Glimpse into the past

Glimpse into the past

I've recently had the pleasure of testing out two machines that are over 100 years old.
I don;t think there are many modern ones that we can expect to be working in over a hundred years.

When I do festivals or fairs there are always quiet spells, it's just the nature of things so I came to the conclusion I needed a hand crank machine to take with me for those times. I am also looking at running human powered sewing sessions at festivals where I don't have access to power.
Luckily I have a friend who is an avid collector of old machines and I now have two to choose from.

Singer numbered all their machines and if you go on the website you can see when your machine was made, this one above is from 1909 and has a bullet shaped bobbin, I love the look of this one but the bullet bobbin is sometimes tricky. Plus I already have one of these that just needs a lot of TLC to get up and running.

This one, with less of the gold decorative patterns on the body is from 1922, This has a round bobbin, although a different size to my usual ones. I think this may be the one I go for, it has produced a smoother stitch so far and I prefer the bobbin set up.
The sound as the mechanism starts to move
But really my heart wants the 1909, as I was playing with them (lets face it it is playing not testing in a super scientific way!) my mind wandered off and I was imagining who used them and what they were sewing in their early days.
Did it make someones wedding dress. army uniform, school trousers ripped yet again.....was it much loved and cared for or just used as a utilitarian machine.
I could daydream about their history for hours.

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