My trusty Singer & a Mystery case

My trusty Singer and the Mystery Case

I've mentioned my old singer on here before. I bought it with birthday money from my parents for my 21st birthday and used it non stop until I went back to work right around the time my son turned 2 (he'll be 21 in June) In that first year and a half I made a really incredible polar fleece snow suit with a quilted liner and double zippers (wish I had pictures), some layettes and a precious moments quilt for my god daughter (that was an utter mess), and tons of light weight summer overalls for my son. I loved that machine!

Mystery case hint

After returning to work my trusty singer never came out of the box again. It followed me through a move a year later to a house around the corner from my parents, 2 more children, a divorce, going back to school along with a new career, a new relationship (that would be Chris), and even survived a nasty basement flood. In all those years never did I think to throw it away or put it out in any of our numerous garage sales. Since moving into our forever home 10 years ago, it sat tucked away by the furnace. Writing this I think about what else has been with me as long and I have to say the list is short. Other than my children, a few key pieces of furniture, a few childhood friends (Curious George and Digger) and our family photos, my life has been somewhat disposable.... but I digress.

More hints from the Mystery case

Since I started this quilty journey we moved the box closer to my sewing area and every now and then we'd discuss getting it fixed. The past few weeks Chris started looking around at pricing and sad to say we found we could buy a replacement machine of the same year for less than the work it needed. Now Chris is a pretty handy guy, and have I mentioned he works on huge printing machines with lots of little moving parts for a living. What did we have to lose?

Chris spent Tuesday afternoon taking apart my singer and proceeded to completely clean, oil, check every part and even fixed my broken presser foot lift. Right after work I tested it out and have had a hard time leaving it alone since. I'm shocked by the difference. I remember why I loved this machine. Sews straight as an arrow (even though I forgot to change the needle - I'm horrified to say that needle is at least 19 years old), feeds like a dream no matter the thickness, no fuss - no muss. Its a bit noisier than my one year old brother but it feels sturdy. When Chris asked how it was working the only way I could describe it was it felt like butter putting the fabric through. So my $400 Singer from 92 with a simple dial of 18 stitches vs my 2013 computerized $400 brother with 67 stitches, there is just no comparison - the singer wins hands down. This will be my primary machine going forward.

Now to the Mystery Case: Chris was given this old sewing machine case years ago (before we met) along with an electric organ after his grandma Betty died. Like my Singer it survived moves, garage sales, floods, and even a fire during the time he had it. Unfortunately, the case does show the wounds of it's experiences. So here's where the mystery comes in - there was no key to unlock it. While he knew it was an older sewing machine, he had no clue what year or model it was, what shape it was in or even if it was fully intact. We always assumed it would be from the 50's. Inspired after fixing my Singer, he went looking on-line & found an easy way to break into the box without breaking it .... who knew all he needed was a 3mm flat head screw driver. Take a look at what we had:

1924 Singer 128 -13

This is definitely not what we were expecting!! All the important parts are there and considering it was obviously very well loved and used for many years before it was stored for 20 odd years, all the parts are free moving and rust free. The foot pedal is not original but from a 50's featherweight. The serial number of the machine is still very visible even though a bit tarnished & using that we were able to look it up to discover the year and model, with the information on the motor pinpoint it to the 13.

Other than the bobbin, shuttle and a few needles, the side box contained buttons. The light needs some work, looks like it melted at some point, but my dad is an electrician (or was until he retired 10 years ago) and looking at it won't be an issue for him. We aren't too concerned with what it's missing, a quick search on eBay tells us we can get what we need. We can't do anything about those worn decals, but we're going to give her some TLC and make her shine.

While the resale value we figure is under $50, the personal value is priceless! She is a 90 yr old beauty!