I have a 15-91 (from 1951, for a bit of confusion) as my primary machine, and I adore it.
Make sure you get the right bobbins, if you go this route. The "15" in my machine's name means it takes "Class 15" bobbins. The old metal ones are best, but every JoAnn's sells plastic class 15 bobbins. :) The old straight-stitch machines are great workhorses, to make just about anything you could imagine. If you look, you can find specialty feet that do all sorts of things-- Hemming feet that turn in a tiny hem & hold it for the sewing, Gathering feet that put in tiny pleats after a set number of stitches, Bias-feeding feet that help you put bias binding onto a piece of fabric, Buttonholer, etc. I'm currently playing with a hemstitcher, that puts holes into the fabric and pulls the fabric all around to put stitches where needed. :o The throat plate needs to be changed for this one, so the spike that pokes the holes does not damage the machine and to cover the feed dogs. And you can use it a lot while considering if you need other bells & whistles. You can kill these machines, but learning how to oil the beastie will make it live nearly forever. Good luck finding a machine that suits you. Oh, and when you are test-driving a machine, make sure you bring some fabric samples; most machines sew pretty well on thin starched fabric like the samples the sellers will offer for your test drive. Ann in CT --- On Thu, 10/8/09, Dianne <[email protected]> wrote: > Get an old black Singer sewing > machine, one that does straight stitch. > Cheap, and you can't kill it. A model 201 or 15-91, > or 301 slant stitch>> > > Hear hear! I adore my Singer 99K, it does everything I want > and it's gorgeous too. > > Dianne _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
