by Katie, a graduate student in Irvine, California, who keeps a personal blog here
Love it, hate it, or something in between? Love it! It's so small and pretty and uncomplicated.
When did you buy this sewing machine? My mom bought it somewhere in early 2005.
When was it manufactured? Not sure, but the latest copyright date on the instruction manual is 1950. However, the instruction manual didn't actually come with the machine, so the date could be off.
Where did you buy it? My mom bought it at an antique shop somewhere in San Diego.
How much did you pay for it? I think she paid about $600. Not sure if that includes the tune up she got after she bought it.
How many projects have you done on this machine? Probably around 30-ish. I'm not a real big sewer, plus I'm in graduate school.
Describe the kind of work you've done with it. Mostly patchwork and quilting, and a few simple sewing projects. I've put together a lot of quilt tops, and have actually quilted a bunch of placemats. Also, I've made some simple bags and clothing items, including a denim skirt. Apparently, Featherweights are highly prized within the quilting community because they are portable and thus ideal for communal quilting. My mom is a quilter, which is why she picked up the machine when she found it.
What do you like and what do you hate about it?
Like:
-- It's small and light and portable and comes with a carrying case. It requires very little setup: Just plug it in and thread the needle.
-- It comes with a bunch of crazy looking attachments for hems and edgings, as well as a gatherer and a ruffler. I've only used one of them, ever, to make a narrow hem, but it's nice to know they're all there.
-- Since Featherweights are so popular among quilters, you can find additional parts for them and lots of information about them on the internet. One of my local quilt stores has a whole section of stuff for Featherweights, and I was able to get a foot for it to do a quarter inch seam (standard in quilting).
Dislike:
-- **It only does a straight stitch** This is absolutely NOT the machine for you if you need to do a lot else. You can control the length of the stitch and go forward or backward, but that's it. It's not a problem for me since I mostly only quilt, but I have had to drag out my mom's old Pfaff to do a zigzag stitch on bindings. However, I put the Pfaff back after that because I really enjoy the simplicity of my tiny Singer.
-- There's a light on the machine, but it gets hot really quickly and it's located near where my hand is when I'm sewing, so I can't even use it.
-- The motor is old and gets tired after a lot of sewing, so you can't go really fast for a long time.
-- The sewing space is sort of small, which makes it hard to sew in the middle of something large (though it's not really that much smaller than on a normal sized machine).
All told, this is a great machine for simple sewing. Probably good for learners, too, because it doesn't have anything you could accidentally press to screw everything up.
When your purchased it did she have the motor refurbished and all of the wires changed when she got the tune up? Because it sounds like thats all you need to fix up your motor and light problems. I had a similar problem when I first tested out my sewing machine, before I repaired it (I have a 201-2) but after I refurbished the motor, and replaced all the wires (new plug, new wires to the foot controller, new wires to the light, new wires to the motor, replaced all the wires inside of the potted motor) and now it runs beautifully and never gets warm or tires down. I also switched the foot controller for a newer electronic one so it doesn't get warm when I go slow (and its easier for me to control the speed, i had trouble working with the button on the original one).
See if you can either refurbish it yourself, or if you don't have the necessary supplies (like a soldering iron and all that) take it to a sewing machine shop and get it rewired. Also, if you know how to replace the wires but aren't sure about the motor you can always buy a new one. It is easy to find new motors for sewing machines like yours (not so much with potted motors). I bought a new motor for my mother's singer 66-16 off of ebay and as long as you make sure its a universal motor, running counterclockwise (clockwise is for sergers) and has the same voltage and amps as the one you already have it will work fine.
Another thing, there are two kinds of zig zag attachments that you can add onto featherweights to make them zig zag. One is an older adjustable one which only does different lengths of zig zag (part number 160620) and there is a slightly newer one (but still vintage) that has different cams you put in the top to do different zig zags and decorative stitches). They both attach in the same way as the buttonhole attachment. The part numbers for the zig zag attachment with cams that will fit on your featherweight are 160985 (from 1954), 161102 (from 1956), and 161157 (from 1957). I bought the older style of zig zag attachment at an antique store for $3 and a newer one plus cams for about the same on ebay.
Posted by: Natalie | September 21, 2009 at 12:41 PM