A BLAST FROM MY SEWING PAST

Back in 1974, when I celebrated my 21st birthday, my parents gave me a sewing machine. It was a Pfaff 1197, and it was listed as the best sewing machine for the year in the Which report. I had it for forty years, during which time it went in only a couple of times for repair. Exactly forty years on, it finally broke down, and we took it in to the sewing machine shop and they said a particular part had failed, and after a week or so they said they were unable to find a replacement on the Internet. I accepted that my beloved machine (which I actually used to earn my living for a few years) had finally died, and asked them to dispose of it for me. Broken-hearted, I reported the news to Mum, who immediately said, “Would you like me to buy you a new one?” She generously did exactly that – I eventally chose myself a Brother electronic machine and thought that was the end of the story. That happened nine years ago, in 2014.

That Brother machine is a very good machine, but my goodness it’s complicated! I wasn’t doing a lot of sewing at that time, and each time I’ve used it, until recently, I have had to get the (really thick and complicated!) instruction book out just to remember how to thread it!! It has a lot of bells and whistles and has a lot of very pretty fancy stitches, as well as several different versions of buttonholes (my old machine just did one kind, which was perfectly adequate.) One great plus on the new machine is that it will thread the needle for you – something I am struggling to do these days with my cataracts…

There have been many times during the past nine years that I have regretted my hasty decision to ask the sewing machine shop to dispose of the old Pfaff. If I had kept it, I could have searched again for the required part, as these things do come up every now and then, and there are sites that specialise in parts for old machines. Much as I appreciate Mum’s fabulous gift, and the fact that the Brother is a very good sewing machine, I have hankered after my old Pfaff again and again. Every now and then I have searched online for a replacement, and this week I was successful.

The machine, listed on Ebay, was reported to have a cracked case. The machine itself was said to sew OK, but the bottom thread was snarling up all the time. I asked the seller for more details and they said they had to be honest that they hadn’t any idea about sewing and had followed a tutorial and couldn’t get it to work properly. I spoke to my hubby about it and he suggested I took a risk and went for it, and if I couldn’t get it to work, we could take it in to the sewing machine shop and see if they could fix it. Failing that, I could look out for another one and maybe the shop would be able to cannibalise one or other of the machines and cobble together a working model!

I went back online and found I had a message from the seller, offering me a reduced price because I had showed an interest – this was quite a bit less than the original asking price, so this decided me and I went for it. It was due to arrive tomorrow, but it came today.

Getting it out of the packaging, I had a huge feeling of nostalgia and a really warm fuzzy feeling to see “my old machine” back again! Everything was so familiar, after having used it for forty years!

Everything looked exactly the same. On my original machine, the removable table had lost one of its grommits and it was a bit loose, but both are present on this machine, and the table clicks in firmly.

However, the reverse lever appears to be broken and is flopping about loose, and doesn’t do anything.

You should be able to press it down in order to get the machine to do as many reverse stitches as you need to fasten the ends of the sewing, and if you want to do this without having to press the lever, you simply flip the lever over anticlockwise and it will stay in position. On this machine, this doesn’t work either. I removed the top of the machine and peered inside but couldn’t really see what was going on.

I am going to phone the sewing machine shop in the morning and tell them what I have got, and explain the problem, and ask if they can fix it – they will be able to identify the damaged or missing part and we might be able to find a replacement online. Failing that, I can always turn the work around in the machine to do my reverse stitches but this will be a bit of a bother to do!

This is the selector dial on the front of the machine. Some of the positions feel a bit wobbly and it doesn’t click definitely into place as it should, so it is probably worn. Again, the shop may be able to do something about this. I haven’t tried anything fancy on the machine yet but the basic needle position changing seems to work perfectly, as do the zigzag positions, and the stitch length control is fine too. It’s just the central dial that is a bit uncertain.

These are the fancy stitch buttons on the top of the machine. The black button to the left is pressed to release any button you have depressed. As far as I remember, there are quite a few combinations to create different stitches, listed in the instruction manual.

The foot control is completely different from my original one, but it seems to work OK.

The case.

As in the Ebay description, there is a crack in the case. It doesn’t affect the functioning of it, though.

The top of the case. On arrival, one of the two small black latches near the handle was missing, but I found it inside, and was able to snap it back into place.

The two halves of the top of the case open up to reveal a useful storage area. I was pleased to see that there were quite a few spare bobbins. I have kept the ones from my original machine. Most of them are metal, and they are not the same as the Brother ones.

Also inside the lid of the case was a selection of pressure feet. I am not sure if this set is complete, but I noticed that the zipper foot was there. I didn’t really use anything apart from this, and the basic sewing foot, anyway.

When the machine arrived, the foot control and other bits and pieces were stowed under the main arch of the machine in this plastic frame. I remember my original machine having this, and after its initial arrival, I never used it again.

The small bag conains what looks like a missing part – I am hoping this is something to do with the non-functioning reverse lever. What the two other plastic pieces are for, I have no idea, but I shall keep them to take into the shop if they think they can get this machine functioning fully again.

The instruction manual. I have kept my original copy, which is actually in better condition than this one.

Finally, my eventual successful bit of sewing on this machine.

The holes that you can see in this scrap of fabric are from my first attempts, which I ripped out. The problem reported by the seller, that the bottom thread was bunching up, made me wonder whether this was simply a tension issue, and this proved to be the case. I fiddled with both top and bottom tension settings and eventually got the machine to sew a decent line. This isn’t perfect because the top thread is thicker than the bobbin thread (both were already on the machine) but I know this will work, which is the main thing.

The only other problem with the machine is the hinge on the bottom part which you swing around to reveal the bobbin housing. This appears to be damaged so that the door droops a little when in place, and it doesn’t click nicely into place as it should. When opened, it droops badly, and to close it, you have to lift it and swing it back into place. This doesn’t affect the operation of the machine at all, but if the shop is able to repair the more important bits, and are able to do this as well, I certainly won’t complain. The machine must be forty to fifty years old and it’s pretty good for its age. This is a very robust model indeed with mostly metal parts (unlike most modern sewing machines which are largely plastic), and the fact that my original one did me sterling service (and a lot of work) for forty years with only a couple of minor repairs during that time, speaks for itself. If it can be brought up to scratch, I am hoping for many more years of service from this replacement machine.

I shall be most interested to hear what the sewing machine shop has to say about all of this. If they think there is a chance to get the reverse lever repaired, and also possibly to tighten up the operation of the selector dial, I shall take it in and ask them to do it, and also to give the machine a thorough service and check-over.

I am very thrilled to have this machine and really hope it can be made to function fully again. Looking at it is like welcoming back an old friend after many years’ absence. It played such an important part of my life for so many years, and the fact that it was my main 21st birthday present made it very special, and the loss of it was quite painful, like a bereavement. Even after nine years since I last saw my original one, everything is totally familiar to me and I was threading it and installng the bobbin in its case, and handling it as if I last did it yesterday. Like riding a bicycle!

Shoshi’s got a serious case of the warm fuzzies!

Edit

I phoned the sewing machine shop the next day and she said to bring it in. She didn’t think the reverse lever would present any problems at all. It has now gone in, and they told me it would be a week to ten days before there would be any news. I live in hope!

Further edit…

Having got the machine back from the shop, it is fully repaired and works beautifully! I am super-thrilled. The rotating selector dial is still a little loose but it seems to work OK.