When Buying A Featherweight 221, A Cautionary Tale

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.Is the Machine Threaded? Is there a Stiched Sample? Light On?   Foot Controller Plugged In? Does the Seller know how to Operate the Machine? Is there a Book?  These are NOT the most user friendly machines in the world. The Famous Little Featherweight 221 has a very unconventional threading system. The needle can be put in backwards by mistake, the needle is threaded inside out and it can be confusing. Try to buy a machine with an instruction book.  If the seller says that they don't know much about sewing and that the needle goes up and down..beware...that does not mean that the machine sews,  it means the needle just goes up and down..  Look to see if there is a bobbin case, preferably with a threaded bobbin inside it.  If the original case is missing, the buyer will have to use a replacement part from a foreign country.  The Singer Company does not make any more original replacement parts for our Featherweights. These little machines really work their best with as many original parts as possible, including the belt unless it is truly worn and tattered.  Look for a nice clean finish on the machine, this may tell you how the machine was treated.  Watch for bubbling paint near the bottom of the machine..it  means that the machine sat in a damp basement for months or years. Ask about mildew and musty odors.  Beware of machines with adhesive tape on the bed that was once used as a seam guide. Masking tape is nearly impossible to remove and you may remove the finish with the old tape.  Try to see if there ever was a makeshift pin cushion or pin collar attached to the upper arm of the machine above the needle bar which will have left hundreds of small pin scratches that just ruins the finish.  A clean carryin...

Serger Notes From Class

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Sergers can be intimidating and it was YEARS before I started messing with my adjustments. I have a Bernina that is about 10 years old. I have a little arm in the front that I move forward for a rolled hem. Then I turn my two dials on the right side of my machine all the way to the smallest stitches. like .07 or something. all the way.

And when I serge my seams, you see how I like to press them open, well, really how your serger stitches will do depends upon the weight of the fabric and the weight of the thread just like your regular sewing machine does. So my tensions on my serger threads stay at about 6 to 6.5 all the time unless something weird is going on. And I dial my dials on the right side of my machine, one of them is called the differential and I am not sure what the other one is called, length? Anyway, my machine will sew with a 4 thread but I do not use it. The 4th thread makes my serged stitches too wide. AND the 4th thread is not important for what we do anyway. The forth thread, the one that comes out on the far left, is supposed to be your seam stitch. SO when you are sewing like an interlock knit something that is an all serged garment, that is your seam stitch. So, when I am serging I only use three threads. I shorten my length by the dial on the right side of my machine until I get what I want. The reason I use a much closer stitch most of the time is to avoid rolling and puckering and those beards that stick out on a fabric that ravels.

You can experiment by putting 3 and 4 different colors of thread into your serger and then dialing the dials on the right and see all the different things you get. That really is how decorative stitching is done anyway. When I am doing decorative serging, I like to buy wooly nylon threads. Anyway, if your serged edge and seam are looped around too far one side or the other or pulling tight or going loose, that is in your tensions. Your tensions sho...

Singer Sewing Machines

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Singer sewing machines are easy to use and have been working for mankind from the most early times, and in areas that you would never think of sewing with a machine. I've seen photo of machines in the desert working outside a tent.