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).

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.

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.

The Herd

I've been doing underquilts for our hammocks today.  Insultex and 1.1oz ripstop are pretty annoying to work with so I decided to take a bit of a break and post photos of the machines.  The 66 is still in pieces and the treadle 15 is in the last post so I'll skip them.  Here are the rest.

The Sew-Maid.  A Japanese reproduction of a Singer 99.  I call her "Imouto-san" (Little Sister).  It was old when I got it in the 80's but I don't have a year on it.  It's a solid sewing machine  I've done tons of work on it.  Would even go back to it instead of using the 328K at times just because I can trust it to do a dead straight stitch.  Boxed up with everything it comes in at 19lbs.

This one is the wife's.  A Singer Sewhandy 50D.  When someone talks about their Featherweight I imagine them paying a couple hundred dollars for this.

Next up is the 328K.  We have two of these.  Each of us had one before we got married.  Not sure whose this one is.  The second one is in storage or lost in a move somewhere along the line.  It's a workhorse.  The only two complaints I have about it are that it will never do a truly straight stitch and it requires more pampering that all the other machines combined.

And now the 403A.  I got a deal on this one because the zigzag and the needle position selector weren't working.  Took some doing (I had never worked on a zigzag machine before) but after a day of wrestling with, including a retaining clip shooting across the room at one point, it decided to zigzag and let me set the needle.  It has pretty much replaced the 328K as my primary zigzag machine.  Doesn't see constant use though, just not perfect on straight stitches and a little on the loud side.

And finally The Wicked Queen, Grimhilda.  The 15-91.  Even though she's cruel and tortures me at every turn I can't help but love her.  Since I bought her I have done two tops for the wife and three camping hammocks, about a hundred yards worth of stitching.  I keep her on 12 stitches an inch so that's right around 45,000 stitches and not a single miss. The only mistakes are when she punishes me for not giving her my undivided attention.  I bought her from a Goodwill auction for $50, including a bentwood case.  I was expecting a project machine to rebuild.  I was stunned when I unwrapped the box and she still had a receipt and test stitch cloth on the bed from the last time she was serviced in the 1970's.  Other than a quick oiling I did nothing.  She looks like a museum piece.  She's in the cabinet that the 66 came in right now.  I toyed with the idea of converting her to use on the treadle, but it just seems wrong to take a drill her and tap a hole for a belt drive.