Determined to Treadle!

I was having a facebook conversation with Becky over the use of the hand-crank machine last night --- the passing posts going something like “You should use your treadle, it will work your leg muscles!” And my explaining that I’m not sure what needs to be done to this treadle to get it working.

That got me to thinking – how am I going to know unless I move it away from the wall, unload the bins of scraps that are on top of it and get in there and TRY!?


First things first…get rid of dust and cobwebs.

Second…go scrounging around in DH’s workshop to find some boards to put it on. Treadles need clearance from the carpet – I ‘m not sure what these boards were for---they came WITH the house---, but their beveled edges and cut corners don’t look too bad underneath the machine ---I’ve now got plenty of treadle clearance and the pedal moves easily --- next thing going….BELT anyone? These two belts are too dry rotted and too short. The pedal is too hard to move when the belt is on. It should have more slack in it.

Oh shoot! I know that Diane had gifted me a clear tubing belt, and it is somewhere here in the basement --- but where?!

Another thought ---go upstairs and grab the belt off the 1970s Sphinx anniversary edition. At least that poor reproduction is good for SOMETHING!

The belt is now on, and parts move really well – The machine head you see here is Tiffany:

She’s a very pretty girl, her decals aren’t perfect ---- but I like the fact that they are worn basically only where the fabric went through the machine in front of the needle. Someone sewed hard on her! She has a serial number that places her date at 1913.

I’m ready to start sewing --- only one problem left to solve. She has no bobbin case. *HUGE SIGH* I tried all the other bobbin cases for old singers that LOOKED they they would work, but nothing fit.

I wasn’t sure what else to do, so I loosened her check screws and removed her from the cabinet and off to the Sew & Vac I went. They oooh’d and ahhh’d but just as I thought ---they aren’t going to have a bobbin case in stock for this pretty girl. I believe she is a class 15 machine, but the other 15’s bobbin cases I have here do NOT fit her bobbin mechanism so until I can find what she needs…she can only sew WITHOUT THREAD!

On my way back from the Sew & Vac ---a thought hit me.

I have the perfect machine that can be reverted from Electric to Treadle in a heart beat!

Those who have been reading me a while may remember this post from my visit to Kingston, NY this past may!

One of my readers who couldn’t be there left this gift for me in the office of the church we were meeting at! I of course quickly named her Gae, and she has sat in my basement waiting her turn to go be rewired ---I already have another machine just like her, she is a Singer 66 with a drop bobbin. The other one was my great grandmother's machine ---which works ----so I wasn’t in a hurry to get the rewiring done.

BINGO!!

I came home, got out the screwdriver – removed the motor with one turn of the screw --- cut off the wiring on the broken light….and held my breath.

I set her into the treadle base I’d vacated with the removal of Tiffany. Would it work??

PERFECT FIT!!

I’ve cleaned her up, oiled her down inside and out. Her decals are lovely! I checked on her serial number ---G0805495. She was made in 1924. Just 11 years after Tiffany. I carefully threaded her ---ooohhh, I get so nervous on machines that don’t have numbers on their dials. How am I going to know to get the tension right? I’m repeating to myself ‘---“Righty Tighty Lefty Loosey” and I start. First with my hand to get her going in the right direction – and then my feet.

OOH GOODNESS! She sews!!

The thread tension is a bit loose, the bobbin thread is just laying there. I turn the nob a bit to the right --- tighter, tighter…sew some more. PERFECT!

Stitch is kind of big though….looks like the last thing done on this machine was BASTING!….oh dear. This doesn’t have a lever – just a turn screw with no numbers.

Which goes smaller? I’m thinking tighter would be looser…….bigger stitches…..okay, so turn it the OTHER way, stupid!! Slowly as I play with it and do test runs, I achieve a perfect balanced just-the-right-size stitch length!

I’m gonna do it! I’m going to treadle!

I think I’ll start with something simple like string piecing first ---just cover foundations and get used to the feel of the wheel in my hand to start and make sure that I’m going in the right direction. Get used to the feel of my legs making Gae do her beautiful work with needle and thread.

In the mean time, I’m looking for a bobbin case for Tiffany. If anyone can help, please let me know.

And Di – if you are reading this. You are to blame. Totally. And I love you for it! ((And be proud, be very proud --- I didn’t break the thread when sewing WITH thread in the machine!!))