About 4 or 5 years ago – maybe longer? Mike bought me a singer featherweight 221 off of ebay. It is not in pristine condition as there is chipped paint in areas but other than that it is pretty good. Of course with my lack of talent in the sewing machine area of quilting I managed to have to bring this little beauty in to get it fixed 3 times after I received it. Why you may ask — because like usual I had trouble with the tension!! Me and sewing machines – that is always the problem or so I thought 
After the 3rd time of bringing this sewing machine in to get it fixed only to have it fail on me once again a short while later – I put it away on a shelf in the sewing room for a decoration with the intent to one day get it fixed.
My Singer Featherweight 221 (made in 1953)
A quilter friend (Natalie of the binding demonstration) sometime back told me of a local lady that fixes these little beauty’s and I intended to ask her to have a go at it and of course first I got busy doing something else and forgot about it because I had a sewing machine that worked. Then I lost her phone number and didn’t know her last name. Finally when I went to the sewing group last Thursday night there she was – I didn’t need her phone number I could talk to her about it – which I did. I arranged to bring my machine to her and she would work her magic on it. (and now I have her phone number in case I need it again!)
Well I am embarrassed to say (ok not embarrassed I’m telling all of you!) that through a combination of errors on my part with this little machine I was causing the problems evidently. Beatrice could find nothing wrong with the machine and the stitch was perfect for her!! I was amazed. I had tried to use it so many times and every time I screwed it up and the tension was horrible.
Well you might have guessed it by now – I was not threading the machine properly in the area behind the needle tension knob, I was not always turning the balance wheel in the right direction, and I was not always putting the thread in the bobbin angled slot correctly. Between all of these – not always mistaken at the same time – my machine rarely stayed working for long.
I guess I thought that just by looking at the photos in the book I would know how to use this old machine – I didn’t. Bea was kind enough to run it all through my head this morning and showed me how it all worked and had me thread my machine, load my bobbin and sew with it for close to 45 minutes to let me absorb all the information. Then I came home and ran through it all again to make sure I remembered everything!!
So if you are like me and not sewing machine smart – if you are thinking of purchasing one of these machines if you can have someone show you how it works – it will save you money in the long run and hours of frustration. Each time I had brought the machine in (2 different people) they said they worked on it and listed all the things they did and charged me – an arm and a leg – and now I kind of wondered if they even did anything to it other than thread the machine and say – hey it’s working – let’s charge this lady some money and not ask her if she knows how to thread this little baby!! And that was exactly what Bea asked me – “are you sure your are threading it correctly?”
Thank you Bea for showing me how it is done and passing on the information I needed to use the machine correctly!
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