My antique sewing machine

It has occurred to me that I never blogged about my other main sewing machine, a Singer 28 which was manufactured in 1899. It is operated by a hand crank. Isn't it lovely?

Here's the hand crank that drives it. I thought it might be difficult to sew with only one hand to guide the fabric, but that really hasn't been a problem at all.

The bobbins aren't like anything else I've ever seen. Rather than being squat circular things, they are long pins which fit into a bullet-like "vibrating shuttle" that goes where a bobbin case would normally go. It's a bit of a pain to use because you can't look in and see how much thread is left without actually unthreading it, but the pins hold a surprisingly large amount of thread.

This is the bobbin winder. It flips up to touch the hand wheel when in use. There's a little cog mechanism that guides the thread back and forth across the length of the bobbin pin.

Here are two bobbins full of thread. They really do hold lots! It feels like they hold more than my modern bobbins on the other machine, but maybe they just last longer because the sewing process is slower on this one.

Obviously this machine does no fancy stitches because it's so old, but it can sew in a perfect straight line and that's really all I ask of it.

The beauty of this old Singer, apart from the fact that it is portable and requires no electricity or cables of any kind, is how much control it gives me. Because I'm cranking it by hand I'm obliged to sew slowly, and this gives me more neatness and precision than my electric machine. If a single stitch is out of line I can correct it before things get any worse. I use this machine for decorative top-stitching and any sewing that requires great accuracy, such as undersewing facings or repairing damage within an existing seam line, or sewing something very small such as a credit card wallet. I wouldn't be without it now.