Monday, February 22, 2016

White / Green Featherweight

Well, I have acquired another Singer Featherweight sewing machine.  Supposedly these are rarer than the black Singer Featherweights.

While traveling the Oregon Coast from the California border to the Washington border, and shop hopping for the Quilt Run 101, my husband found this for sale at one of the quilt shops while I was looking at fabric.  He is such a dear, he knew I wanted a white/green one, but I had told him they were really rare, and I doubted we would even come across one to buy, much less at a cost we could our would spend.  

This quilt shop had a second partner that does upholstery and home decorating, but was wanting to retire and was selling off some of her goodies.  And one of them was this machine.  I dickered with her a little bit and we picked it up for what most black ones go for in price and walked out the door with it.


It came with the original green/white case, several feet three bobbins and the instruction book.  I plugged it in, threaded it, and did a sample stitch line and it sews perfectly!




The serial numbers on these are more difficult to find out the date that they were release for sale, but from what I can gather, this one came out in 1968.

It is also my understanding the white/green ones are better made, and have more durable parts.  One expert has this to say about them:

 Singer Featherweight machines were produced in black, beige/tan and  white/green (what the company called Pale Turquoise)

White/Green machines were produced only at Clydebank, Great Britain 

he fabric/rubber belt on White/Green machines does not break. In fact it  makes for a quieter and slightly-lighter machine

Repairmen did not like the White/ Green machine and spread rumours about  its unreliability. Not true. The reason it was not favoured in the trade was  that because of the belt the whole machine could not be dumped in cleaning  fluid as a quick and easy service option

It is not possible to accurately state the manufacturing date of any Singer
 Featherweight. Singer claims to be able to do this, but the information the  company gives out refers to the dates on which large batches of serial  numbers were released to the various factories. It's pretty safe to assume that  a particular machine was not made before its "birthdate" but it could have  been produced considerably later

So this makes my 10th sewing machine taking up residence in the house/sewing room.  Hmmmm...not sure if there will be any more?

Note:  I have updated my tab "Sewing Machines" with new pictures and written updates.

Warmest...


2 comments:

Benta AtSLIKstitches said...

They are great machines: I've never seen a white one, she's beautiful!

Yesteryear Embroideries said...

Hello, wonderful that you found a great machine. How is your quilting going?