Meet: My Mother's Old Black Singer . . .

. . . which is now my old black Singer.

I always assumed Mom received this sewing machine from my father as a wedding gift when they married in 1938, but I never asked and she never said.  I recently discovered that Mom's Singer was made in 1941.  Now I really wish I'd asked her how she came to have it!

I learned to sew on this machine when I was 8 or 9 years old.  I don't remember my mom teaching me how to use it but I remember having free rein with it.  I didn't learn to sew with patterns until I was in my teens but as a kid I remember sewing straight-seam items -- blankets, bags -- for my dolls.  After I graduated from college, Mom and Dad delivered the sewing machine to my apartment.  I was grateful to have it. 

The machine sews forward and backward; has adjustable stitch lengths; and sews leather, cotton, and other fabrics.  But it's not thrilled with polyester thread, for some reason.  I usually sew with cotton, cotton/poly, or silk and it sew beautifully.  It has a drop-in bobbin case and a knee pedal.  Knee pedals are so much easier to use than foot pedals, at least for me.  I can get much better control with a knee pedal.  (I've always had a lead foot.)

The machine came to me with a box of attachments, a manual, and a buttonholer.  I've never been able to get the attachments to work as the manual says they should but I keep them in their box and perhaps some day someone will show me how to use them.  I use the manual whenever I have to oil the machine or fix the tension.  It has sweet little detailed drawings telling where and how to oil.

The buttonholer came in this ovalish spaceship sort of plastic box.  I never liked that box.  I found a rectangular, dark green box with a buttonholer at the thrift store and bought it on the off chance it would work with Mom's macine.  It did.  And it had a 5/8" cam which Mom's didn't.  I was getting ready to switch the buttonholer and get rid of the spaceship box when my daughters realized what I had in mind.  They both balked:  "But I love that box!  That's the best thing about the sewing machine," they both said.  (Neither of them sews much....)  So I've kept the spaceship box.

My mother's old black Singer is almost the only machine I've ever used.  I once borrowed a machine while in college.  It had a foot pedal that I could never control and I think the only sewing I did was a quick repair.  I have my mom's second sewing machine, the one she got after she gave me the old black Singer.  It is a Kenmore which I don't like at all.  I also have a slant-needle Featherweight Singer that I bought at an auction for $2.50.  It sews as well as Mom's Singer but the bobbin is not so easy to put in.  I've used it a few times but only when I've had to sew away from home or when the old black Singer needed a tune-up.  And I recently bought the Singer Red Eye which does not yet sew.

My mother's old black Singer is the only sewing machine I've ever wanted.  If it dies before I do, I don't know what I'll do.... 

I'm linking this post to Meet: My Machine! blog hop, hosted by Stacey at The Tilted Quilt and Erin at Sew at Home Mummy.  Thanks, Stacey and Erin.

Happy sewing!
--Nancy.
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