I Sew, Therefore I Am ? Getting to know an old Singer.

[Pete Forest]

Good evening. Recently I asked some questions about thread, needles and the respons was appreciated. It helped me to decide what and how to do certain things.

Leaves me with another question though, Since a few days I am the proud owner of a Singer machine."Made in Great Britain".
I have no idea what model or year it is, but it is pretty old, sixties, maybe seventies I suppose. A beautiful metal design in a nice beige colour.( Almost desert camo.)

I have never sewn before, so I was looking for videos that show how to use this marvel of engineering.

Do not get me wrong, I tried Youtube, but my computer is so slow, I found myself wasting precious time waiting for videos to download, only to find out that they were diffuse, or without sound, or a with shaky cameraman, no script, etc. etc.

Here s a link to the projects I am thinking about:http://renderarc.weebly.com/tent.html

So to get to the point: Who happens to know where to find some good vids for old Singer Sewing machines?

Thanks in advance for any feedback,

Sincerely

[Roger Caffin]

Life does not *totally* revolve around YouTube. In fact, probably 99% of YouTube is total crap (or worse). Think sideways instead.

Ask neighbours for who has experience with sewing. Especially old women whio have been making clothing for their families for years.

Visit local shopping centres and find a sewing machine shop, and ask for help. No, you may not buy a machine, but you will be buying supplies.

Get some cheap fabric and start sewing.

Cheers

[Ty Ty]

I used youtube and searched for my sewing machine threading diagram. Once I got it threaded properly (half the battle) I just started going to town sewing old t-shrits and things, cutting up old rags and sewing on them, messing with the settings on the machine. In no time flat you will be impressing yourself.

[Pete Forest]

Thanks for the comments.

I spent the whole evening sewing, and checking some youtube vids. Very useful, I did not know there was such thing as 'Tension' on the two threads.

Quite impressive this old machine I must say, looks as if there ' s plenty of years left in it. I'll try some other tissues as well, sacrifice and old stuffsack to work with some material that is a bit more slippery.

What stitching distance do you use for a flysheet? Tonight I realized that you can go very easily from straight stitching to Zigzag! I read some where , here on the forum, that if you leave just a very small distance between the stitches, the tissue might lose its strength..?

I do not know, but straight sewing seems to be the most common thing.

[Ty Ty]

Most things you will just use a straight stitch. I just adjust the spacing until it looks okay.

[Keith Craigs]

Roger – to a point, 90% of everything is crap:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_Law

sorry, Pete, I have nothing else to add…
but I do agree to get some cheap fabric and start sewing.

-keith

[Jerry Adams]

I use 2 mm stitch spacing on most everything.

Zigzag stitch is sometimes useful. Like I'll do a 1 mm stitch with zigzag, so the needle holes aren't closer than 2 mm (which weakens the fabric) and it will hold better, like putting on straps. Or if I'm using polyester thread which doesn't stretch on nylon which does stretch. At the corner of a tent, the seam will stretch and a straight stitch of polyester will break – put in a zigzag and it's okay.

Check out http://thru-hiker.com/projects/ – "basic seams" and "french seams" are good. French seams are sometimes good for clothing. Probably called "American seams" in France?

[Betzi Marshall]

I think if you can find on your machine the serial number; there are at least a few sites/forums that have access to the old records, then you will be able to find out model number, year made and all that cool stuff; which will then enable you to get an owners manual; either PDF or actual; which will answer all most all your questions. Alternately; look in the phone book for your local 'Quilting' shop; the folks there will have or know of a decent mechanic. good luck, hope that helped, B.

[Author]

Posts