How Victorian Sewing Machines Work (1892 Singer Treadle)

Comments · 2.4K

• GI

  @gillthorpe3553 · 4 years ago

  I wish you could have seen my 92 year old mother’s face when I showed her this. She had a treadle singer and was a real expert at using it. She was talking to you throughout!! <br>Thank you so much for transporting her back to her youth albeit for a short time!! <br>Gill (Suffolk UK)

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• MO

  @MorganDonner · 5 years ago

  👁👄👁 I have never felt more prepared for a machine I don&apos;t own

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• EM

  @emcee2684 · 5 years ago

  When my mother was very young, she trained as an apprentice to a very elderly gentleman tailor. &nbsp;By the time she was 20, she had become a professional tailor who specialized in man&apos;s suits. &nbsp;Her work was exquisite. &nbsp;She used no patterns and was capable of merely turning a garment inside out to see it&apos;s structure, drawing a few marks on gorgeous fabric and reproducing what she had memorized from seeing it that one time.. &nbsp;It&apos;s only as I&apos;ve gotten older that I realize what an amazing talent she had. &nbsp;Since she trained on &nbsp;a Victorian pedal machine, that&apos;s what she sewed on for the rest of her life. &nbsp;She always said she couldn&apos;t &quot;feel&quot; the life of the garment under an electric machine. &nbsp;I grew up to the sound of the push-pedal merrily sewing along all through my childhood as she made my school uniforms, dresses and play clothes. &nbsp;After she passed away, I kept her machine for several years until I was no longer able to keep it with me. &nbsp; It broke my heart to see it go. &nbsp;Many years later I found the exact model of the machine she had in a &apos;junk&apos; store, sitting unloved in a corner covered dust and cobwebs. &nbsp;I bought it for $15. &nbsp;The shopkeeper was glad to get rid of it. &nbsp;It has served as a beautiful table and conversation piece in my Victorian home for many years now. &nbsp;My goal for this winter is to get it working again, which includes finding a bobbin and a new belt and once again take up sewing. &nbsp;Your video provided the perfect inspiration and guidance for me. &nbsp;I do so love your videos and the gentility and talent you bring to these incredibly trying modern times. &nbsp;💗

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• MA

  @marjohnsmusings3222 · 5 years ago

  My grandma taught me to use both feet to treadle. The dominant foot is the driver and the nondominant one is the break. This gives you speed control. It also helps your legs work together for a longer sewing period without fatigue or calf cramps.

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• MA

  @maisierogness3183 · 2 years ago

  The best thing about these videos about old sewing machines is just hearing everybody’s stories in the comments about their antique sewing machines and how they got them.

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• JE

  @jerrysstories711 · 5 years ago (edited)

  When I was in rural remote Malawi in 2005, I tore my jeans, so they took me to see the tailor a few villages away. &nbsp;The dude was OLD, and he was rich by rural Africa standards because he was very important. &nbsp;And he was working with a machine just like this one. &nbsp;While he fixed my clothes I got his whole story, about how he&apos;d gone south to work in the JoBurg gold mines in the 50&apos;s, then used a chunk of his earnings to buy and repair an old sewing machine, when the factories were selling off their old non-electrical ones. &nbsp;He was able to take it by train as far as northern Mozambique, but then he had to carry the thing <b>ON HIS BACK</b> through the jungle. &nbsp;Every night, he&apos;d leave his precious machine at the base of a tree and then climb the tree to sleep safe from lions. &nbsp;He did this <b>FOR TWO WEEKS</b> before he reached his home in Malawi. &nbsp;Oh, and he still called Malawi &quot;Nyasaland&quot;.<br>After he finished fixing my jeans, I realized I had forgotten to discuss the price first, a serious error for a tourist. &nbsp;But this was no tourist trap I was in, so he wasn&apos;t out to bilk me too much. &nbsp;When I asked how much, his eyebrows when up high and he asked in Chichewa, &quot;How about six cents?&quot; &nbsp;I confirmed with my friend that I had heard the price correctly, and I asked if I could give him twenty-four cents without embarrassing him. &nbsp;He was so delighted with this exorbitant tip that he had me wait a moment while he dug up a couple of cassavas for me from his garden, and he even threw in a plastic grocery bag.

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• KA

  @karentucker8707 · 4 years ago

  Dear &apos;tribe&apos;, today i nearly cried happy &nbsp;tears as i took possession of my Great grandmother&apos;s &nbsp;1898 Singer treadle sewing machine &nbsp;(i thought it had gone decades ago). &nbsp; Woodwork fully restored, metalwork &nbsp;freshly polished with beeswax and original leather belt in place. I remember sewing with it &nbsp;as a child, during a black out by firelight.<br>I didn&apos;t have anyone else to tell who might appreciate how special this is...thanks 😊

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• AN

  @annem.howley5310 · 5 years ago

  I inherited my Grandma&apos;s singer treadle when she passed away. I was in High School, and used it on all of my sewing projects. I am still proud of how I figured out how to insert an invisible zipper and finish buttonholes on the machine!

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• AN

  @annasilvertongue · 4 years ago

  My take away from this is that using a Victorian sewing machine is like driving stick shift; no matter how much you try to learn off the internet, you just have to experience it to truly understand

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• MA

  @madelined3079 · 5 years ago

  I bought a 1912 singer yesterday and it works wonderfully!! Im 16 and my mom doesn’t know how to sew, so its amazing that someone can explain the process to me like this! Thank you!

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• RY

  @RychaardRyder · 5 years ago

  As a antique sewing machine collector, the aesthetic cinematography-ness of this video gives me joy beyond no bounds. Also that shot of you threading the needle is the single most satisfying thing ever. But a few notes,<br><br>-That top bar is actually not a thread guy, its a screw that adjusts the pressure on the presser foot adjusting it is usualy unnecassery unless your sewing something drasticly thin or thick.<br><br>-the little open circle/hook/shape thing on the faceplate is the proper thread guide for sewing and bobbin winding, also i saw another comment on you missing your tension check spring! <br><br>-also the big silver knob in the middle of your hand wheel can be disengaged to wind the bobbin without the needle moving!

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• ER

  @erinm2765 · 5 years ago

  This is delightful! You and Constance have probably recreated a scene straight out of 1901 :)

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