A Well-Oiled Machine

Instructions on oiling Singer Featherweight

Today instead of leaving the house to fight crowds on Boxing Day I stayed home with Mike and started the chenille blanket for baby.  I've been wanting to make it since I finished the blue butterfly chenille blanket for Grace and now that I'm done reupholstering the nursing chair I have time for a new project! 

However after about two or three hours of constant sewing I really started to notice how the Singer was rattling.  I knew that it was in desperate need of oiling but it's not something I enjoy doing since it involves a taking apart sections of the machine and trying to squeeze oil or grease into various tight spaces.  Fortunately Mike offered to oil it for me so I happily hovered around and snapped photos.

My little sewing station

The whole process took about 30 minutes and involved touching up over twenty spots on the machine and it really made a difference. It hummed much more smoothly once Mike was finished with it and now I can carry on with my sewing marathon without the guilty conscience! 

Oiling the base

Attachments

Zigzagger attachment

Mike and I picked up several special attachments for this machine and they all seem so cleverly designed. The Featherweight can only do a straight stitch, meaning the needle doesn't move side-to-side as is required for a zig-zag stitch. 


However I got my hands on a stapler-sized zig-zagger that actually clamps onto the fabric and shifts that side-to-side to create a zig-zag stitch. Now how cool is that?  There are different mechanical cams that produce various zig-zag patterns and you can switch them in and out.

Buttonholer attachment

The buttonholer  works much the same way as the zigzagger by clamping onto the fabric and using separate cams to create holes of different sizes. 





There are some other attachments specific to the Featherweight that look pretty crazy and I haven't even figured out what each one is used for yet! For now I've only tried out the zigzagger and buttonholer but am intrigued by the other ones.

Featherweight

Look at the charming little Featherweight that my husband's grandmother gave us after she no longer had much use for it! The machine was made in Scotland in 1958 and still runs beautifully. I've read up on how these machines have been made to last and I sure believe it.

The machine came with a neat black carrying case which holds the pedal nicely in place under the lid. We also have the original green-covered manual which comes in handy whenever we have to oil the machine (apparently in about 30 places!). It's really convenient to have a sewing machine down at the condo now and I will make it my goal to put it to use regularly.