Hand Crank Sewing Machine (Part 1)
One of the subreddits I frequent recently made me aware of the historical costuber, and all around best teacher for historical hand sewing techniques: Bernadette Banner. (She's also on the Instagrams, but I'm old and have reached my peak social media so I don't do the Instagrams.)
I immediately binged every video she's publicly posted. All of them.
I don't do historical sewing. I have absolutely no interest or desire in historical sewing. I don't care about extent garments in museum collections - though I will note that I'm glad that museums have them and I think that they are important - I don't care about historical silhouettes, and my only nod to fashion is that I can dress for the formality of the occasion (I don't wear business casual to a black tie affair is what I'm saying).
I do sew. My nanny was also a seamstress, having learned the craft from her mother. She taught me a fair bit, but I'd never qualify as a seamstress...not even as a tailor. But I can make my own clothes from a pattern or from a drape if it comes to it. I tend to sew my own costumes for cosplay and halloween, usually going the lazy route of finding an existing pattern to modify because ain't nobody got time to drape-and-draft a princess seam bodice when it has already been done for $2.
And I was able to learn from Bernadette Banner. I learned about pad stitching which I didn't know was a thing. I'd been flat lining (I find it my favorite of lining techniques) for years but had always used pins or clips. I learned better ways than what I'd been doing to make sure that my seam allowance was respected. I learned how to sharpen tailor's chalk.
Which leads me to ...
In one of Ms. Banner's videos, I also learned that there are hand-crank sewing machines. I have, in my possession, a sewing machine that can run off of batteries. All of my sewing machines (yes, I have more than one, ashamedly) can have their hand wheel manually rotated and therefore run off-grid (I did this once to sew on a patch to a tent rainfly when camping; don't ask why I had my sewing machine while camping). I am fully aware that treadle machines existed and many still work in the modern day. I did not know that there was a wrist-friendly 3-to-1 mechanical advantage hand crank apparatus for some sewing machines. I was instantly gripped by the need to own one of these because I could see myself making ample use of it.
She only briefly mentioned that she had it and that it was a Singer. And that it cost her $40 + restoration effort. (fast forward the video to just a hair over the 4 minute mark)
Click to viewI understand the guts of a sewing machine and know that old Singers are solid hunks of metal that can be easily made usable with the application of copious amounts of oil. Also, $40 is a good price for a sewing machine. This got me to googling.
Someone in the comments of one of the later videos identified her machine as a Singer model 128/VS3. By this point, I'd already discovered that Singer models 27, 127, 28, 128, 99, and 66 (and all the models whose numbers end in "k" which just means that they were born in Scotland but are otherwise no different than the models with out the "k" in their number) can be hand crank machines.
So then I hit the eBays. My upper price limit was $40. I was willing to spend no more than $40 for shipping. I expected a real fixer-upper.
And there it was. A 1912 Singer 27 which was listed as being in time and also being fully functioning. No fixing up needed. On auction. With the shipping under $40. And it looked beautifully restored (not that I cared one whit about decals because I'm going to USE this machine, not invest in it; but why not both?). Of course it didn't come with a hand crank, and looked as if it had spent its life to date as a treadle machine, but no worries, reproduction hand cranks were $20. So I put my max bid in of $40 and ...
I won!
Stay tuned for how the saga continues.