I want to see pictures of your sewing machines.

[nickelhasababy]

Would you be so kind as to show me please?

How long have you had it, and what's its story?

here's mine
it's a 1960s (1969, i think) Jones.
it belonged to my mum,she got it for her 21st birthday.
She passed it to me when she got fed up with sewing (in 1999, so I was 23)
It's got a replacement pedal, but i don't think anything else has been replaced (apart from bits and bobs).
i think the tension is knackered, but that might be from moving it around too much.
She used to use it on an old wooden ironing board, which now belongs to me (but i don't sew on it)

You clever lady. I didn't manage to make my own babies, but have 3 wonderful girls.

this is mine. I had been bidding on lots of that machine on ebay all going up to about £80 which was more than I could afford. You can imagine my ecstasy when I won this won for £31 - the seller was on my route home from work !

I have just come home from a "Get the Most out of your Machine" workshop and cannot wait for DD to go to bed tonight so I can get cracking. I have learnt all sorts - sewing on buttons without a button foot, embroidery circles with a drawing pin (which will look ace on my christmas gifting preserves), buttonholes and how to completely strip the machine down and give it a mini-service

It's my new lover

one of the ladies at the workshop had a 1970s fristar and rossman - the genius of a teacher could get it to do everything our newer machines did

good find Nigel! :)

i like the idea of that workshop - the only thing i can't do is service

Aguninmypetticoat - snap! We have the same fantastic machine!

Mine is a beautiful Bernina 807, I think it's about 40 or 50 years old (older than me :o) like this one. It has its little foibles but most of the time we get on well!

I upgraded it from a Bernina 701 which was even older, but very slow in comparison. Sold that on ebay for most of the cost of the 807 which I'd spotted in a local 2nd hand sewing machine shop.

Thanks for those who suggested there may be life in the old dog yet. DH (who is generally pretty handy at most things) couldn't fathom it out and the local place said £45 to take a look which made me think that buying a cheapie but new one with lots of whizzy features that mine doesn't have, might be the best way forward, but maybe not from reading this thread.

Nickel, gorgeous baby and fab costume.

Nigel, sounds like you got the bargain of the year there.

Molehillmountain wonderful thing, isn't she?

I inherited mine from my grandmother but sold my other one when I realised just how strong this machine was. And how beautifully regular the stitching.

Certainly are . Mum has offered me her 'new' machine but I reckon something that has done thirty eight years service will do for me. And I love the red case. Don't want to hurt its feelings! Plus, I learnt to sew (not that I'm a great seamstress!) on it and used to play with the little bits and pieces (like the oil bottle ) when I was little. Heck-its an heirloom. Don't tell the Bernina but I do have an over locker too but that's just a machine. I'm very fickle with knitting equipment in comparison-I do have my first needles but I love shiny new things and bags.

Certainly is, sorry.

OhDearNigel, just spotted the thing about sewing circles using a drawing pin - if you ever manage to tear yourself away from using your machine for your new found skills, please come and tell us how to do it. I did look on youtube and couldn't see anything

Oh Dear - where did you go and do your course?
I'd love to do something like that

Me too

The course I went to is at the Owl and the Sewing Cat, situated behind the Grand Hotel, Eastbourne.

The tutor said that sewing machines are feats of precision engineering and if your machine is not performing it's not the machine - you are doing something wrong. She went through how all sorts of minor faults (wrong sized bobbins, wrong gauge needles, slightly bent needles, pressure set wrong etc) can affect the performance of the machine and how to rectify them. We spent the whole morning going over technical bits of the machine and the afternoon learning how to use all the different feet, how altering tension affects the stitches. It's £38 and a very worthwhile investment.

I would say that it would be well worth a two hour journey - it starts at 10 and finishes at 4. You take your own machine and she shows you every single bit of it and adapts instructions to suit your individual machine. The oldest machine she has had in the class was a 50 year old singer and she got the owner working it perfectly

They are on facebook and my rave review is one of the latest posts (Fiona Tritton)

My favourite one is exactly the same as yours :) - I have another more modern one, but don't like it at all & will save it for DD when she's a bit older

I also have overlockers - one old Bernina that needs sorting out, has been a real workhorse for 30 odd years & I'm now using a Janome, which is surprisingly good for a modern one

I have sewing machine porn on my pinterest - I do LOVE the really old style ones, they are works of art :)

Lattelady thats the same machine I learnt to sew on too, I was 7 & it was my Grandmothers & it was passed to me - I really regret letting it go many years back years pre DCs - I tried everywhere to find a working one for DD last Xmas & had to give up in favour of a 3/4 size crappy electric one - DD loves it though, but I'm sure she would have loved one like yours better :)

Tory - it's worth a go.
My last service was £45 too, and i got a new belt for the motor, new pads for the cotton, and a new tension button thing included in the price.

Nigel - it's so true!
the number of times, the stitches have been very odd and it's because the thread's wrapped round something twice.
or the wrong bobbin! my mum bought a whole new set of bobbins - they looked exactly the same as the old ones (without the rust!), but after she fitted one, the machine went haywire - looping all over the place! she put an old bobbin in to test and it ran like a dream.
I bought a new bobbin holder (the big thing that it clips into, the bit that turns round and loops, not the bobbin case) and it took ages for it to work properly over the last one (the old one had taken a knock and was dented.) my mum used to file it with very fine glasspaper every time the machine was serviced "to put it right again"

Oo, thats all very interesting, I was thinking of putting mine in for a service, as theres a few things going wrong ATM - something not right with the bobbin winder seems to have set off a bit of a chain of minor faults, I expected it to cost more than that & thought buying an old reconditioned might be a cheaper option - going to get it serviced now :)

always worth servicing rather than new one :)

I have an Elna Air Electronic sewing.patternreview.com/SewingMachine/Review/1/2204 it's the same as my Mum's, which I learnt on, and sews like a dream. I got it off ebay old swiss steel you can't beat it.

I am getting myself a shiny new babylock overlocker this week though!

I'm surprised at how many people own overlockers!

I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my sewing. I love a beautiful seam finish such as a French seam, so the whole overlocking thing just hasn't really got much appeal to me.

Not really AGun I'm also a perfectionist, but use my over locker where it makes more sense & depending on the quality needed - jersey for example is far better overlocked & theres a plenty of fabrics that don't do well with a hand rolled hem, but superlock like a dream :)