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I bought three, and they all arrived damaged. *I don’t recommend buying sewing machines on ebay. I have an electric sewing machine that’s only a few years old, but I hardly ever use it. I have been sewing with this sewing machine for years, and I love it. But we lost power several times this summer due to thunderstorms, and one of those times I noticed an article of clothing that needed mending sitting on my sewing machine and I took care of it, just for the novelty of sewing when the power was off. I’m usually thinking about how I can keep the food from spoiling, and where the heck did I leave the flashlight. Which seemed kind of silly, since I’m not usually thinking about sewing when the power is out. When I’ve told people about this sewing machine, they’ve commented that I could sew when the power is out. I re-wired the light directly to a cord and re-attached it on the back of the sewing machine.The thread holder is a section of a knitting needle that I glued in place with a huge glob of hot melt glue underneath, since the original thread holder had broken off.I got tired of making the conversions, so I made a new label for the stitch lengths.
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I keep meaning to replace that particleboard with something prettier, but it works just fine, and I’m more into function than form, so it’s never made it to the top of my priority list. I cut out a hole in a scavenged particleboard desk top and attached it to a treadle base I bought at a garage sale. I didn’t have a cabinet the sewing machine would fit in, but apparently they fit right into a Singer 66 cabinet. Janome now makes a modern sewing machine to be put in a treadle base, too.
#Minnesota treadle sewing machine in cabinet series
There are a few other Singer 200 and 300 series zig-zag models that also can be used with a treadle. I found a Singer Fashion Mate 252 from the early 1970’s, in (not so) lovely shades of green. I searched ebay* until I found a zig-zag sewing machine with a handwheel that stuck out over the edge of the sewing machine base. After sewing on this for a few years, I really started to miss sewing on a treadle sewing machine, but I didn’t want to give up that nifty zig-zag stitch, so I decided to try to make a zig-zag treadle sewing machine.
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I thought our neighbor’s electric zig-zag sewing machine was super cool, so as a teenager I saved up my babysitting earnings and bought myself an electric zig-zag machine. I learned to sew on my mother’s treadle sewing machine when I was about seven years old.