I’ll kinda pick up where I left off last night . .
There was an old guy in Kentucky where we were living and he had Murphy’s Sewing. That man knew more about sewing machines than most people can even imagine. I talk about him like he’s gone but he may still be around. I’ve been gone from there for 14 years and he seemed pretty old. He had a son-in-law and he learned from Mr. Murphy and he was good too.
In their warehouse, they had big poster size ads from when Featherweights first came our. He had been a Singer dealer for a very long time.
The Featherweight that wouldn’t sew in Georgia – I took it to Mr. Murphy, told him what it was doing, he smiled, took in the back and came back about 10 minutes later and said “She’s purring again.” He explained to me that “back then”, they used some kind of grease and over time, it just clogged everything up and it would eventually just freeze up. He cleaned all that out and told me to never use anything more than sewing machine oil – no grease! He’d be happy to know that I’ve lived by that advice all these years.
When I got out the 301 that would not sew, I explained to Vince what Mr. Murphy had told me so he pulled the motor out, pulled the gear box out and sure, enough, it was full of gunked up grease. Vince cleaned it all up and as Mr. Murphy would say “She’s purring”.
The 301 I had been using . . that wasn’t such an easy fix. Apparently someone had worked on it a long, long time ago, before she came to live with us. There’s a screw missing and that screw is part of what keeps the timing right. Apparently during my pulling and tugging to get the thread out, I caused that piece to become dislodged and now the timing is off. Vince had to order the tiny little screw so when that comes in, he’ll have to re-time that machine and it will be purring again too.
Here’s a funny sewing machine story. Probably three or four years ago, Nicole decided she wanted to learn to sew. I doubted sewing was something she’d really want to do – working, Addie, Chad – she has a lot going on. I took her a machine that was ok . . not great but not bad. I brought my favorite 301 that I was going to sew on while there. She sewed on her machine, then she decided to try my 301. She said “I like this one better. I think I’ll keep it and you can have that one back.” OK! Now my favorite machine lives with her.
Today when Vince was saying “Don’t you have another 301 machine that works?” Yes! In Missouri!
vivoaks says
Hahahaha!! Love that story!! Although I wouldn’t have like “giving away” my 301A!! Now the question is: Is she still using it? Think I’d have to have a little talk with her if she wasn’t! 🙂
Susan Nixon says
Oh, that’s a sad machine loss! There’s nothing that replaces the favorite, even another of the same kind. I’m glad Vince was able to make one of them work for you. Mr. Murphy sounds like the perfect machine guy!
Nelle Coursey says
I had not used my machines in a while and when I was making some things last year before Christmas I decided to sew and the machine would not budge!! I did like you said, I took it apart, cleaned out the gunk and put sewing machine oil on it. I had used Pat’s gun oil because he said “oil is oil”! Nope not gonna happen again!!
patti says
don’t i remember that vince wanted – and got – a 301 for himself? where is that machine? LOL!
Judy Laquidara says
I think he did or maybe it was another Singer and he was going to clean it all up. I remember we went to Kansas City to get it but I had forgotten about it.