Restoring a Top Hat

[Malcolm Parker]

What a lovely job.

[Dave Mann]

It looks good, this has been an interesting thread, nice to see I'm not alone using an old Singer although mine is manual which is fast enough for me.    

[Parazine]

Singer 28K I think! Nice machine.

The sewing machine I can cope with. The sewing - now that's a different matter......

[Ilmoro]

Yes 28K and an early one too, with Bobbin winder being handwheel driven. Serial number suggests 1894. Nice

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I think Parazine's is a slightly newer (1900) 66K model... Both built in Scotland.

[Parazine]

I think Parazine's is a slightly newer (1900) 66K model... Both built in Scotland.

Yep, 66K, built April 1911, Kilbowie, Clydebank. Still sews perfectly (not so perfectly with me in charge).

[Bob Culver]

It is remarkable how old machines survive. Fortunately no plastic, nylon, elctronics, chips etc. I have my grandmother's as photo and original receipt somewhere from pre WW1. My father used to say that it was watching the traverse of the layer by layer reel winder when a very small boy which got him interested in things mechanical and hence my interest. It is quite fascinating. Such machines represent the one off expenditure of manufactuing energy which we should be adopting wholescale but which we will not. Somewaht like bicycles most machines were made for very extensive use but most were discarded with only nominal use.

[Ilmoro]

Yes, The humble sewing machine also influenced my interest in things mechanical and then electrical when my mum had hers converted to electricity. I remember shortly after she had it adapted, I dismantled the foot pedal to see how it worked ( I was about 8 yrs old) I also agree on the sustainability issue. Many of these are well over 100 years old and still fully functional. Many were thrown out and replaced by something more modern which lasted only for a limited period, which of course is how capitalism/consumerism works.

The cost of a Singer sewing machine in 1900 was about £40   (equtes to about £4k in todays money). !!

I remember my mum making her own beautiful dresses and children's clothes, repairig my dad/s cardigans, darning socks, hemming curtains and a myriad other things which didn't involve child slavery or transporting goods half-way around the world. It certainly wouldn' be cost effective now. Not in cash terms, at least.

Ian

Apologies, I think we have digressed from the original topic. Nice Top Hat interior by the way.

[Malcolm Parker]

Back to vintage sewing machines!
My Mother had a Singer machine very similar to Dave's pictured above.  She had it motorised and used it extensively.  I think the final drive ratio was a bit high as it use to dance across the table top on full throttle.   She was very protective of it and was not keen on using it for non-domestic jobs like car trimming.
When I came to restoring the RL saloon, realising that I needed a sewing machine, my Dad found a suitable one in the local second-hand shop in Silsden near Keighley.  He spent a lot of time in the shop which was run by 'Gillian', a very glamorous blonde of a certain age who could well have been a former Tiller Girl/stripper/porn actress (delete as appropriate).
The machine he came up with is a Criterian, sold by Barwick and Haggas of Keighley.  It is a superb piece of machinery, goodness knows what it must have cost new.  Barwick and Haggas were actually jewellers and one of the oldest firms in Keighley.  I let my Mother do the sewing and it has done the headlinings in the RL and the Pytchley as well as other associated jobs.   I have a suspicion that the machine may be of German manufacture, marketed by Barwick and Haggas.     

[Bob Culver]

Continuing the theme my father fitted a motor to the hand model. It required making a small seating pad and in typical meticulous manner he used blue to establish a nice fit. The shuttle is very heavy and never intended for speed and under my mother's less mechanically sympathetic use it vibrated disturbingly. The serial numbers and date are all on the Net.
I was in an Op shop recently and a customer purchsed a perfect complete early hand model for equiv L75, to use as an ornament......

[Dave Mann]

That machine was found in mother in law's loft where it had remained hidden for a few decades before moving to our loft. When I was struggling with the trim on our cars with an industrial machine which kept dropping stitches I remembered the Singer and got it out cleaned and oiled it and found it a dream to use fast enough for my amateur hands.