Sew What Have I Been Doing?

 I have reported mostly about weather for the past month and indeed weather has occupied our thoughts most this January.  But I have been working on many projects and my list of productive things that should be done is shrinking steadily.  The biggest project this winter has been the refurbishment of my 1940 Singer Featherweight sewing machine.  

Sewing isn't really one of my hobbies.  I sew by necessity and it is surprising how often it comes up.  Usually it involves window treatments because I can't find exactly what I want.  Of the fifteen windows in this house, six have store bought treatments and of those, only two did not have to be altered in any way.  I can also cover cushions and hem jeans and things of that nature.  

Over time I have used several borrowed or hand me down sewing machines. All of them have frustrated me in some way, and the last one, my mother's big fancy Bernina embroidery machine, put me over the edge with its computer touch screen so when my sister came and got it a few months ago so my niece could make a Halloween costume, I was somewhat relieved to see it go and told it not to come back.  I just want something that will sew a straight line without a fuss!  I have grown weary of appliances, cars and phones coming with computer screens and long for things that can be fixed with a screwdriver or wrench and a little oil.

About a week after the Bernina's exit, my husband said he needed some jeans hemmed and when would the sewing machine be back?  I said it wasn't coming back but I was going up in the attic to get the old Singer left behind by the last owner of this house, our friend Milly.  I had never sewn with it but I had no concerns about it being more than adequate for what I need to do.

I used my Cricut machine to cut out a sticker with her name

Since I got "Milly" down from the attic, I have fallen in love with these old Featherweights.  There are a whole lot of people out there who use and collect them and parts and advice are readily available.  The best part is that much like Henry Ford's Model A automobile and 8N Tractor, these Featherweights were designed to be maintained by the user who probably had absolutely no prior mechanical experience.  All you had to do was buy a few tools and follow instructions.

They are pretty simple machines.  They need clean oil and grease and minor adjustments with a screwdriver.

The manual that came with it instructs the user exactly when and where to apply the oil.

And even how to take apart the subassemblies for more significant adjustments.

The first thing I did before I tried her out was apply some household oil to all of her oiling points.  She had been baking up in the attic for twenty years and possibly not used much for twenty years before that.  There was a little tag in the box that showed maintenance done back in the early 80s.  After I got the jeans hemmed, I wanted to learn a lot more about these sturdy little machines.  There are many places on line to get instructions and supplies, but the best is The Featherweight Shop who sells an entire revamp kit with step by step instructions and all of the parts and pieces you need to overhaul a neglected machine and get it sewing again.

The first thing I did was replace the original incandescent light bulb with a new, cool LED bulb.  You could have made toast with that thing!  And it was right over your wrist.  Milly now has new rubber feet, new feet on the pedal, a new belt and a new drip pad.  She has been oiled and greased and cleaned and polished and adjusted.  She runs beautifully.  I even picked up a new, vintage looking attachment box to round up all of her accessories.

I cleaned and refurbished the case and polished up all of the metal pieces.

After I was done cleaning and oiling the sewing machine, my thoughts strayed to my mantle clock.  It is thirty years old but stopped running about five years ago, not because it was damaged in any way, but just because whatever oil was left in it had collected dust for twenty five years and turned to gunk.  My experience with the Singer (and the chairs for that matter) taught me that the key to tackling projects like this is to do some internet research, figure out who the generally accepted authority on it is, buy a kit, and follow the instructions.

To properly clean a clock you must remove the movement from the case so you can get at it from every angle.  This required a socket wrench and a needle nosed plier.

You also have to pull the hands off of it and remember how those go back on.  I augmented the cleaning kit with a bamboo skewer from the kitchen because the cleaning stick wasn't long enough and some micro cleaning brush swabs from the Singer kit.  The work mat that came with the Singer kit is the perfect surface.

I've cleaned on it for several hours and gotten an amazing amount of black gook out of what first appears to be a shiny brass apparatus.  And I got it to run.  It will run for about thirty minutes before it gives up again.  Which means that the enclosed main spring is still too sticky with old oil to release on its own.  So that must be removed and cleaned or replaced.  Which will require watching some more YouTube videos.  Its doable.  And the price of replacement with a reconditioned mainspring is about fifty dollars, a fifth of the value of an entire clock movement.  May as well... it doesn't run as it is.  And I already told you how much I enjoy objects that can be repaired with a screwdriver.