In January, we found a Featherweight 222 in an Antique mall, on the way to visit my aunt.  This is the followup to the find, and photos of the lovely lady.

Eliza is ready for her close up.  When we were in Calgary, visiting my aunt in January, we learned that her serial number allocation date (as close as we can come to a birthdate on a Singer sewing machine) is February 26, 1957. On my aunt’s 3rd birthday.  Because of that, we’re naming her Eliza.  My aunt’s name is Liz, or Elizabeth.

She hasn’t been fully polished yet, but she’s completely returned to full working order and cleaned up.  When we picked her up, she didn’t turn smoothly, someone had been into the bobbin area, and the dreaded “finger” was misplaced. There was also more movement in the hook area than there should have been. Lastly, the bobbin case was reassembled incorrectly, so the bobbin didn’t fit into it.  She also had a little rust in weird places, on the chrome, a few of the screws, the bobbin case and the bobbin winder. We replaced the bobbin winder, and the rest had the rust removed from it, and a good oiling to discourage the rust returning.

Her body however is virtually perfect. Goddess-like one could say.

Any marks you see are either fingerprints from the liberal and incorrect oiling she had before we met, or just plain dirty. She will sparkle. I know it.

Since some people asked, her adoption fee? Including sales tax: $310. I was literally shaking when we paid for her. I felt a little like I’d just gotten away with robbing a bank! I was so giddy, but still a little shocked that I’d spent that on a machine, but I have a 222! I spent the rest of the way to Calgary composing the post I posted to the Quilting Board and later edited and posted here. We arrived at my aunt’s house within minutes of me hitting post. I do admit it though… I may have done the “toddler dance” at least once, after we’d left the store and they couldn’t call us back and say we’d made a mistake.

The whole time I was in the antique mall, and before I found her,  I kept turning around, looking for something in the corner of my eye, like I was missing something important. Perhaps she hadn’t raised her voice yet to tell me she was waiting for me before I spotted her, only the softest whispers.

So, without further adieu…. I give you the lady Eliza:

I spent the evening after we returned from Calgary resolving all of her little issues. She turns beautifully now and sews a lovely stitch, just like I knew she could. I changed the belt. It was the hook that was turning too much, so her timing was off. (when I “tested” her at the shop, I removed the needle and let her try to run. I figured if there was a timing problem, I didn’t need to slam the needle into anything, and knew I could deal with timing if need be. I’d already seen the finger was out of place. I was so not going to pass her up over a “service” issue.) I fixed that. Disassembled her bobbin case and cleaned it up and reassembled and it works now. Adjusted the tensions top and bottom. She’s had her 5 feet changed.  Greased her motor and gears, gave her tons of oil. (I wouldn’t normally do that, but she was turning pretty poorly) Then I ran her full out for a couple of minutes, and fine tuned everything and test sewed. All in all, she needed less than $2 in parts because of what I already had here stocked.

Ryan said even if this machine was missing the bobbin case, we would have brought it home anyway. It would just have made her a $350 machine instead. He’s a keeper.

Now that she’s up and running, even still grungy, I love love love her! (even more) She sounds somehow different than the 221s I have, and just purrs.

Here are her photos (with a big finger print on her arm, sorry) . I polished her up with Carnuba wax like Dave McCallum suggests, but I’m just not happy with the shine. I know she can do better, so it looks like I will have to do the polishing compound procedure on her, but that just scares the beans out of me, so it’ll take some time for me to work up the nerve.

She’s clean and working really well. I’m a little paranoid though that her timing may be 100% wrong (per this blog post on DM’s site: http://www.featherweight221.com/fwrx…90945681635231 ) but she sews, and I guess other than comparing her to a 221, I have to assume it’s OK. We didn’t change her timing much, only “squared it up” and tightened the set screws that were loose when she came home.

Had an email chat with Glenn Williams about the case. I ordered keys for her, as well as a couple other things I need for the FW herd, and we determined that the case is a bit of a mystery. It should have British locks, but it has the American version of the FW locks. I’m not sure if they were changed, or what, but it’s definitely a 222 case. the general consensus is that it’s actually an original 221 case.  Perhaps the original case was destroyed, and this was “all” they could find.

He also had the Embroidery hoop and darning foot that she’s missing, so I ordered it all at the same time. Boy that was an ugly credit card statement that month. The important part though is she’s home, healthy, happy and being used.  Her parts have arrived and the only thing she’s now missing is a hard copy of the owner’s manual, but I doubt she’ll ever get one, unless I trip over it.   They go for more than $100 on ebay!!  I’ll just keep an electronic copy available, and use her enough to know how to work all of her features instead. 🙂

This also marks the debut of my first quilted project on Archaic Arcane.  This was my first attempt at FMQ, and it’s a pattern I designed myself.  It’s a little big on her, and I truly hope she never grows into it. 🙂