Bait

The universe felt it was necessary to remind me this week that it still has a robust and functioning sense of humor.

It has been some time since I shopped for any vintage sewing machines. I’ve been good and have not looked at Craigslist, LetGo, or Facebook Marketplace. Part of that is an acknowledgement that I need to do something with the machines I have and part of that is because prices have gone through the roof. Everyone thinks that Grandma’s old machine is worth thousands of dollars.

[Someone just listed a vintage Necchi for sale on the Kalispell Craigslist. For $200. The description tells me everything I need to know—it came with the original bill of sale, so they likely extrapolated that price to today’s dollars. The pictures only show the machine tucked into the cabinet. I can’t tell much other than it is either a Necchi BF or BU and it’s missing some parts. The listing claims “Will sell fast!” I am just going to sit over here munching on popcorn while I wait for the price to drop.]

On Tuesday, I peeked at Craigslist just out of curiosity. Besides the Necchi, there were also two Singer sewing machine heads for sale, one of which was a Singer 9W. The Singer 9W is not exactly a unicorn, but it’s uncommon enough that it’s still on my (very pared-down) want list. And this one was cheap, at $20. I hemmed and hawed. Ultimately, though, I didn’t call.

The machine was still listed yesterday morning. I had to run errands, so I wrote down the seller’s number in case I decided the machine was worth checking out. My first stop was the organic market in the town just south of us. The owner bought four of my aprons at wholesale to carry in the store. Add to those the one I sold from the website at the beginning of the week and I am now out of inventory. Guess what is on the schedule for the next couple of days?

On my way out of town, I stopped at a little thrift store to see if they had anything interesting. I’ve scored a couple of really nice items there. This box was sitting on top of a sewing machine cabinet (no machine inside, though):

Hey, I have an industrial sewing machine! I scooped up the box. I didn’t even bother to look inside. It was only $1.50 and I figured it would be a nice surprise. I also found a bag of sewing machine attachments for a dollar.

[There are days when I am sure I have tapped into some kind of energy stream. I know this because the back of my neck gets a bizarre tingling sensation. Those are the times when I run across some really big finds. I’ve walked into a thrift store and gotten that tingly feeling and the next thing I know, I’ve tripped over a Necchi sewing machine priced at $10. It doesn’t happen often, but I have learned not to ignore it when it does.]

“Well,” I thought to myself as I headed up to Kalispell, “this is turning out to be a good day.”

I was on my way to Joann Fabrics when I passed the Goodwill store and decided to stop. I’ve found some good stuff there, too. I am not thrilled with the way they package craft items—in plastic bags hanging on pegboard—but I suppose it keeps things neater for them. And hanging in front of me was a large plastic bag full of more sewing machine attachments! Yay! And they were half price! Double yay!

The universe had been plenty generous by putting all of these sewing machine attachments in my path. I decided that I should be grateful and go home and forget about the sewing machines, so I headed for home. There, I unloaded all of my treasures and started looking through them to see what I had bought.

The box with the industrial attachment held a binder:

Nice.

There were three Singer walking feet:

A buttonhole foot that looks like it might fit a slant shank machine? Needs more research.

A darning attachment:

Price, $1.00. LOL.

And there was this collection of feet:

I puzzled over these for a few minutes. I knew what the feet themselves were for; I was confused by the way they attached to the machine. Back-clamping feet are not unheard of. Some of the Singer 66 models have back-clamping feet. They don’t look like this, however. I went over to the computer and started Googling “back-clamping sewing machine feet” and sifting down results from there. It took a few minutes, but I found pictures that looked like these feet.

And wouldn’t you know it—I had purchased a bag of sewing machine feet for a Singer 9W machine. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

All I could do was laugh. This bag of feet was bait. “Bait” is a well-documented phenomenon in the vintage sewing machine world. It’s what happens when someone acquires the odd attachment or part and, within hours or days, finds the very machine that attachment belongs to. I’ve seen it happen to other people.

I don’t need to be hit over the head twice. I picked up the phone, called the Craigslist seller, and asked if the machines were still available. “Yeah,” he said, “I got about 15 calls right after I listed them, but nobody ever showed up to look at them or buy them.”

“I will be there in half an hour,” I said, and jumped into the car and went back to town. I came home with this:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a Singer 9W. What makes this model special? The Singer corporation purchased the Wheeler and Wilson Manufacturing Company in 1905. W&W had been selling a model known as the D9 for domestic use. (They also made industrial machines.) Rather than junk the existing stock of already-cast blanks, Singer rebadged the W&W D9 as the Singer 9W, with a few minor changes, and continued to sell the machine. This one has been “rode hard and put away wet,” as we say out here, but I’ve seen this model restored and I know its potential.

[Check out this blog post from Still Stitching, which does sewing machine restoration, to see their completely restored and repainted Singer 9W. It’s down toward the bottom of the post. What a gorgeous machine.]

The bobbin assembly is missing and I’ll have to find a replacement. The feet I bought do indeed fit on the presser bar, although the thumb screw is missing:

The bag of feet doesn’t include a straight-stitch foot. Those are still available, however. I may run across some other missing parts when I get a chance to work on this machine. I’m not sure if I’ll try to restore it completely myself. I might contact Still Stitching and have it restored as a gift to myself. The machine is old enough that there is no motor boss, so I can’t attach a hand crank. I have no shortage of treadle bases, however.

I asked the seller how he had ended up with these machines. (I did buy the second one, too, which will get its own blog post.) He owns a custom cabinetry shop and had just finished a big install for someone who wanted the bases from these machines for his decor but not the heads. I have opinions about people who separate machines from bases, but I kept them to myself. And I have no way of knowing if the bag of feet I bought were the ones that originally went with this machine and just got separated in the process, or if they truly were put there as bait. I am inclined to think they went together, as the machine isn’t that common, especially in a place like Kalispell, Montana.

I hear the universe laughing.