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How to Quilt>treadle sewing machine
Treadle Sewing Machine
With today’s incredible sewing and quilting machine technology, do you ever wonder if anyone out there still uses the old style treadle sewing machine? There are plenty of old treadle machines still in use and some even being manufactured today. What’s the appeal of the treadle machine? One of the biggest has got to be the amount of control the user has. With the treadle machine, you control the speed, not with a button or by setting a dial, but with your feet. This human powered machine relies on the user to fuel it by pedaling the wide plate at the base, near the floor. With toes on the top of the plate and the heel at the bottom, pumping the foot up and down is what makes the machine sew. That is another plus. No electricity or battery is required for a treadle sewing machine. All it uses is good, old fashioned manual labor. It’s movement is generated by the foot bar. Another factor that causes some people to choose a treadle machine over one of the modern, highly advanced ones is their very simplicity. Without a bunch of gadgets to set or buttons to push, there are fewer parts to break on a treadle machine. Computerized sewing and quilting machines have computer components as well as sewing ones. In addition to a sewing gear or part going out, highly advanced machines also run the risk of having a computer chip fail or a drive reader go out. The fact that there are many treadle sewing machines still in use testifies to their durability. Some people actually prefer them, so they are still manufactured by some companies. And, naturally, the treadle machines offer a certain degree of nostalgia, especially if your mother or grandmother used to sew on one. There are cons to sewing and quilting with a treadle machine, too, of course. While, yes, the user does have complete control over the treadle machine, it can only do one stitch. There are no fancy stitches and trying to use a treadle to quilt your project can be more demanding than you might imagine. In addition to your obligation to completely control the machine, you must also maneuver the big quilt under the needle without the help of the machine. If you have much sewing to do, your legs could get mighty tired of pushing that treadle plate to furnish power to the machine. Another con to the treadle machine is that it has no reverse stitch. So, to lock in stitches, you actually have to stop sewing and turn the quilt or sewing project around to make locking stitches. While there are not many sewing machines out there that can beat the nostalgia a treadle sewing machine has to offer, you have probably realized that more and more generations of quilters are turning to electric machines like long arm quilters, six head embroidery machines, and sergers. If you have a treadle machine that is still in good working order, give it a try for your quilting projects. Certainly don’t cast it aside simply because it’s old. For one thing, it’s an antique. For another, you might want to use it specifically for creating a memory quilt or some other nostalgic quilt project. It’s like that old saying, “make new friends, but keep the old….” In this case, the new fangled machines that technology has to offer are our silver, while the nostalgic antique treadle is our gold. It is part of sewing and quilting’s past that you can still incorporate into your quilting today if you so choose.
Happy Quilting!
Penny Halgren www.How-to-Quilt.com
©2010, Penny Halgren This article courtesy of http://www.How-To-Quilt.com. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.
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