) - 1953 201-2

This was the second 201 picture my sister sent me as she was working the auction. 

Merry Christmas (2018 - 1) - Centennial 201-2

I made a few trips to Oklahoma this fall.  My father had some health issues.  All very minor so no worries, but my brother and sister were doing yeoman's work getting him to appoints, pool tournaments, etc... since the doctors didn't want him to drive for a couple of months.  So I went back a few times to give them a break.  Before going back for a few weeks in this month my sister called me up from one of her auctions. Two 201s were going to come up for bid.  One was a Centennial in a bentwood case.  This is the picture she sent.

I Bought My Sister A Featherweight, She Bought Me This - 128

My sister has always wanted a Featherweight.  I really have no use for them and would just smile and nod when she waxed on about them.  She was working an auction this past spring and one came up for sale.  She was a little light on funds with her that day and I, being the wonderful brother I am, bought it for her, all the while denigrating it of course.  An added bonus was that it was manufactured the same year as she was born, so she was super excited about it.  To pay me back she bought me this 1919 128 a few days later.

Black Swan's New Parlor Cabinet

I had mentioned this cabinet earlier.  I was planning on putting the 66 that came with it back in to take photos, but I've been using it so much that it doesn't make sense to take it out of service for what would probably end up being a week or so given all the stuff that gets me side tracked.  So here is Black Swan in her "new" cabinet.

My Philmont Leather Hand Crank - 15-88

This was from a visit I did to Norm's right before I went to work at Philmont Scout Ranch in 2017.  I was wanting a machine I could put a hand crank on that had reverse.  He had this little beat up machine sitting off to the side.  It was kind of like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree so I had to have it.

Merry Christmas! (2017) - 29K72

(Jan 14, 2019 edit - After more research... reading the freakin' manual.  I discovered this is actually a 29K72 instead of a 29K73 as I originally posted).

Well... at least this time it's only been five months between posts.  So that's a plus.

Quite a few updates coming now but I'll start with the one that I've been spending the most time on (other than getting the sewing room, insulated, framed and sheet rocked in the garage attic).  The 29K72 from 1941.  The model plate was ripped off so I needed to do a bit of research to figure out the exact sub-model of the 29 series.  I found service manual/parts list that gave the nomenclature of each model.  If you need to research 29K7Xs there is a badly scanned copy here.

Under a year! YAY!

So, here's what happened.  I forgot what account I was using for Blogger.  I've been scratching my head for a few months wondering why, when I logged on, my blog didn't show up.  Oops.

Okay so now this is fixed here's a preview of what's coming:

Singer 29K73! Oh yeah.  Next to Black Swan, 29s have been on my 'please, honey, can I?' list.

Yet another 66, but this one is in a parlor cabinet.  Well out of it now, but it'll go back in for pictures, then get yanked out and Black Swan will have a new home.

128 and 221.  Okay, yes, Featherweights are junk.  But my sister really wanted one, so I bought it for her. In return she gave me a 128 in a bent wood case.  I came out ahead.

I think there are more, I'll have to dig around and see.

We are still getting reorganized from the move (9 months later), so I have to dig out the camera and find some place to do photos.  But they are coming.  Promise.

Mine-Mine-Mine! 1917 96-10

About two weeks after getting the 331K4 the motor demonstrated a rather urgent need for maintenance.  Rather than be without the 331 while the motor was down I did what any proper sewing machine addict would do, I went out and got another industrial machine.  Behold the 96-10.

We Are Buying a House. So Here Come the Industrials - Singer 331K4

Well, first off I guess I should say this one isn't actually coming home with me.  It's staying in New Mexico with the Boy Scouts.  That leads to the reason I haven't been keeping up with the blog.  I'm working as the Back Country Wardrobe Specialist at Philmont Scout Ranch this summer.  I maintain the wardrobe for around 140 interpretative history program counselors who populate 17 back country camps ranging in time periods from 1831 to 1953  at the ranch.

I'm so Weak, I Admit It. 1927 15-30 in a No 24 Open Side Cabinet

First off, I got a job at Philmont Scout Ranch this summer, so it's not like I've got time for more machines.  That's why I haven't been blogging the last month.  Too busy getting my act together to get out to New Mexico at the end of the month.

But how do you say no to this -

First Alternative Method - Cleaning the 1923 66-1

I've received tips on different methods for metal bits on the machines (rather than just dremelling the heck out of everything).  Since the 1926 66-1 was already sitting in the middle of the kitchen, I thought, "Hey! let's have some fun."

They're Everywhere - Another 66-1

I was happy, really.  I had just gotten the 1883 IF cleaned up.  I had someone give me another Singer treadle.  And though it wasn't the correct one for the IF, I figured I could make it work.  Then, dangit, then this shows up on Craigslist today for $50.

New Family Needles Again

I came into a variety of substitute needles for the New Family.  None are an exact match for the original.  I thought I would give a run down on what I've tried so far.

As a disclaimer, this is all very unscientific.  Measurements were taken using my son's school ruler.  Also the ISMACS chart lists lengths as "to point".  This might be causing mis-measurements on my part as in the majority of documents I've seen lists the "point" as the entire distance from the eye to the tip of the needle.  So I could be completely wrong in using "point" measurements from ISMACS as being end to end length.