The Sewing Place

What was your very first sewing machine ?

Sewbee

What was your very first sewing machine ?
« on: September 03, 2017, 10:26:57 AM »
I've been trying to find a photo of my very first sewing machine. My mother bought it for me some time around 1970. It was a Singer Merritt 187. (I am guessing about the 187 part but it's the closest I can find that has the knobs in the right place, only I could have sworn mine had a plastic base and not wood). Scroll down a bit and you will see the 187.

http://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/gallery_machines/

How I'd love to find one of these again! It was a wonderful machine and I sewed up a storm!

What was your first machine?

Ellabella

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2017, 10:36:53 AM »
Apart from Mums vintage treadle, which ended up at a Boy Scouts jumble sale :angry: I had a very simple Singer, don't know which model but it was bought about 1964 and is still going strong with another family member.



Lowena

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2017, 10:38:08 AM »
Singer Starlight, bought in 1973 when I was having my first baby. Hardly ever used it  :|
Triumph of hope over experience :D

Vegegrow

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2017, 11:11:28 AM »
Singer ..and looking at Sewbee's picture a 502? ... we lived in a pub and my sister and I worked in the restaurant to earn money we both saved up for machines .. Mines in the attic  :ninja:
"The only place where housework comes before needlework is in the dictionary." ~Mary Kurtz

wrenkins

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2017, 11:32:32 AM »
Mine's the 257 and still going strong although I treated myself to one that goes "peep" earlier this year.  :vintage: 
Harbouring resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die!

Efemera

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2017, 13:11:52 PM »
A Singer 66k treadle, it was my Grandmothers, then my Mothers then mine. The first one I bought for myself was a Singer Touch and Sew, around 1973 I think.

Roger

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2017, 13:19:07 PM »
I bought a nameless singer from a friend, I think it was a late 70s early 80s model I used it a few times for making costume before I went to uni then my step father offered to service it, it was never the same after... and then I accidentally left it at an exs house when I moved out.

Moving on to recent times... my first machine was my 500a... a lucky spot on gumtree by Arrow
A bit of a vintage sewing machine nut! Singers: 500a, 401g, 48k Elnas: lotus SP & grasshopper, Bernina 530-2 F+R 504, Pfaff 30, Cresta T-132

Kad

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2017, 13:37:05 PM »
The first machine that was mine, just mine, was a 21st birthday present  and was a Frister Rossmann Cub 4. I think that my sister got it when nearly 20 years later I had my first Janome, an MC8000, in about 1998. I've only had Janome machines.
'Jill' of many aspects of sewing, "Mistress" of few.

arrow

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2017, 14:21:35 PM »
Years a go I was given an old 99K from my great aunt. It worked fine at the time, and I was totally facinated by it, it's from 1934 and I had never seen those black machines before. I didin't sew much but I did run it and did a few small jobs with it. When I almost a decade later took it out and plugged it in, it blew up a fuse. I was told to throw it out, old electrics aren't safe, and all that (which is true enough un til it is sorted out) but I ended up taking it to a repair shop and had it rewired. I have never regretted it. It has done all kinds of repairs and smaller projects since. Periodically it is set up as a buttonholer, and it still gets used now and then.  These days I mostly use a 201, it's a bit larger and it's in a table and it makes it very easy to work on it.

I have always had access to newer machines, zigzaggers and computerised, but they have not been mine.

Ploshkin

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2017, 15:03:46 PM »
I had a Husqvarna Viking 3600, just out, for my 18th birthday (white, not orange).  It was lived and used to death for 20 years but the plastic cams were it's downfall.  If I could have foreseen the arrival of the internet I would have hung on to it as 2nd hand parts can be got now.  Instead I have acquired 2, each with a different fault in the hope of getting one that works.  I really must get round to having a go one day.
Life's too short for ironing.

Tamnymore

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #10 on: September 03, 2017, 15:41:26 PM »
As a teenager I used my gran's old treadle Singer, then when I was a student there was a treadle Singer in my student house which I used. This machine was fancier than my Gran's as it had gold sphinxes on it.

My first own machine was a Jones 461 which my mother got me from John Lewis for my 21st birthday. John Lewis was still a bit of a novelty in Edinburgh in those days and she spent a lot of time trying to find it cheaper than the JL price of £99  ( a lot of money in the mid 1970s) so it arrived some weeks after my birthday and she never did find it cheaper. It was a wonderful machine with zig zag and lots of fancy stitches (rarely used) and a 4 step buttonhole stitch. It required very little attention. I made my wedding dress, clothes, curtains, children's clothes and fancy dress for many years. It seized up a few years ago but has since been repaired and restored to its former glory. I would never part with it.
'One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.' Oscar Wilde

Bodgeitandscarper

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #11 on: September 03, 2017, 16:06:11 PM »
Mine was my Grandma's, then Mum's, (bought by Grandma as second hand machine I'm told) Singer 28k, I still have it. 
I think I did occasionally borrow my mother's electric Singer (no idea what, 70s or 80s model I think, possibly followed by another 90s Singer), then the first machine I bought (in the late 80s I think) was my Elna 3003, which I have only just replaced with a Pfaff Expression 4.2.

arrow

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #12 on: September 03, 2017, 16:49:40 PM »
...How I'd love to find one of these again! It was a wonderful machine and I sewed up a storm!...

I found this on ebay right away, so I guess they are common enough not to be a problem. It can take a bit of time before they turn up locally, but keep an eye out and visit charity stores, ebay and gumtree. Don't hesitate to chose one in a suite case and wooden base, since  plastic is more prone to crack. Do you remember if it was gear driven, with rods and hinges, or did it have a belt under the base? There's very little info on the 187, I guess it's not the most common model. 

Sewbee

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #13 on: September 03, 2017, 17:07:54 PM »
I believe it had a belt underneath. Pretty sure it was the 187 but some look very similar. What takes me back to the 187 though is that little knob on the base in the bottom righ, plus it has the same controls in the same place. Not all Merritt have that little knob in the bottom right. If I remember correctly it was to drop the feed dog.

Imagine finding one on eBay. Wow!!! It's the same colour, too! Shame it is collection only. Could be it would cost an arm and a leg for my dealer to bring it up to speed, if he would even do it. Parts might be obsolete.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2017, 17:12:12 PM by Sewbee »

Sewbee

Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
« Reply #14 on: September 03, 2017, 17:14:40 PM »
A Singer 66k treadle, it was my Grandmothers, then my Mothers then mine. The first one I bought for myself was a Singer Touch and Sew, around 1973 I think.

My grandmother taught me to sew and she herself had an old treadle machine from around 1926. She knew how to maintain it, too. She sewed me many clothes when I was a child on that machine.

As I got older, she let me try it. It's really different operating a treadle but in the end I loved the rhythm of it.