My New Baby

Back at the beginning of February we had a stall at the Bathurst Swap Meet.  Mick went down on the Saturday afternoon to get a site, but I piked, as it was too hot - 40 degrees C in the full sun - yugh!

Anyway, when I went down in the early evening there was a suitcase next to his ute, which I was fairly sure held a sewing machine, but we were too busy to think about it until we got home on Sunday afternoon.

The case was grimy (much grimier than this photo) and all the metal rusty.  Mick told me he paid $15 for it, so it was worth the gamble.  

This was what was inside.  Mick knows I have a soft spot for green sewing machines - Elnas in particular.  This is no Elna, but she sure is purdy, if somewhat grimy as well.  She's no light weight, coming in at just on 20 kgs.

The attachment box and feet came with her.  All the attachments were there and a few bobbins.  They are the same as the Singer 66 ones, which makes life easy.  There is some surface rust on the tin, but not too bad.

We showed Mum when she was over a few days later.  She was itching to get in a start cleaning her up.  

I didn't know anything about Pinnock machines.  It turns out they were Australian made.  They started out at Sydney.  Some were even made at the Lithgow Small Arms Factory.  Apparently, there are examples of the machines and even the casting moulds in their museum.  We'll have to pop down and visit some time.  I digress......The factory had moved to Elizabeth in South Australia by the time this one was made.  They were one of the first factories down there and employed about 50 people.  They even exported to the UK.

I don't know exactly how to date her, but I found an ad from the Australian Women's Weekly from April 1958 online.  The model I have, the "Sewmaster" was the base line model and cost 57 guineas.  It is just a straight stitch model.  There was then a bright yellow free arm version which was 65 guineas and then the automatic model, which was blue, was 95 guineas.  That was quite a bit back then.

I love that they call the light the "Sew Glo" and there is a reverse button "The Magic Reverse".  All very modern.

I was able to download a copy of the manual, so a few weeks ago I spent a lovely Sunday sitting on the back verandah cleaning her up and giving her a good polish.

What I did notice was that part of the tension section was in the accessory box.  I know nothing about tensions, so watched a youtube by The Featherweight Shop on tensions.  I figure they would have to be somewhat similar.

I lay all the bits out and then assembled it as I thought would go.  The first attempt was horrible.  It just made a big mess under the fabric.  I tried again and got it fairly close, but it still wasn't right.  I looked at all the bits again and wondered about the two flat washers.  They looked fairly new. 

 I tried again, leaving them out.  Woo hoo!  It was right.  What a relief.

Underneath was dusty and grimy and the corner blocks of timber had come adrift.  A good clean, oil the timber and glue the supports back in was all that was required.

The machine has different settings for normal, nylon and darning.  That actually means that the feed dogs lower for the different uses.  See the funny spring thing in the photo above.  That is the embroidery/darning foot.  I've never seen one like it before.

In the end she came up a treat.  She isn't perfect, but then, she is over 60 years old.  I think she has been used quite a bit, but well looked after.  There are tiny scratches on the bed, probably from pins, however, everything moved freely and there was plenty of oil in the grime.

I definitely got $15 dollars worth of fun out of cleaning her up.

The next thing I wanted to do was use her.......

I have read in several places that the old reels of thread, such as Sylko, had the thread just wound straight around the reel, whereas most modern threads are cross wound.  The old reels are designed to sit on a vertical spool pin and the reel spin.  The cross wound threads are designed to be pulled off the end of the real, from either a horizontal spool pin or off a thread stand.  

I just happen to have a spool stand, in its rather dusty packaging that I was given, but have never used.  Time to break it out.

Happily, my Janome quarter inch foot fit straight on.  On the Janome, it creates a generous quarter inch and I have to move the needle over to the right as far as I can for accuracy.  On this machine it creates a scant quarter inch.  Perfect.

It was a nice day, so once again I took her out onto the back verandah to sew.

My Christmas runner was the ideal project to try out the machine.

Mick decided to do the candid camera shot.  Not exactly glamorous, but I was having fun.

All was going swimmingly, until I decided to put in a fresh needle.  In all the cleaning I had done, I hadn't switched out the needle.  It then started to skip stitches an broke the top thread a couple of times.  Blast!  I thought it may be the needle, so put another fresh one in.  No different.  Double blast!  I rethreaded her.  Nope!  Maybe she is thirsty, as I had done a bit of stitching by then and until I had cleaned her up and oiled her, she hadn't had much attention in some time.  Phew!  That helped.

Then I decided to see if there was a trouble shooting section in the instructions.  Yes, oiling around the bobbin is the solution.

It worked for a while and then started to skip occasionally again.  I will have to give underneath a better clean and oil.

Oh, and the "Sew Glo" bulb seems to have blown.

If this had all happened on the Janome I would have been a bit out of sorts by now, but it was all part of the adventure of getting to know this machine.  By the time I had finished the piecing I felt quite comfortable using her.

Originally, I had planned on doing the quilting on the Pinnock, but in the end changed my mind and used my Janome.  The odd missed stitch in the seam didn't matter, but it does on the quilting.

In the meantime, I tried the walking foot on her.  Yes, it fits.  However, it seemed to be not quite parallel with the feed dogs.  After a fiddle, I discovered that none of the feet are parallel with the feed dogs.  The shaft that they screw onto may be a little out of alignment and need adjusting.  A job for another day.

I don't know how much more sewing I will do with the Pinnock, but it was another fun Sunday on the back verandah.  Definitely worth the $15.  

Well spotted, Mick.