Back in 2001, my late mother-in-law was visiting and commented that she had a small black sewing machine that was going to waste and did I want it? My eyes lit up, of course, in the hope that it was a lovely little old Singer Featherweight. To make a long story short, indeed it was exactly that, a Featherweight from 1957! The poor little thing had been sitting in her garage in Arizona for over 30 years (at least) and had frozen up completely, but a trip to a tech soon resolved that problem. The machine was otherwise in outstanding condition, having hardly been used. I’ve kept that Featherweight since then, using it as my travel machine when I needed only a straight stitch.
Time passes, and my sewing room seems to shrink, rather than expand — strange how that works! At any rate, I’ve never had space to keep two machines set up, and now I have a third. That means that two machines were constantly packed away. Even worse, my comparatively smaller Bernina has become my travel machine, leaving the poor little Featherweight to languish. However, if you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you may know that my granddaughter is interested in doing a bit of quilting. What could be better than to keep the Featherweight in the family and give a little girl something so special?
Last week I packed it up with all of its bits and pieces, adding some extra notions to it for my granddaughter to use. Then we spent most of a day getting her acquainted with her new treasure and beginning a project on it. It’s going to take a long time for us to finish the project (a jelly roll quilt), since she still needs help and since my house, where we generally sew, will be undergoing some renovations, but we’ll get there.
In the photo on the left you can see that to the right of the standard box for every Featherweight is a rolling cooler that fits the box and some extras quite nicely. There are bobbins (since moved to a small box), thread snips, and all of the usual attachments in the box, as well as a little thread catcher (that purple/pink thing peeking out at the top) I’d made and kept in there. There’s a reproduction manual, a book all about the Featherweight, some scissors, a couple of spools of thread, a pin cushion and pins, and two smallish boxes with a buttonholer and zigzagger. Behind the machine is a cardboard box with a lovely wooden extension table that will come in handy when a larger flat space is needed. My granddaughter was delighted and showed her parents all of these pieces after going home — as well as explaining where the bobbin is and how to oil the machine! I’m thrilled, too, that it’s staying in the family. 🙂
