Sewing Machines!

I love old sewing machines. My grandmother lived with us many years ago, and she had an old treadle Singer in our hall. At an early age, she had me 'sewing' sheets of paper, with no thread in the needle. I then progressed to thread and material, dolls' clothes and then a simple skirt. By the time I was a teenager, I was making my own, very simple clothes. The feed dogs on the machine were not very good, so I used to help the material through. It took me years to stop doing this on other machines.

When we got married, my husband bought me my first electric sewing machine, a Singer straight stitch. I gave this to my grandson when we moved up here, as it had been retired years ago. I have had various electric machines since then, but I still loved the old clunkers. I started collecting them and had various treadles, hand cranks and toy machines. But then we moved from a rambling house in the country, to a smaller house in town, to save me driving sixty miles a day to work. I culled the machines, but kept my favourites, including a chain stitch machine.

When we moved up here I culled again, but now I have started adding, or should I say the islanders are adding to my collection. I was given an old Singer, which sews horizontally, instead of vertically and a couple of weeks ago I saw the machine above at a jumble sale. It was filthy, unloved, but still being used. It was calling to me, so I took it home. I spent two hours cleaning it, and it still needs more done to it, but it is lovely. It has a bullet bobbin and a hand crank. I have dated it, and it is one hundred and two years old and made in the Singer Kilbowie factory in Clydebank, Scotland. As the trader said, 'If the electricity goes out, you will still be able to sew.' Sounds good to me!

tich