Singer VS2 Blackside! Cause That's How We Roll In The Shire

A month or so ago one of the guys on Victorian Sweatshop pointed me to a Chandler patcher on Facebook Marketplace.  I hemmed and hawed about it long enough to miss out.  But while going back and forth on the Chandler, this popped up.

Yep, standard blurry, lo-res, washed out color photo.  The only thing certain was that it was a Singer VS2.  The price was more than right and since it was in the middle of all those snowstorms we were getting the manager of the Nellie McKnight Museum that was getting rid of it even knocked it down to $50 including the treadle.  

Picking it up was a treat. The museum only had a dirt parking area, and well, there was still about a eight inches of snow on the ground with the remainder of the 18 inches we got melted to make a nice mud layer underneath.  Needless to say I didn't lollygag about to take pictures of the loading.

But once I got it back to the house.

  

Now looking at the machine you would think those blackside parts would be obvious, wouldn't you?  But it actually to me they weren't.

Not to me, nope.  To me what stood out was that this was not a Singer coffin top.  And the fact that it didn't have a belt guard (see original photo).  The missing belt guard was corrected with a quick visit to Helen Howe's web store.

I posted it on forums about what the top might be a match for and the two responses were that it might be a White or a Davis.  So if you are near Simsbury and have a White or Davis coffin top treadle and need the actual bonnet for it, post a message and I can pass this one to you.

The next thing that caught my attention was that this thing moves pretty good.  Like someone had actually be using it sometime in the last eighty years or so.

Looking at the mechanicals it's obvious that someone was maintaining this machine over the decades. A bit of fluff here and there but no rust on any of the moving parts.  No slidey bit seized up from oil that dried out generations back.

The view above was the first time I noticed something was different about it.  The shuttle carrier looked off.  So I opened the slide plates and found this.

Yep, that's a 127 shuttle carrier.  And it's blackside!  So this guy was updated sometime after 1940.  Sweet.  Then I started noticing the other bits.

Throat plate,  presser foot.  And bobbin winder!

Why would someone update all those parts? Why update a bobbin winder?

Then a theory struck me.  Maybe what I have here is Marge's first sewing machine!  The one her parents bought her in 1889 when she first started sewing at 2 months old.  See I picture it like this:  Sometime around 1948, after a hard day of breaking the spirits of her clients at your Singer Sewing Center, Marge catches the sales rep before he can dash out the door to the safety of the night.  She slams him against the 201 on display and growls.  "Listen, Money, here's what's going to happen.  I'm bringing my VS2 in tomorrow and you are going to hook me up.  I want my ride murdered out in gangster black.  You hear me, punk? I want these pearl wearing princesses to shudder when they see me carving stitches with my death machine."  The sales rep manages a whimpering acquiescent squeak  of "Yes, Ma'am," before Marge drives her fist into his stomach sending him crumbling to the floor in a gasping heap.  As she strides out the door she growls, "Make it happen.  I would hate for you to end up like Tony from service."

Possible?

Outside the machine, the treadle cabinet has seen some miles.  It's  missing one drawer pull with a second loose in the drawer.  It will need a bit of the veneer replaced.  The irons are decent and move with minimal squeaks.

The belt was degraded.  It broke into pieces as I was taking it off.  So I'm guessing the machine hasn't been used much since Marge disappeared from the public eye sometime in the 1960s.  You remember, after that big shootout on the streets of  Elizabeth NJ with the gang comprised of Sears-Kenmore and White reps.

Oh, and I almost forgot.  While doing my running around to pick up the VS2 and the 15-91, I also stopped in to see my friend Norm and pick up some more treadle parts.  Enough for five more.  That should hold me for a few months.