Be nice to your neighbors. (They may have an old sewing machine they don't want.)

Friends, I'm almost embarrassed to share what just happened to me today but my hunch is you can already guess.

About a week ago, my dear neighbor of more than twenty years, Irma -- you may recall I fixed her old Singer 66 last March -- told me that a well-to-do friend of hers was downsizing and getting rid of a sewing machine.  She'd told her friend about me and said that if I was interested, I could call her friend and make arrangements to take the machine off her hands.

Since the last few weeks I've been dealing with a low-grade sinus infection -- I haven't felt 100% since the first week of January -- I'd neglected to call her.  Well, the day before yesterday, I was over at Irma's -- she'd cooked meatballs for me and Michael -- and she reminded me about her friend and asked if I'd called her yet: Irma's way of saying, Call her already!

Long story short(ish), yesterday I telephoned her friend, who lives about a half mile away.  She said she had no idea what model machine she had, just that she'd seen it in the window of an antiques store many years ago and picked it up (trading in her old zigzagger plus some additional cash for it).  We made arrangements for me to swing by this morning, which I did.  I figured it was probably an old black Singer, but I was expecting a 99K in one of those big wooden boxes or even a 128 with the shuttle bobbin (which she actually does own -- her late husband had turned it into a dining room lamp, with the top of the box serving as the shade, with fringe attached; I wish I'd brought my camera.)  Obviously, as soon as I saw the familiar black case I knew it was neither of those models.

Half an hour later I was back home and gave the machine a good inspection.  The case is in pretty good shape.



Original manual inside.



Assorted attachments including a real Singer-branded walking foot!





The belt had been attached inside out and on the outer edge of the motor axle, if that makes sense, so I reattached it correctly.



Otherwise, all was well.



All the bobbins it came with had more than one color thread wound on them -- a big no-no in my book.







I oiled the innards, dusted it a bit, and she was good to go.  The first stitches looked great! 


 

So there you have it -- another lovely Singer featherweight joins the family.  Will it remain in the family?  We shall see.

Here's a short movie of the machine in action:



Readers, have you ever been gifted a nice sewing machine you didn't really need?  Did you keep it, sell it, or give it away?

How many featherweights are too many featherweights?

Have a great day, everybody!