Patience is a virtue..

It is also the name I have chosen to give my Singer treadle sewing machine. Those of you with very long memories will remember her arrival from here. I was quite excited by her arrival – but knew I was going to take a while to sort her out. Not least because she was locked up solid. Absolutely SOLID! I couldn’t persuade the treadle to move at all and I knew I was going to have to just leave the oil to work it’s magic.

Well, after a long time the poor old dear started to look like this:

What a mess!

Yes, it is too good a dumping ground to waste. And since I couldn’t use the machine I dumped massive amounts of ‘work in progress’ on the top. The only way to stop was to get the old girl up and running.

The main problem (the lack of motion) had been quietly soaking in oil for months, but the cabinet and machine were both in need of a good clean. I have no intention of this becoming a ‘desirable antique’. All I want is a functioning machine so I got going with the well wrung out cloth and gently buffed away the muck of ages.

The dirty ‘before’ picture.

The shiny ‘after’ picture!

I was quite surprised at just how much filth came off, and just how good the decal looked when it was clean! It is well worn, you can see exactly how the person who used this machine most leaned in over the machine and rested their forearm on the base.

Once the outside was clean and dry I got inside and brushed away all the lint, dust, and rusted pins before giving everything that moved a little drink. I was able to undo the plate on the front and side but couldn’t move the cover from the feed dogs or back of the machine (despite a lot of lubrication and many unsuitable words of encouragement). Once all the dirt had been transferred from the machine to me I decided to leave the oil to work it’s magic and have a bath.

The following day I was able to gently try out the machine mechanism by hand (purred along beautifully with no ghastly noises) before refitting the treadle belt, which had also been given a drink of oil, and trying to move the pedal. Which moved! It is still a bit ‘dry’ sounding but it is now moving freely and operating the machine as it should.

This was the point I was able to replace the needle (which I had removed whilst I ‘fiddled’), thread up, and try it out on a piece of scrap cotton. After all the time this machine had been unused I was delighted to find that the stitch was pretty much perfect. A few snafus while I got my treadle legs going, but this old lady remembers how it is done. I can’t wait to give her a proper job. I think she really suits her new name, having waited patiently to come back into work.

Singer Auto pilot fits my old Janome!

Flushed with success (and I have to admit having just found the box again!) I put the Singer Auto-Pilot buttonhole attachment I bought on e-bay on my Janome 1580. This is the machine I use as a spare and I thought I could leave this attachment, which has plastic guides to create eyelet buttonholes, set up to use if I needed it. I hadn’t read the advert properly – I thought this would go on the hand crank machine – and it needs to be fitted to a zig-zag machine. It took longer to work out how to disable the feed dogs than to get anything else going – and I think the results are OK. But , I wasn’t able to shorten the stitch length despite fiddling for quite some time. I checked online for help (this box didn’t have any instructions so I am working in the dark here) to no avail. Sewing around the buttonhole several times helps, but some of the stitches just ended up spaced out, but on top of each other. Not quite the effect I was looking for. Does anyone out there know how I get a denser finish with this attachment? 

OK – but could be better