Favorite Things: My Featherweight Sewing Machine

It was my grandmother's, and then my mother's, and now it's mine. I still use it for buttonholes. Nothing makes more professional looking buttonholes than a Singer Featherweight sewing machine with a Singer buttonhole attachment. Nothing makes a nicer straight stitch, either (unless its a Singer treadle sewing machine), so if I'm doing something that only requires a straight stitch, like sewing quilt pieces together, I may use this little machine for that, too.

The buttonholer and case was found at a garage sale for fifty cents. I used to have one of those more modern plasticky ones, but I ditched it when I found this better, older metal one.

The copper oilcan, too, has the Singer logo stamped across it, but you can barely see it in the photo unless you click for the larger view. It's a garage sale find as well--for a dollar, I think.

And the Better Homes and Gardens Sewing Book? That's a teaser for another time, when I can scan some of the pages, like the one showing you how to key your accessories to your suit color.

Update for all those who love featherweights, too: Featherweight Fanatics Home Page and Featherweight Facts and Myths.

If you want one, you can buy one here. We found one for my daughter at a garage sale for $8.50, and when we took it in to the sewing machine repairman to have it cleaned, he tried to buy it from us. Now I see why.

Bonus link: All about featherweight accessories, like buttonholers.

Update 2: Kim in Il shows us her old Singer, and points us to the place where we can look up our old Singers by serial number. Mine's from 1951, and was manufactured in Elizabethport, NJ. (I wonder if that's close to Elizabethtown, where David Brainerd's always travelling?)

Kim's is older than that, but I'm not telling how much older. Go see for yourself.

Tags: Singer, sewing machines, Singer featherweight sewing machines, buttonholers, oilcans, garage sales