Some of you may know from previous posts we prefer antique items. We're not spend thrifts though, we always try to save our money and spend wisely. We have a long wish list that is slowly being shortened… And my last wish list line has been crossed out.
I grew up with a grandmother who used a treadle sewing machine. I loved listening to the steady rhythm of her foot on the pedal and I was sometimes allowed to pedal it for her. I don't know what happened to that machine though I did get their piano. I've always regretted not asking for that as well.
Someone posted on Freecycle the same style sewing machine as well as various magazines and patterns from the 1800s to the 1920s. I asked to receive all of the items the woman was sharing. She told me that the magazines were gone and that someone else was first in line for the sewing machine.
I'm always a true believer in if you're meant to have it it will happen. So I shrugged it off but was still hopeful. I was so excited when she told me that it was mine. DH and I went to pick it up this past Thursday.
I grew up with a grandmother who used a treadle sewing machine. I loved listening to the steady rhythm of her foot on the pedal and I was sometimes allowed to pedal it for her. I don't know what happened to that machine though I did get their piano. I've always regretted not asking for that as well.
Someone posted on Freecycle the same style sewing machine as well as various magazines and patterns from the 1800s to the 1920s. I asked to receive all of the items the woman was sharing. She told me that the magazines were gone and that someone else was first in line for the sewing machine.
I'm always a true believer in if you're meant to have it it will happen. So I shrugged it off but was still hopeful. I was so excited when she told me that it was mine. DH and I went to pick it up this past Thursday.
It also came with the original belt, a new belt, various other 'extra's' that are original to this machine. She also gave me a manual that is not original, but will email me if she finds it. She pointed out it would be in German and DH was quick to say I can read it to her.
Here is a photo of it in my 'office' at home.
A completely foot powered machine. This machine was made in the late 1800's. The company went on to make bicycles and then motorcycles, but sewing machines were it's first machine venture. Not much literature out there on them. I'm very happy to have gotten it.
Congratulations, that is so exciting! And free to boot! Wow!
ReplyDeleteMy Polish grandmother used to sew on a similar machine but I think it was a Singer. She had moved from Poland to France before WWII so I'm not sure of the history of the machine, if she had gotten it second-handed via friends or her employers or what. She passed away just a couple of years ago and I have no idea what happened to the machine.
Do you plan on actually using it to sew or will it be more of a nostalgic decoration in your house? Either way, it sounds like you're really enjoying having it.
Both I hope. Not that I have a lot of free time… But I'm hoping during the winter I can get the belt on it and threaded up and at least get some mending done perhaps even some hemming of items. I am really happy. She actually only lives a few streets away from my grandparents lived.....but I didn't think to ask her how she acquired it.
DeleteAwesome! I had a great aunt teach me how to sew on a treadle Singer machine when I was 12, spending Summer with her in the Berkshires.
ReplyDelete