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The Charity Shop Find & the Headache from Hell!

 Hi all

I've always been a fan of charity shops. Even before they became a fashionable way to reuse or  repurpose other people's unwanted clutter. 

To me, they have always been a gateway for feeding my addiction to vintage and antique sewing machines. 

Like this one. 

Isn't she a beauty? According to the markings, She is a New Home machine made in West Germany so I'm guessing she's a post war... maybe 1950s... electric sewing machine. 

 

She has a bolt-on motor and the shortest electric cable I have ever seen on a sewing machine!

Look at it! It's tiny! That's never going to reach any of my electrical outlets. I'm thinking that this vintage sewing machine was made to be in a cabinet... or a previous owner cut the cable for some reason. 

Maybe their outlets were mounted on a desk and they didn't want long cables cluttering the workspace? 

Who knows? One thing I do know, is this sewing machine is going to give me a little bit of a headache! 


 

Why? Because she's missing a few parts. 

Like the foot controller, the bobbin and the bobbin case. But she was just too shiny to leave behind. So I broke some of my own rules when it comes to buying a used sewing machine!

That's one of the biggest disadvantages of buying vintage and antique sewing machines from charity shops or second hand stores... they don't usually come with their accessories. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Sometimes the person donating the machine isn't aware that there are other bits that need to go with it. Other times... it's because some stores will separate the parts from the machine to double their profit. 

A charity shop I used to go to did that with all their electrical items, not just the sewing machines. The item would be on one shelf and the power cables and pedals would be in a box full of cables at the other end of the store. 

Without a label on any of them to say what item they belonged to. Sifting through a box full of electrical debris isn't my idea of a fun day out. 

Another thing I try to avoid is buying vintage and antique sewing machines without either the bobbin or the bobbin case. With so many different bobbins and bobbin cases out there looking for the right combination for a particular machine can be a headache from hell.

I should have known better!

My initial research into this New Home sewing machine hasn't turned up much information on bobbins or cases. But never fear! I will continue my search to get this gem back up and running.

 

The good news... I think I can get away without a base or cabinet! There is plenty of ground clearance between the base of the bobbin housing and the table surface.

Thanks to some clever and thoughtful machine markings, I also know what kind of needle it takes:

How cool is that? It takes a class 16 needle! Why don't all sewing machine manufacturers put the needle type on the needle plate? Our sewing lives would be so much easier! 

 

 
 
Better still, there's no mystery about the direction the hand wheel should be turned. Good news for me as it's the same direction as my Singer sewing machines. I need an arrow like this on my Wheeler & Wilson D9... I'm always turning that one the wrong way.
 
 
One thing that I was surprised to find, was the manual. Usually, that most important of little sewing books is the first thing to go missing. 


I've picked up two useful pieces of information from the front cover of the manual. The first is thanks to the handwriting across the top... "put zipper in with tape. Then sew over tape." Knowing that could come in handy next time I'm sewing a zip.

The second, the machine is a New Royal Zig Zag machine made by New Home Sewing Machine Co. I'm hoping that will help narrow down the search for the ever elusive bobbin combo. It probably won't but I am an eternal optimist so watch this space! 

Now all I need to do is figure out if I need a foot control or a knee lever... and where to get one! If any of you have any hints and tips, I'm open to suggestions!

Whichever link you follow in this post, I hope you find your way back here for the next one. In the meantime, whatever you’re sewing, whatever you’re sewing it with, embrace your creativity and have fun!

Thanks for reading! Bye for now.

Olly

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