Stonkers: The Craft Room Cleanup has unearthed my great grandmother's treadle sewing machine, which I restored to working order as one of my pandemic lockdown projects. It hadn't been touched since the mid-1950s when my grandma stopped using it, and had sat, dust covered and rusty, in a garage for decades

The Craft Room Cleanup has unearthed my great grandmother's treadle sewing machine, which I restored to working order as one of my pandemic lockdown projects. It hadn't been touched since the mid-1950s when my grandma stopped using it, and had sat, dust covered and rusty, in a garage for decades

When I opened up the bobbin case, I discovered that there was still thread on the bobbin, that would have without a doubt been wound onto it by my maternal grandmother, who died before I was born. I used it to embroider some dandelions for my mom for Christmas (2020, which was a rough one, yeah?)

That's so lovely 🥹 (the machine, too!)

The machine and your embroidery are both beautiful!

Cool!!! Lovely!! I love treadle machines. There’s so little that can get truly, beyond-cleaning, FUCKED about them. (Other than the tension assembly. I don’t understand it, therefore it must be Magic.)

I did my level best to not mess with the tension assembly, even as I took apart the rest of the machine piece by piece haha And even still, I messed the tension up a little bit and haven't gotten it back to perfect :(

Here’s a weird thing- I use my great-grandma’s treadle frequently. Sometimes the tension goes fucky-wucky. I change the needle, rethread, oil, check the bobbin. If it’s still “off”, I put the machine away for a while & use another. THEN IT RUNS SMOOTHLY. Does the oil need time? Is it haunted? IDK

They have personalities and get huffy sometimes! Why? No one will ever know!

Probably best not to ask too many questions

Haha mine is just like this 😂 sometimes I just don't understand why the tension is so messed up, and I end up hand sewing

Did it come with its manuel? I was able to download a scan online for a similar machine, then eventually found the actual original for my machine. The instructions for everything are so helpful!

I wish! Apparently Husqvarna bought the line and I was told they'd have info if I gave them the serial number, but they said they stopped storing that information >:{

Check with the TreadleOn community, especially the email list serv. Also, check Ismacs (it’s mostly Singer, but they have a little from everyone and a lot of White) Here’s the White manuals page: ismacs.net/white/manual...

TreadleOn - A Site for People-Powered Sewing Machine Userstreadleon.net Front page for Treadle On web site and email group

Thank you, I will! And I'll let you know if they have anything

Oh no a new rabbit hole. Thanks? 😁

Well that's annoying! 😔

I made a pair of jeans on a treadle sewing machine in a country with unreliable electricity at the time. Power would go out and I kept on working. Beautiful stitches, a beautiful machine.

It's so meditative once you hit the rhythm

I learned to sew on an electric sewing machine at school & my great-grandma’s Singer treadle at home. I still have the treadle packed in the bedroom closet. It hasn’t been used in decades, but maybe someday when we have space for it, I can get it out & running again.

Oil it up and she’ll be ready to go.

Oh, HEY, if you want some White attachments for that era, let’s talk. I have a bunch from an estate sale lot of (I quote) “Box of Sewing Machine Stuff” That meant Apple Box, full to brim with old attachments and feet and stuff. Whites are nifty.

Oh whoa! I'm not in a spot where I can buy anything right now, but heck yeah, I'll get back to you about that!

You can HAVE it if you’re willing to pay for shipping. I am happy to pack you a flat-rate medium box and drop it at the post office. I don’t have a White, am all content with my sewing machines, and better to get it to someone who can use it.

:O Omg okay yeah! So, my husband got laid off a few weeks ago and I'm just about to start back at my museum job in a week, so I really can't even do shipping right now, but once we're back to normal, I 100% will take you up on that extremely kind offer, thank you!!

Or you can email your deets (this handle at this handle dot com) and we can work out shipping later, or it can be a happy new job present. I can spare shipping.

Incredible, you've made my night! I'll email you in a bit (I'm still in turbo cleaning mode, and know from experience I need to keep that train moving while there's momentum)

You're good people, comrade.

Coffee some towards shipping.

I love old machinery like this, made in a time when things were manufactured to last a lifetime and also designed to be beautiful. You did a phenomenal job restoring it. Hats off to you.

That is stunning!! I have my grandmother's old machine, but no clue how to bring it back to working order. I'm very impressed at your skills.

There are so many helpful videos on YouTube! I only used sewing machine oil to clean it because other solvents will destroy the lacquer. Lots of q-tips, sewing machine oil, and patience. Also take a video of yourself disassembling things, so you can see how to put it all back!

Thank you so much!!! I can barely use a machine myself but my mother can and my son (age 7) is taking sewing classes so it would be cool to have operational. I just hand sew whenever I need something sewn nowadays.

I prefer hand sewing, too :)

That is the single most genius piece of advice I have ever read.

It's really fantastic advice. I do the video thing also, and occasionally takes stills for extra tricky bits. I'd love to get my hands on a basket case machine and try to make it as gorgeous as this one.

Hand Tool Rescue started out as videos like this, but became a successful channel in its own right

Beautiful

oh wow that's gorgeous

Oooo, pretty! I don't think you've posted photos here before of it reinstalled in its table

I might not have! The table needs a little work still. My grandma painted all her furniture white when my uncle passed, and so it had a horrible slapdash coat of white paint on it. I scraped it off years ago, but apparently I ran out of steam with like 3% to go haha

Ooooo, it's so pretty! The details and the grain!

Lovely! My wife has a similar table. The Singer machine on top (not original with us) wasn't salvageable, so a local craftsperson sawed it in half to make bookends.

Gorgeous! Fitting to have it bookend the Kaffe Fassett books.

Oh, pretty. That's a different cabinet than either of mine are in.

What an absolute beauty that machine is. Wonderful that you could bring it back to life!

ah. i should have done that with my grandmother's machine - which is in the basement. That's gorgeous.

There's still time! They really are built to outlast even decades of neglect. It was a really satisfying and special project, I definitely recommend it!

well we are indeed working on cleaning out our basement so the kids won't have to some day. Maybe i will! Her's is a Singer - one of the very first electrics. I used to use it when i was a teenager, (wow a long time ago now!) but now it just moves around with me

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