Upon How I Enjoy A Lovely Antique!

I'm still playing with my treadle sewing machine Singer 66-1, aka Elizabeth Redeye by myself and now by you. I finally bought some sewing machine oil and oiled the machine this evening.

This machine is precision machined and after oiling, Oh! does it runs smooooth! A flick of the wrist on the handwheel and it purrs. I mean it Purrs! But so silently one would never hear.

The old vintage Singers are simple to maintain. A single drop of oil at every moving part. That's it, Folks! Unless, of course, you jam a needle against a button or zipper hard enough to put the thing out of timing, but frankly, I've been sewing on this and other machines since I was 10 years old and I've never had to adjust the timing. This is not an automobile, after all! This is a Singer with a Capital S! And this particular model has never suffered a recall by its manufacturer...even if it did sew though my thumbnail once.

Basically, with vintage machines, just read the manual and oil where directed. If you don't have a manual, open up the machine everywhere that you can open it, and put a single drop of sewing machine oil on each moving part. You can click on the photos to see what I mean...I've marked key areas with a green arrow. (You can usually google your Singer and Model number and find an online manual or instructions.) You can click here for one informative vintage Singer site.

Now and then one might become a bit frustrated if the needle has been placed in backwards...which I confess that I have done...but that is easily remedied by reading the manual for the particular machine...not all machines are the same in this respect.

I changed my mind on the fabrics that I will be stitching together. So last night I cut some extra to go with them. I'll show a pic when I get them assembled.

I need to get this posted...I'm off to do my chemo this morning. And this afternoon I'll be napping...the Benadryl, you know. Later I'll have all kinds of energy...the steroids, you know.


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