A Couple of Successes and a (Temporary) Setback

The Singer 500 Rocketeer needs just a bit more work before it’s ready for prime time. I set it aside and pulled the 401 off the shelf to work on yesterday. Even though it was terribly dirty, it looked like an easy cleanup and it was. A true beauty was hiding underneath all that grime. She sparkles.

I have a specific recipient in mind for this machine, if it passes its sewing test. I need to put my hands on the correct power cord so I can check it out. The guts of this machine are nearly identical to those of the Rocketeer with a few minor differences.

[I think I paid $5 for this machine at a thrift store in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It was hiding under a table.]

My other success is huge. Way back in November 2019 I picked up a Singer 9W locally off Craigslist. In a weird twist of fate, I had also run across the specific (and uncommon) presser feet for that very machine a few days earlier at the local Goodwill. Unfortunately, the machine didn’t have a bobbin case. I ordered one off eBay but either it wasn’t the correct bobbin case—that model started out as a Wheeler and Wilson machine before the brand was acquired by Singer, and there are some weird issues with parts—or I didn’t have it installed correctly. Long story short, I broke the bobbin case.

I don’t break things often, but when I do, I break them irreparably.

I’ve been watching eBay since then, because I am not content for this machine to serve out the rest of its life as a mantle decoration. Last week, a listing came up for a bobbin case that potentially matched that machine. I ordered it. The bobbin case came in yesterday’s mail. I VERY, VERY carefully installed it into the 9W—which has been sitting on the floor of my office looking at me reproachfully for 18 months—and it fit.

It is a bear to get seated properly, which may have been the issue the first time, but once it’s in place, everything turns smoothly. I have two bobbins for it. I’ll have to take it out because, as you can see, the machine hasn’t yet been cleaned. I’ll be very careful when I put it back in. (It is possible to remove the bobbins without removing the case, so once the machine is cleaned and the case is back in there, I won’t take it out again.) This machine has leaped ahead to the front of the line because I am eager to see what it looks like when it’s prettied up.

Slowly but surely, I will get through the backlog of machines.

The Necchi is back together and sewing—sort of. There is some issue with the tension assembly. I took it apart and reassembled it, with pictures, and I am fairly sure that the assembly itself is fine. For some reason, though, the part inside the machine that is supposed to engage it, isn’t. I need to check with my friend and find out if her mother actually sewed on that machine.

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I am trying not whine about the weather (with little success, obviously), but this heat is awful. And we have this strange thing happening where we’re getting gusty east winds for a couple of hours around 7 pm every night. Our (one) bedroom window faces east, and the gusts of wind blow the shade all over the place. They don’t do a lot to cool things down, either. I’ve been having to pull the shade up when I go to bed, but it stays light here until about 10:30, so then it’s like trying to sleep in the middle of the day. I may put up one of the heavier insulated shades tonight to see if that helps. Or try to find a portable AC unit.

I have an online subscription to the Ketchikan newspaper, and I got quite a giggle out of a recent headline—apparently, Ketchikan set a high temperature record last Sunday. Curious, I clicked through and read the article. The record-setting high temp was 80 degrees. At this point, it wouldn’t take much coaxing to get me to move to Alaska.