What a Pretty Machine — Janet Szabo

That Singer 9W I picked up last fall has been sitting on the floor of my office, staring at me. I had this nagging feeling that I should work on it, even though my plan was to leave it alone until I could send it off to have it restored properly. However, I’m starting to get the itch to work on some machines. Work was light yesterday morning—as I expected it to be because the clinic was closed on Monday—so when I had done my part to help clear out the queue, I logged off, picked up the machine, and headed for the kitchen table. If nothing else, I reasoned, at least I could get it cleaner for restoration than it was when I bought it.

I can take apart and reassemble a Singer 15 in my sleep simply because I have done so many of them. This machine, being an earlier model, was similar, but not identical. I had to pay attention when removing the shiny bits. So many tiny screws! The jewelry went into a bath of OxiClean, Dawn dish soap, and hot water. I had to change the water twice because it got so dirty.

I’ve cleaned the black-finish Singers with non-pumice Goop in the past. (DO NOT try that with the beige machines!—it will take the decals off.) That stuff is great for getting old grime and dried oil off machines. This one is old enough, though, that I chose to use the recommended method of wiping the finish down with sewing machine oil. I went through half a quart of SMO and lots of old rags. The finish was dry and soaked up a lot of the oil. The decals are worn, but after a few coats of oil, they came back to life.

I turned the machine over and slathered Goop on the works underneath to dissolve all that old caked-on oil. I’ve discovered that if I do that, leave the machine to sit for a while, then come back with an old toothbrush and some extra-fine steel wool, I can get the mechanicals on the underside nice and clean. I did the same for the needle bar and presser foot bar.

I still have to polish up the jewelry and the handwheel and put everything back in place, and she could probably use a few more coats of SMO, but I am pleased enough with how she looks that I have abandoned my plan to have her refinished.

Had the decals silvered, I would have gone ahead with refinishing. These decals, although worn, are still beautiful. She has some pin rash (from a piece of fabric wrapped around the top bar to hold pins, which scratches the finish), and it looks like someone tried to carve some initials into the base, but these are hard-won battle scars. I know what this machine must have looked like when it came out of the factory and I know how spectacular it could look after a refurb, but sometimes less is more.

The only piece missing is the bobbin case and a few bobbins. If I can locate one, I will pop this machine into an oak Singer treadle base and see if I can get her to sew. If not, she will still be a beautiful display piece.

And that itch has been scratched, for a few days, at least.

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We signed all the loan paperwork and will order the new hydraulic lift today, although it will be March or April before it arrives. I thought for sure the husband was going to take some time off to work on the new shop, but he is still out doing small concrete jobs when the weather cooperates. The latest big thing here in the valley is hops farms. (I’ve grown hops in my garden for 20+ years, so I know it will do well in our climate.) He has done concrete work for two of them. I look askance at these huge operations only because these tend to be boom-and-bust endeavors. When we first moved here, the big thing was mint. Lots of farmers invested in expensive distillation equipment to make mint oil to sell to toothpaste companies. In the fall, you could drive around the valley and see the huge “slugs” of leftover processed mint out in the fields. The smell permeated the air. Then Russian farmers got into the business, flooded the market with cheap oil, and the bottom fell out.

The next crop was dill. (That just made me crave pickles.) Same thing happened. Now it’s hops—using some of the same distilling equipment that came from those mint and dill operations. Perhaps these entrepreneurs can make it work. We certainly have enough breweries.

The husband told me yesterday that he could work with one of his general contractor friends as a framer on one of the hops farm projects, and another GC called him about a concrete slab. He has his pick of what he wants to do at the moment.