oh, my, she's beautiful! Congratulations on the new "member of the family" :-)

Thanks! Her name's "Jennifer" after the nice lady that sold her to me.

Annie

LOL!! I name plants but not sewing machines!
Linda C

When you have as many sewing machines as I do, they have to have names, especially since so many of them have the same "last" names. (Damascus, Eldredge, National.) I usually name them after the person I got them from.

Annie

What a beauty! What did you use to clean her?

~kelli~

Kelli--

I used gojo, but I want to caution anyone that's never cleaned an old sewing machine to use caution with ANY cleaning product. The decals can be very fragile and you need to be very careful when using them. It took me eight hours to clean just the head on this machine and nearly three to clean the irons and cabinet.

Annie

Then do you paint over the old decals or reapply new ones?

Oldalgebra--The decals are left completely alone! I'd never paint over them and this pattern is not available in reproduction decals (although there are some repro Singer decals made now.) When I said that I cleaned the machine, all I was referring to was removing the caked on grime and oil that had accumulated over the existing decals. That's why it took so long to clean it--because I had to be very, very careful not to damage this rare decal pattern any more than it already was.

Annie

Pretty pretty

dawn--she's a beauty all right!

Annie

Annie, Like many others I have found you while searching for information on a sewing machine recently inherited. In my case, it is a Western Electric. The book says model 2 or 5. Can't tell from the machine. I know the machine was made by National Sewing Machine Co. Serial # is 163342. I'm interested in knowing how to distinguish the model 2 vs model 5 and it's age if possible. Any other info would be appreciated also. thank you. Ken

That transformation is UNREAL....as in FABULOUS!!!

Now....can you sew on that machine? I've heard they make great machines for sewing through thick blue jean seams for instance...is it true?

They certainly do. I have four treadle heads and two treadle cabinets in which to change them about. My oldest is probably about 120 years old and still functions. I'm in the process of cleaning the interior functioning parts on a newer Singer now and have one designed to be used solely by hand-crank. I quilt and Annie used to hang out on the quilting forum and she taught quilting on treadle machines. Several of my antique machines had the full line of accessories with them......rufflers and rollers and the like. There isn't much you can't do on a treadle and they just simply don't break down. I love them and prefer them over electric machines. The best ones, if you've a mind to do serious sewing on them are the circa 1920s-30s to my mind. Use modern needles and round bobbins for the most part. I learned to sew on a treadle, perhaps that's why I'm partial to them.

I dare say, the manufacturer must have put as much money in the decoration as he did for the mechanical parts. Its a lovely machine.

I learned to sew om my mother's treadle Singer ca 1930s. It was mounted in a solid oak cabinet with cast iron frame. Most models had a 4 drawer cabinet. Ours is a 6 drawer cabinet with a center tipout drawer. The 6 drawers are lockable. We still have it in the family.

Ken, Annie is not getting email responses to this thread and I have not seen her post here for a long time, so if you want to contact her I would suggest you try through the webshots site that hosts her photos.

Karin L