Vintage Attachments for Straight Stitch Singers

 

Back in the day, if you had a straight stitch machine like this 222 Featherweight, you had to install a clunky attachment which moved the fabric in various ways to accomplish the zigzag, buttonhole, blind stitch or decorative stitches.  

We don't have to use any of these today if we don't want to, but they are actually really fun to use, and are quite ingeniously designed. 

(All the attachments I'm showing are for low shank machines so would fit the Singer 66, 99, 15-91, 201, 221, and 222 among others.)

First up is not really a sewing attachment, but works with a sewing machine.  It is the Automatic Pinker (as opposed to a similar hand cranked version.) If you like to pink your yardage before washing it prior to sewing, this will accomplish it quickly and easily.  Theoretically you could use it to finish seams, although I'd probably run the raw edges through here before sewing the seams, to make it easier. 

Here's what I believe is the oldest of the Singer buttonholers (as far as I know, anyway.). It doesn't take cams like the later Singer Automatic Buttonholer, but with this attachment you can make adjustments for your length of buttonhole, stitch width, and width of the buttonhole opening. You can "fine tune" it to get just the size you want. 

The blind stitch attachment is really a game changer for hemming on a straight stitch machine. It makes perfect blind hems quickly and easily. 

 

This is a very early zigzagger, and doesn't do any fancy stitches.  But if you have a Featherweight, this fits right into your case, and is no bigger than a ruffler foot.

For more zigzag options, you have the Singer Automatic Zigzagger which does beautiful decorative stitches.  It is big and clunky, because it holds a large cam for the different stitch patterns.  

There are sixteen different stitch patterns in all, although only four came with the zigzagger and the others were sold separately in sets of four.

It's amazing what beautiful stitches you can make on a Featherweight with the Automatic Zigzagger.  

Singer 127 Treadle

 I decided to finally sit down and make an actual project with my Singer 127 treadle machine.  So I started with these quilted baskets.  There is a learning curve to using a treadle, and this project gave me lots of practice with handling the machine, what with piecing and quilting the fabric and constructing the baskets.

This is a machine I've rarely used because it is in my foyer rather than in my sewing room upstairs.  (I've never been able to convince anyone to carry it upstairs for me - and I don't have room there anyway.)

The Singer 127 differs from the 27 in a few ways: the bobbin winder is higher up and uses a rubber tire to run off the hand wheel.  It has a button to eject the bobbin case, and an automatic tension release.  It is the upgraded version of the 27. 

This machine has a "vibrating shuttle" with a bullet shaped bobbin case and a cylindrical bobbin. 

And winding the bobbin is very cool to see, if not a bit slow and clunky.  You have to pedal a LOT!

Starting the machine takes a little practice, you first have to spin the wheel toward you and immediately start pedaling.  If you don't time it just right, the wheel will sometimes spin backwards and mess you up.

It is kind of like when you drive a car with manual transmission where you have to let the clutch out and give it gas at the same time - not too much, not too little or it will stall out.  But with practice it gets to be second nature. 

There are some other challenges with this type of machine, but you figure out how to work around it.  The stitch length and tension knobs aren't calibrated, for example, so you just have to turn them until you find the sweet spot and there is no way to "save your place."  And there is no back tack, so you have to fasten off your seams in another way.  

I Started with piecing, which is straightforward and no back tack is necessary

Then did straight line quilting, which is also simple and straightforward and doesn't require back tacking

Sewing it all together was the last step, and by that point I was getting more used to the machine.  It handled well through the thick layers of fabric, batting and stabilizers.  I was able do more precise sewing to make the handles - I was getting proficient enough to turn corners while sewing and also to do topstitching.

Free Motion Quilting on 301

I don't quilt a lot, and would rather make smaller projects when I do.  So yes, I subscribed to Mrs. Quilty which I know isn't something "real" quilters would do.   But it works for me, because I get an assortment of fat quarters and a few patterns for small projects in each box and it's fun.  

From box #4 was this woodland print collection and the pattern for this runner (although I changed it up a bit.). 

FMQ has always been a challenge for me, but I keep trying.  I don't have a long arm or quilting frame for the small amount of quilting I do, so I use my regular machines.

Of all my machines, the best for FMQ is the 301.  The feed dogs drop, it has a vertical bobbin (which I think is best for this kind of work) and it sews fast and smooth. That doesn't mean it's easy, though, mostly because I lack any kind of drawing skills whatsoever which includes "drawing" with a sewing machine.

The piecing and binding I did on my Featherweight 222.  So easy to get a tight, perfect straight stitch with this machine. 

Tracing a branch of the Family Tree - Mid-Century Singers from Featherweight to Touch & Sew

Featherweight --> Touch & Sew

Here is an interesting evolutionary path of one branch of Singer sewing machines. It might be fun to follow along and see the common threads that connected them (no pun intended!) 

Everyone knows the 221/222 Featherweights which debuted in the 1930s, reaching peak popularity in the 1950s.

Besides the portable size, these machines had a few features that elevated them from the earlier Singer models - they had an aluminum body, a flip up extension bed, and a vertical Class 221 bobbin with a full rotary hook. This made them lightweight, compact, and smooth sewing…in that order. Then ran on an external motor and belt.

Then a new model hit the scene in the 1950s, which incorporated some of these features but then added an important new one. This was the 301 - a full size portable machine, with an aluminum body, Class 221 bobbin/rotary hook, and a flip up extension bed like the 221.  But what made it stand apart was the revolutionary new “slant needle” design.  And it had a direct drive, no belt. Yes, this is the first of a long line of slant shank machines, it all started with this one.

Singer 301

The slant shank is proprietary to Singer and was intended to give better visibility as you’re sewing.  It proved to be so popular that Singer then launched a line of “Slant-O-Matics” with the flagship machine being the 401. (There are some other variations in 400 SOM series, but I’ll focus on this one.)  Now, however, they went to a Class 66 horizontal drop-in bobbin, but it was still a full rotary hook because this was the TOL series of the day.

Singer 401 

But Singer couldn't leave well enough alone, and thus began the gradual decline towards what we know today as the "Touch & Sew."  It all began with the changes to the bobbin winder system. First, they launched a new generation of Slant-O-Matics, which were the 500 machines (known as the Rocketeers - 500/503.). They added some styling features which reflected the mid-century "space age" aesthetic, and then attempted to improve the design with a bobbin winder located on top of the machine and hidden under a hinged lid which also served as a cam cover.  Without going into detail, suffice it to say that this was NOT an improvement for a number of reasons.  The machine looks cool, but suffers from a case of "Function Follows Form" when it should be the other way around. 

Singer 503

Which brings us to the 600 series in this line.  Like the 301, which bridged the low shank straight stitchers and the slant shank zigzaggers*, the 600 was a pivotal model. It is both the LAST Slant-O-Matic and the FIRST Touch & Sew which makes it rather unique.

Singer 600e Touch & Sew on left/Singer 600 Slant-O-Matic on right 

Again, the main change was with the bobbin winder - Singer was DETERMINED to hide that bobbin winder!  And now they had an entirely new concept: the "wind in place" bobbin. To this day the bobbin winder gets mixed reviews because it works GREAT until it doesn't. (This machine also did chain stitching, a feature already available on some of the German 400 models.)

While the 600 was called a Slant-O-Matic, the 600e (which had one slight change in where the button was located for the bobbin winder) was rebranded as a Touch & Sew - and thus launched a new line for Singer in the early-mid 1960s.

And here is where this particular branch of the Singer family tree began to devolve. While the 600/e was mechanically identical to the 401 - a well built machine with all metal gears and direct drive - it wasn't long after this that those steel gears were replaced with nylon.  Cheaper, lighter, and theoretically "smoother," but not nearly as durable.  Once the 700 generation of these machines was introduced, the Touch & Sew that people love to hate was born.  These are the machines with the bad reputation and the ones which give a bad name to ALL of them. 

Singer 750 

This is what those gears look like today - even on the most well-maintained machines - and this is why most VSM enthusiasts shun the Touch & Sews. 

*An oddball machine was the Singer 404 which was a Slant-O-Matic straight stitcher (also the 604 which was the Touch & Sew straight stitcher.). Neither of these could match the ORIGINAL slant shank straight stitcher which was the 301. 

Mamma Mia! Costumes

Donna and the Dynamos

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