Singer Stocking Darner - yes, it is really useful!

So this is one of those odd vintage Singer gadgets you come across which seem rather outdated - I mean who darns socks anymore?  Socks are cheap, you just buy new ones.

Well since I collect Singer doo-dads for fun, I happened to have one of these in my collection.  I didn't ever plan to darn a sock with it, but hey - you never know!  My daughter-in-law gave me these really cute socks that I took with me on a recent trip to France.  I wore these day in and day out for two months (yes, I washed them out in the sink each night!) until I wore a hole in the toe.  Normally, I'd just throw away socks with a hole, but I really liked these and wanted to mend them.

Oh yeah - I have a Singer Stocking Darner!  

I forgot to take a picture before I mended them, but you can see with the "French" theme why like these socks. 

Here is the hole, with the sock on the darner.  It is a little convoluted to get it on there, but you stretch it over the frame, hold it in place with a spring, and roll the rest of the sock down and hold it out of the way with the clips.

Then you darn the sock on the machine with a free-motion stitch.  With my Singer 401, it is easy to just lift the throat plate to by-pass the feed dogs (other machines use a feed dog drop or a cover plate for darning.)  Set the stitch length to 0.

You have to remove the presser foot for this to work because even with a free motion foot it will hit the edges of the frame and impede your movement.  But remember you still have to "lower" the presser foot lever for it to work.


Then you start darning, by moving the work back and forth under the needle several times, then turning 90 degrees and going back and forth across it the other way.

I know it's hard to see black on black, but the hole is darned and this was so easy and so worth it to save my favorite pair of socks.

Right at the top of the big toe is where the darn is, you can hardly see it.  The lost art of Sock Darning.  Cool, huh?