I’ve been wanting to blog about this for a while but have waited until it was all finished this week! Back in August last year I bought an old Singer treadle sewing machine from my local auction. It was a real bargain at only £10 plus commission, we knew it needed a bit of work but it wasn’t in too bad condition. Here’s how it looked when we got it home and now that my Dad and I have finished doing it up…
I’d almost forgotten how dark the wood case was and how scruffy the top looked! I learnt that you should look more closely at things, in good daylight, before you buy them at auction as when we got the machine outside we saw there were quite a few wood worm holes. After sanding, filling and varnishing you would hardly know they were there!
The machine itself has also cleaned up really nicely. Everything has been taken apart, cleaned, oiled and is now back together.
There were just two things that needed replacing – a small rubber ring for the bobbin winder and a leather belt for the treadle. I never knew that they still made parts for treadle machines but it was easy getting them both from ebay.
The machine folds away inside…
The machine also came with it’s original manual (dated 1932), box of accessories and spare needles. The feet in the box look like new!
I’ve been having fun practising with the machine. Treadling is quite tricky – you mustn’t treadle backwards or the thread will break so it can be hard to get going. To make sure you treadle in the right direction you need to start winding by hand. So long as I’m just sewing a simple straight stitch with the basic foot I’m fine, it’s when I start doing something more complicated with my hands that I forget to keep treadling. So a bit more practise is needed!
I’ve been wanting to blog about this for a while but have waited until it was all finished this week! Back in August last year I bought an old Singer treadle sewing machine from my local auction. It was a real bargain at only £10 plus commission, we knew it needed a bit of work but it wasn’t in too bad condition. Here’s how it looked when we got it home and now that my Dad and I have finished doing it up…
I’d almost forgotten how dark the wood case was and how scruffy the top looked! I learnt that you should look more closely at things, in good daylight, before you buy them at auction as when we got the machine outside we saw there were quite a few wood worm holes. After sanding, filling and varnishing you would hardly know they were there!
The machine itself has also cleaned up really nicely. Everything has been taken apart, cleaned, oiled and is now back together.
There were just two things that needed replacing – a small rubber ring for the bobbin winder and a leather belt for the treadle. I never knew that they still made parts for treadle machines but it was easy getting them both from ebay.
The machine folds away inside…
The machine also came with it’s original manual (dated 1932), box of accessories and spare needles. The feet in the box look like new!
I’ve been having fun practising with the machine. Treadling is quite tricky – you mustn’t treadle backwards or the thread will break so it can be hard to get going. To make sure you treadle in the right direction you need to start winding by hand. So long as I’m just sewing a simple straight stitch with the basic foot I’m fine, it’s when I start doing something more complicated with my hands that I forget to keep treadling. So a bit more practise is needed!
