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Singer Featherweight Sewing Machines

The Machine Quilting Adventure

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Singer Featherweights

singer featherweight

Since The Machine Quilting Adventure has now progressed to the machine quilting stage, I pulled out my old Alta machine that my parents gave me shortly after I got married.

Frankly, at that time (decades ago) I was happy to have any kind of machine, and it served me relatively well for many years. I do have to admit that it presented me with several frustrations along the way – thread breaking, fabric jamming down into the feed dogs, tensions causing stress and strain. But, since my only other sewing experience was a decade earlier, I didn’t know what to expect. Plus, in my youth I sewed clothes, not quilts.

Years into my quilting journey, I discovered Singer Featherweights, and once I purchased one, the old Alta found a resting place in the closet, covered with quilting fabric and batting.

Knowing that my Featherweight would not do the free motion machine quilting I needed it to do, I lugged the Alta down to my local Sew and Vac for an overhaul. Much to my surprise, a new machine was going to cost only slightly more than a complete overhaul of the old Alta.

Plus, she told me that it would still be a troublesome machine. Monika, the owner, said it would still jam and threads would still break. She said that even before I told her I had that problem!

As we discussed sewing machines further, she explained that the Singer Featherweights were premium machines in their day, something I didn’t know. (I had always thought that they were lower end machines, since they were small and didn’t do any fancy stitches.)

That fact explains why they have lasted so long and why they continue to be the little workhorses that many quilters love.

Turns out that one of our own How-to-Quilt.com Newsletter Subscribers has a connection with an expert on Singer Featherweights, Graham Forsdyke. His website has tons of information about the little workhorse machines, and even some for sale.

As I glanced through my copy of Featherweight 221, The Perfect Portable® And Its Stitches Across History (by Nancy Johnson-Srebro), I ran across some interesting tidbits from history:

A woman in Vermont wore out the drive belt on her Featherweight after sewing on braided rugs for 25 years – now that’s a workhorse!
The Singer Featherweight was the first machine to have a fold-up extension table to increase the sewing surface to the left of the machine – an especially valuable feature for quilters
Singer used light-weight aluminum for the machine and the machine arm, instead of using cast iron like other sewing machines manufacturers used. Aluminum is about 1/3 the weight of cast iron, yet it affords the same reliable performance.
Demand for sewing machines increased substantially during the Great Depression, and one of the most significant improvements in home sewing machines was the reverse function – available only in commercial machines prior to that time. The Depression saw a huge increase in home sewing and repair of clothing – in order to save money.
One of the last significant improvements of the Featherweight was to the bobbin winder. By loosening the balance wheel, you can wind a bobbin without running the needle mechanism, saving wear and tear on those parts.

Nancy has written at least two books about the Featherweight that are fun to read and jam-packed with interesting information about the machine and the Singer Sewing Machine Company. She writes other books on quilting, too.

You can check out her books on Amazon.com:

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren

www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

©2009, Penny Halgren
Penny is a quilter of more than 27 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create beautiful quilts.

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