I have decided after looking at the box to return it when I go back to Walmart. I didn't open it. I too have an older Pfaff model 2221 (I think), a neat little black Singer 99, an old treadle machine I think it is a New Home, it has a nice old oak cabinet that closes up in the front, it was a Christmas gift from our son one year, a Janome with some built in stitches, 3 Kenmores, pretty new, and some odds and ends of machines I have picked up at rummages over the years. I paid $15 for my Pfaff and $5.00 for the Singer 99. I really need to get my sewing room straightened up. Too many illnesses and things going on in the family. Sue

Calliope--I'm surprised that you've found doing the conversions so difficult. I have over 60 machines and done literally dozens of conversions from electric to treadle, with none of the problems you had. I'm a sewing machine collector and use only treadles or handcranks in my custom quilting business. Couple of things to know: 1)Select the right model: The first thing to look for is the belt groove in the handwheel--if you don't have a belt groove, you can't treadle the machine. Any handcrank machine, and many pre-1960 electrics can be treadled. I've never seen a handcrank Singer machine that didn't have a belt groove because the company saved money by making one type of wheel and using it on all its models whether handcrank, treadle, or early electric. Later, Singer switched to solid wheels for all its electrics, so that you have swap out the wheels if you want to use a handcrank on them, but with just a few exceptions (see #3) they still work fine for treadling. 2) Many companies sold portable handcrank machines that have a belt slot in the case. You would buy the portable, then later buy a cabinet that you could set the case into and you belted it up from through the slot. I have two Nationals and one Jones handcrank and all three of them have the belt slot in the case. I'm on a mission to find the treadle base for the National handcranks--I've never seen one "in the wild" although I have over a dozen regular National treadle machines. 3) Back to the electric Singers: there were a couple of models made that had direct-gear drives: the 101, 201 and 15-91 are the most commonly found gear-driven models. Singer did not put grooved wheels on these, so they can't be treadled. Many other companies (White, New Home, and National to name a few) went to friction-drive electric motors and these often have groove-less wheels as well, so they can't be converted to treadle. 4) The actual conversion is quite easy, IF you have a cabinet that your sewing machine with fit into without modification. I have done it literally dozens of times and I don't have any mechanical aptitude to speak of. The easiest conversions for my money are the 1940s and 50s Japanese machines, which are "clones" of the Singer 15, and will go right into a Singer base. They are fairly common, inexpensive and come in cool colors. However, if you have a cabinet other than a Singer, or a head that's not compatible, it's gets harder. My preferred method is to rescue orphan treadle irons (virtually any brand will work) and have my husband make a top for them to fit the machine I plan to use and just put them together. I call these set-ups "mongrels". I have one mongrel treadle that I use only for taking to demonstrations. I can knock it down and set it back up in less than five minutes. You can see picture of the traveling treadle in my "Other Machines" album, pictures of my studio table, with five heads mounted in it (three of which came to me as electrics: 1960s zig-zagger, 1950s Japanese 15 which I use for FM quilting and a mid-century National chainstitcher) in the "Quilting Studio" album. The are some shots of another Japanese 15 in a "mongrel" table in the "Quilting Retreat" album--it's one we put together at the last minute for me to use for my demo machine that weekend and is one of my favorites; the irons we used have an over-sized flywheel and it treadles like a dream. BTW--if you notice the students in the "Retreat" album, every one one of them is sewing on an electric machine that was popped into a treadle table when they got to the class because I wanted them to learn on the machine they planned to sew on at home. I'd be happy to talk to you off-list if you like. My e-mail addy is: toomanydogs@chibardun.net Annie Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's webshots albums

I bought my Bernina over 10 years ago for $1000. it was half price because Bernina was coming out with a new line and the shop owner wanted to make room in her shop for the new line. I have seen Bernina half price when they just want to get rid of older models. Call around. I drove an extra hour but saved half of the price and my machine is still wonderful. They also sometimes have machines that others have traded in. I don't reccomend buying a used machine from ebay. You can get something good from a reputable dealer for 1000.

Also concerning the WIKI Free Pattern Downloads I have only presented excerpts from a very long article by vavoomvintage.net---I would recommend going to this site and reading fully what she has to say. So here are the snippets. "Let's talk about what the Vintage Sewing Patterns Wikia is and isn't. Even though you can't download 83,500 patterns from it (bummer, right?!), how you can use it and even get patterns from it...because it really is a cool thing! The Vintage Sewing Patterns Wikia is a collaborative effort from sewing pattern collectors over the globe to categorize and document patterns that are 25 years and older. They upload images of the covers and descriptions. Each entry has spots for blog posts reviewing the patterns so you can see what they look like when sewn and if the person who made it has any tips for you as you navigate sewing the garment. Some entries also have links to purchase the original paper patterns from various sellers online. The people who have contributed their time, knowledge and effort to this project are amazing! It is not a source to download a massive collection of vintage sewing patterns. Someone wrote an article with a very misleading headline and it has spread like wildfire all over social media. Many patterns are still under copyright (I'm looking at you, Vogue) and scanning/remastering these delicate paper patterns for the general public would be an unbelievably big undertaking. Sorry, you can't download the patterns. There's just photos of the pattern covers." Seems to be factual because I went to the WIKI site and there was nothing to download. Just look at. But it at least has pix right??? lol Thank goodness for google!!!! Rosie