Got a vintage Singer?

[Limner]

My girlfriend and her Hubby have known us for YEARS, and we've been camping at Living History events many times. She is an amazing seamstress, and has lately been buying old vintage sewing machines and refurbishing them and selling them for a bit of profit. She LOVES old 401 slant Singers, and sent me this link to a Singer bog.....figured some of you all might have some of these grand old ladies in your sewing room and might find it interesting, too...

http://blog.sew-classic.com/2008/10/25/singer-401-401a-403--403a--404--sewing-machine-review.aspx

[Limner]

She also sent this....it's a site telling how to clean up those rusty old beauties that you find at thrift stores and yard sales...

http://www.treadleon.net/sewingmachineshop/cleaningmachines/cleaningmachines.html

[AmericanPatriot]

Limner, I have my mom's old one and it's in pretty good shape.
I think there is a small problem with the bobbin
I need to get my wife to check it out so that we can get it working perfectly.
Thanks for posting this

[SheWoff]

I have a 404 in the original Singer cabinet that you could buy with the machine. I love it. Does a lot of heavy work. And the older singer there? I have one about like that one, in the cabinet also. They were hand me downs from hubbys Mom and the landlords mom. He's in his 70's so his mom would have been in her 90's. I am still trying to figure the model number on that one but it is old old old. Looks almost like that picutre, but less decoration on it and it's shorter.

She

[gardengal]

That little black beauty in the upper corner looks just like the Singer that my mom sewed all of my clothes on when I was a kid. About the time I was graduating high school in the 70's she updated to a White sewing machine that she still has to this day. She sold the Singer for about $15 and wishes now that she would have kept a hold of it just for it being an antique.

I have an older Singer sitting in a back room, no telling what kind of shape it's in now. It was a Singer Touch and Sew that was bought in Germany in 1975. I took it in to a singer dealer about 16 years ago and had it worked on. It ran good for a short time, then went back to clanking and jamming threads. I used to threaten to throw it out a window. DH told me to open the window so he wouldn't have to replace both.LOL That's when I finally bought the Brother.

gardengal

[SheWoff]

Haha!! I found it!! My little black beauty featherweight!! It's a 301 model and looks just like these pictures...http://www.april1930s.com/html/singer_301___301a_full-size_ph.html#301MainPhoto. This has some really good close ups on it too. I have all the attachments for it, every last one it looks like! Dang, I'm just so tickled that I found out what it was...yahoo!!! Now, if I can just find a manual for it so I can learn how to use all those different feet and stuff that came with it. And the cabinet is a dark cherry (?) type wood. Has three different sized drawers down the right side with the bottom one being the bigger one and has an extra little sliding drawer inside of it? Never seen one like that before. But I am going to do some waxing and polishing on the cabinet.

She

[danwelliver]

Those old Singer machines are called "Black Heads". My friend the Singer man said they used to put grease on the decals and dunk them in lye soap to clean them. The old singer machines from the thirties had brass parts in the lower unit, they would never seize up. Singer dealers hated them. There were too many good used machines undercutting the new machine market. The 401 is a good machine but was very expensive at the time. It is the last singer with brass gears.

Similarly when the 201 came out it was expensive. So Singer made a little brother to it called the 15-91. If you get a 15-91 the needle goes in backwards compared to the 201. The top of the line machines like the 401 and 201 are more rare as the poor people could not afford to buy them.

The Singer featherweight 221 is worth about $600 today. However if you're smart you would keep it and not sell it.

A black head really doesn't have any value maybe 5 to 10 bucks. If it's missing the slide plate or other parts it could cost more to get it working than it's really worth. I made some quilts at first on a Singer 127. The stitch didn't lock well and the quilts fell apart rapidly. I prefer a modern machine with reverse for bar tacking.

[SheWoff]

Im keeping mine! I have already made one heavy duty quilt on it and it's held up through three washings so far. It just flew through all those layers like no bodys business! I just love it!

She

[NancyT]

I LOVE my 401A!! Would not trade it for any other, period. My other machine is my mom's 201 and is the machine I learned to sew on. Both are in tip top shape and have sewn many, many clothes, quilts, art projects and many other things. I actually feel sorry for people who've never experienced the sheer JOY of sewing with one of these wonderful old beauties. The difference between the old and new machines is so huge, like riding in a Yugo v. a Rolls Royce.

The Featherweights are in big big demand with quilters. I have a friend in Virginia who has one and she just loves hers.

Thanks for the link to the blog, Limner!

[packyderms_wife]

Haha!! I found it!! My little black beauty featherweight!! It's a 301 model and looks just like these pictures...http://www.april1930s.com/html/singer_301___301a_full-size_ph.html#301MainPhoto. This has some really good close ups on it too. I have all the attachments for it, every last one it looks like! Dang, I'm just so tickled that I found out what it was...yahoo!!! Now, if I can just find a manual for it so I can learn how to use all those different feet and stuff that came with it. And the cabinet is a dark cherry (?) type wood. Has three different sized drawers down the right side with the bottom one being the bigger one and has an extra little sliding drawer inside of it? Never seen one like that before. But I am going to do some waxing and polishing on the cabinet.

She

Hang onto that featherweight they retail for about 600-800 dollars! Free arm featherweights retail for even more.

K-

[mcfay]

I have a treadle singer 15-89. I love it. It has an electric motor on it, but I also have a leather belt and by taking off the elect. belt and putting on the leather one it's converted to a treadle.

[linda b]

New to the site, have several old machines love most of them some just takeing up space, for those that would like to know more about old machines and how to fix them check out the wefixit group on yahoo groups, found out about all kinds of machines that I had never knew about.
Linda b

[david57]

i have a model 66 that was made in NJ in 1922. it is a treadle with the drawing room cabinet. it came with all the attachments. it is in very good shape and works perfectly.i took 1 pic then my battries went dead