I bought a Singer Featherweight at an auction today and have a question

How lovely, Donna. Treat her kindly and you'll have a treasure forever. Polly

My Mom uses hers for quilt piecing whenever she travels for whatever reason and will be gone for several days and will most likely have evenings free to sew. Her best example was when she was called for Federal Jury duty about three hours south of her home. She was there for a week and every evening for about 4 hours she sewed away in her motel room. Worked great for her.

At home she sticks with her Viking, but her Featherweight is her backup if her Viking is in for a basic preventative checkup.

I'm sure that she has other examples, but these are the ones that I know at the moment.

Steven Alaska

You got a great deal Donna! It sounds like she is in great shape too. Lucky, lucky you! I have 3 FW's - one of each color that was manufactured by Singer. I wanted/needed a FW, because they are much lighter than my Viking & I take a lot of classes & I'd rather take the FW, plus, I don't have to worry about messing up the computer in my Viking, with too much rough handling. All of mine "purr", which a lot of people will tell you theirs do as well. It makes a beautiful stitch & that is one of the biggest reasons people say they sew with them. Be sure to oil her - she may need a good going over if she hasn't been cared for in awhile.

Pauline Northern California

------------------------------------- Donna, they are the BEST for piecing -- better than any fancy new machine. The reason? -- the needle is fixed, only goes up and down so the stitches are perfectly straight. look at the straight line stitched by machines that do more, and they often have a slight wiggle to them. Add to that the lightweight and portability already mentioned by others. This is why my featherweight is my primary piecing machine, even though I have a good quality Pfaff for other sewing.

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Donna, I got one a couple of years ago and love it! I mainly wanted it for classes and travelling both of which I have done with her and she's a peach. As others have said, straightest stiching you will ever see. I also have a Viking as my primary but didn't want to wiggle the electronics with too much travelling plus it's fairly heavy, as is my old White. I use both (FW & White) as my back ups.

Kim in NJ

I adore my Featherweight! I got mine at auction, too, and it has every attachment ever made for it and the original book. The case was a disaster and not to be trusted, so I carried her in my arms and made a little nest on the floor of my car to get her home safely -- there is always a need for a few old towels in the trunk of the car! I went to the local Singer Center, and they were able to order a replacement case, and it's perfect! It does absolutely perfect straight stitching and seems perfectly content to be used while sitting on the closed up treadle. All she asks is to be kept clean and oiled.

I did quilt one small piece on the FW I "inherited" from MIL when she decided she didn't like to sew -- but the quilting was all straight line stuff, nothing fancy.

For piecing, that FW is wonderful -- beautiful stitch, reliable as all get out. I love mine for taking to quilt circle meetings, though I miss my knee lever to control the presser foot -- I find my knee searching for it. LOL! I use my Bernina at home almost exclusively, but I love having the FW to take along with me or for when my Bernina is in for its yearly "check up". :)

Would it be good for me to recommend a featherweight to our niece? She says she needs a machine for hemming jeans and I don't know if the FW is powerful enough to do that. I'm trying to keep her from buying an annoying machine that will kill any bent toward learning to sew. (We have to start somewhere.) Polly

Hi Polly, As much as I love my Featherweight, I would never sew anything as heavy as jeans on the little featherweight. I only do piecing on the machine. I'd suggest a 301 or 401 or one of the workhorses instead of the Featherweight. Bonnie NJ

Thank you, Bonnie. That's what I'd guessed but just wanted to be sure. That niece is far, far away and oh how I wish I could help her locate a workhorse instead of a new piece of junk. Would have been great if the FW could do it. Polly

Hi Polly, As much as I love my Featherweight, I would never sew anything as heavy as jeans on the little featherweight. I only do piecing on the machine. I'd suggest a 301 or 401 or one of the workhorses instead of the Featherweight. Bonnie NJ

Polly, I agree - I wouldn't do jeans on a FW. May I suggest your niece look on craigs list for a machine? Or her local freecycle site. I check craigslist quite regularly cuz ya just never know what you might find. I just type in 'sewing machine' in the search bar and make sure 'for sale' is where it's searching. Not sure about other areas but here in central NJ there are a gazillion machines. Everything from Red Eye treadles to new machines purchased last week and no longer wanted. Granted, haven't found another FW that I'm willing to pay the price for since I already have one that I got for $40 but there are several in the $100-300 range. But it is a great place to find machines that need to be re-homed without spending a fortune if you know what you want or just don't necessarily want to spend lots of $$.

Kim in NJ

Polly, I have an older Brother Jeans Machine (that's the real name for it) that will sew through anything. I even did the upholstry for a

57 Chevy of my sons on it. I don't know if they make that model anymore but it's a work horse and all metal. If your niece could find a used one of those, it would be all she needed to start with. Donna

Thank you all for the discussion about the Featherweight. I can't wait to try it out on piecing. It looks like I have a new 'baby' to play with in my quilt learning process. This has been fun! Donna

A Singer FW is a joy to use. I use mine when away from home,as it is a convenient and reliable portable. I prefer to use it for piecing, not quilting. It would be fine for a small placemat or such, but I find it rather slow for a larger quilt. Since my Pfaff is much quicker and has a built in dual feed, that is my choice for quilting. HTH. NAYY. PAT in Va

Again, Bonnie. Thank you so very, very much. I had told my niece that she needed an old Singer workhorse instead of a new plastic piece of junk but couldn't be specific. She's found 2 Singer 301s locally and she thinks they are 'just SO beautiful'. Ah. I very badly want her to be happy with a SM. Quilting will have to come later. This is a great beginning. Polly

Hi Polly, As much as I love my Featherweight, I would never sew anything as heavy as jeans on the little featherweight. I only do piecing on the machine. I'd suggest a 301 or 401 or one of the workhorses instead of the Featherweight. Bonnie NJ

Donna, I love piecing with my featherweight. I have a quarter inch foot for mine and walking foot. Pat

Polly, I would suggest a newer machine for hemming jeans. One with an electronic foot control. Let me explain..... On older machines the thrust on the needle depended on the speed it was sewing. If you slowed down, then you lost power to the needle and had to "help" it along by turning the hand wheel. With an electronic foot control, even on a mechanical machine, the thrust ratio stays the same at all speeds. So you can slow down and still get the penetrating power you need for denim and other difficult fabrics. I would suggest checking out a White, they may still have a model they call a "Jeans' Machine" or such. Fairly simple, mechanical machine but with the electronic foot control. Easy to use and designed just for people like your niece. Yes, I used to sell them. But I can recommend them because in some ways I would love to have one if I had the money and space for it. (But they are not an expensive machine, fairly low on the cost scale.....just that money is real tight at the moment and for the forseeable future. sigh)

Have fun, Pati, > Would it be good for me to recommend a featherweight to our niece? =A0She= says