Sunday, January 3, 2010

Introducing Betsy

I just realised I never formally introduced Betsy, my amazing Singer 15K.  We bought Betsy at the auction house for £20 and she was guaranteed to work.  She came with her sewing manual, a bunch of foot attachments and some oil.  We had to first change her plug since it was from the old UK plugs that didn't work in current sockets.  We also had to change her light bulb since the old one was burnt out.  Then we held our breath as we plugged her in and lo and behold, she still worked!  Like a dream!


We then found the sewing table at the same auction house about 2 weeks later, again for £20.  We think the table is from the 1930's.  It had a machine already in it that was horribly rusted and broken.  The beauty about singer sewing machines is that the based of all their sewing machines (no matter what decade) are made the same.  So any singer sewing machine would fit into this table.  So, we tried Betsy out and she fit!  The old machine in the table was a foot pedal machine and Betsy is electric but it worked out fine.

It's also great because the sewing machine can fold down and you can close the table.  Which is good since I don't have a separate sewing room but do all my sewing in the living room.  So, it's nice when company comes over to close the machine and have a nice side table!


And here is a picture of the table closed:

 

Betsy has an amazing plate on the side of her that is so ornate:


Here's another picture with the sewing light on:


Of course, Betsy has her quirks too.  There's no special stitches on Betsy (just the straight stitch) unless you use separate foot attachments.  There's no back stitching unless you turn your material around.  And she doesn't have the dial that tells the length of the stitches on the front.  So, I just guess and practice with a scrap of remnant material.  She doesn't have a tension dial.  Again, we use trial and error here.  Also, there is no length guide on the sewing plate (though I think I could easily remedy this by buying a new sewing plate).  But overall, I've found that I haven't really needed all of those things. 

I do have a buttonholer attachment from the 1970's that works on Betsy just fine.

She's a beauty and I love her!  Every time I sit down to sew I imagine all the women in the 30', 40's and 50's doing the same thing on a similar machine.
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3 comments

  1. Wow, it's a beautiful sewing machine - and table - and I'm super-impressed that you sew on a straight stitch only machine! My 2:nd machine (well, first in chronological order) from the 1970's suddenly seems very new and advanced!
    Btw, I don't think I ever thanked you for the tip of the twisted dress on Ebay, it was gorgeous, and interesting to see, thank you!

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  2. Thanks Karin! Yup...it's a great machine and I love it!!!

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  3. I'm interested to see if Betsy made it to 2013 :)

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I read each and every comment--thank you so much!

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