The Sewing Place

Machine Talk => Sewing Machines => Topic started by: Sewbee on September 03, 2017, 10:26:57 AM

Title: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Sewbee 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/ (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?
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Ellabella 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.


Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Lowena on September 03, 2017, 10:38:08 AM
Singer Starlight, bought in 1973 when I was having my first baby. Hardly ever used it  :|
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Vegegrow 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:
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: wrenkins 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: 
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Efemera 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.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Roger 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
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Kad 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.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: arrow 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.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Ploshkin 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.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Tamnymore 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.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Bodgeitandscarper 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.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: arrow 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 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Merritt-Sewing-Machine-Model-187-/152688075451?hash=item238ceb22bb:g:H2EAAOSwuWJZfZwa) 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. 
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Sewbee 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.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Sewbee 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.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: arrow on September 03, 2017, 17:23:48 PM
...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.

Parts will probably be the rubber timing belt under the base, motor belt and bobbin tyre, the rest would likely be cleaning and oiling; checking wires and plugs. You could do it your self to start with and it will not cost much at all. There are other models like the 237 stylist, it looks like it's all metal, rods and gears, and no timing belt.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Surest1tch on September 05, 2017, 11:25:34 AM
Mine was a Singer treadle machine my gran gave me and I loved it.  I can't remember the model but it didn't matter to me then, it sewed and that's all that mattered, until that is I came in from school one day and found my mum had sold it
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: KayK on September 05, 2017, 20:01:13 PM
Mine was a Singer 507 purchased from Lingard fabrics in Braintree around 1975 - I didn't like it very much!  It always seemed awkward and stiff.  I part exchanged it later for a Singer 514 - a few more widgets!  This one came in a table.  I even made my bridesmaids dresses and my own 'going away' outfit on it!  Blimey! how old fashioned is that!  I was really envious of my cousins Singer Starlet!!
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: b15erk on September 06, 2017, 09:04:16 AM
The machine I learnt to sew on was the old Singer Treadle my mum had, I don't know which model as I was very young.  At school we had a hand crank which we had to queue up to use - I made a pink seersucker petticoat, with fringing on the bottom.

The first machine I paid money for was a Singer 9612 (which I still have, though not used), although I'd had several other treadles passed over.

Back with the old black ladies now.  I seem to have gone full circle....

Jessie

Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Gernella on September 24, 2017, 09:44:05 AM
Well looking at that list I reckon mine was the 12K fiddle base, that my dad got me from his mother.  It had a funny spool, long and thin and was a bit temperamental but I suspect that was more me than it.  When I was 21 (1967) they bought me a new Brother with a zig zag stitch, which was magnificent in comparison.  I had that until 1991, when I stopped off to buy some thread and saw a Janome Memory Craft 7000 in action and bought it.  I think it cost around £650 but I had got a good bonus that year. 

That Singer kept me clothed and able to go out dancing, so I am eternally grateful for the money saved as a poor apprentice.  At the same time my older colleagues were buying a new dress every week, around £4.50ish at that time.
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: BrendaP on September 24, 2017, 11:18:44 AM
The first machine I used was a black hand crank Jones with a long shuttle.  My Dad decided that the most cost efficient way of acquiring a large tent for family camping holidays was to make one, and he did!  Yards and yards of heavy canvas were stitched together using linen thread on the machine which he bought for the purpose, a tiny bit of the stitching was done by me.  Dad also hand turned the heavy duty poles on his lathe in the shed and the finished product saw us through.  Alas I have no idea what happened to that machine.

The first machine that belonged to me was a hand crank Singer which was blue and had a lot of tension problems (it probably just needed proper cleaning and oiling!)  I replaced it with a new  Frister & Rossman electric machine with cams which drop in on top in 1973.  The old blue Singer was passed around a couple of family members but it too has disappeared.

The Frister & Rossman machine I know is now in my daughter's attic as it came out a few months ago for emergency/temporary use when the power supply to her garden workshop failed and she had to sew indoors.  She's used to the speed of an industrial and got quite frustrated with it!

Her first machine which she bought secondhand for £100 when she was 16 (she's 45 now) is the one she still uses every day!  It's a Singer industrial - I don't know the model, it's just straight and zig-zag, nothing fancy and I think it dates to about 1960ish.  She makes curtains professionally and says that that £100 was the best £100 buy ever.  It is now partnered with a modern Juki overlocker.

Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Ohsewsimple on September 24, 2017, 13:12:39 PM
I first used my mum,s treadle, which used to belong to my Nan.  My brother and I would sit and see how fast we could get it to go.  :o. Then she had a 'posh' electric Jones which I used to sew on. 
School sewing soon put paid to me wanting to sew again, till I saw an Elna Lotus being used in John Lewis when I was 17.   Mum and I were out shopping.....and I came out with that!   Cost me around £80.  I made just about everything you could think of on it.  And I was completely smitten. 
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: Stitches on September 24, 2017, 13:50:07 PM
I first used my Mums treadle when i was 5 that was her grandma's then we got a New Home one dont know which one. the one I got on my own was a husqarva 500 comptur one still have it
Title: Re: What was your very first sewing machine ?
Post by: SkoutSews on September 24, 2017, 15:44:38 PM
My mum had a Singer 401g and I learnt to sew on that, but it wasn't mine so it doesn't count! For my 21st I was given a Singer 163 Capri and sewed a lot of things on it over the years. Its good points were: all metal body and innards, very fast, traditional machine with straight, zigzag and stretch stitches. Bad points: horrible plastic insert around the free arm (why would they design it like that?), tension could be a bit iffy, no automatic buttonhole capability.
After its capacitor incident I bought a new Janome which took over as principal machine, then got the Singer fixed as back-up. When I bought my 'new' 401g, the Singer went on Gumtree and was sold to a lady who had learnt to sew on one exactly the same, which had belonged to her mother!