I bought a Singer (and a stupid question)

You finish the seam by backstitching 3 or 4 stitches to prevent unraveling. Then just clip the threads close to the fabric and call it good.

Kathleen

There's an oval cartouche like bit on the bed of the machine at the right hand side, under the badge on the pillar. The combinations of letters and numbers there is the serial number.

New belt is probably a good move. As for the foot, show me pix and I'll try to identify it.

Depends what you are doing...

Long straight seam on a garment: back-tack! :) Just flip the stitch length lever up to the top, and sew about 6 or 10 stitches backwards! :) If you have an older 99 that has the turning knob length regulator, just stop a thread or two from the edge and turn the work round and stitch back over the previous half inch or so (mine is like that).

If the seam is crossed by another seam and/or likely to be trimmed off at the end, don't bother to finish it. I've never had to worry about one coming undone, and I sew professionally.

It's on there somewhere...on the bed, either on top or below, near the edges.

A new belt will make a world of difference, also make sure to completely check the wiring over, to make sure there are no cracks or brittleness.

...no such thing!

With some of these models there was no reverse. My grandmother uses to make very tiny stitches to start, then lengthen them. SOmetomes she would stitch about three stitches, lift the presser foot, move the material, lower the foot, and stitch over the stitches she just made.

Enjoy!

-Irene

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

--------------

I very rarely backtack a machine-sewn seam: you lose more by weakening the fabric than you gain by strengthening the stitches.

If the end of the seam will end up inside a hem or another seam, nothing at all need be done -- unless it is likely to come undone before you can get the hem or the other seam sewn. (I vaguely recall having had trouble with this when I was younger.)

Making the first and last half inch of stitches smaller can help. (But not so small that the needle-holes overlap!) Or you can leave an inch or more of tails, and pull on them to tighten the stitches up again when required. (Cut the tails off after sewing the crossing seam or pinning the hem.) If you expect to really maul the fabric around, tie the two threads together in a square knot.

At the point of a dart, I stitch beside the fold for a while to twist the two threads into an inch or so of cord, then tie a knot in the cord: form the cord into a circle over the point of the dart, use a pin or needle to pull the ends of the threads through this circle, then stick the pin through the circle into the point of the dart and tighten the knot around it, so that it ends up as close as possible to the fabric. Then trim the cord to about half an inch.

It's probably a good idea to leave a long tail the first time you try, so that you can tie the knot without the pin

-- but use the pin to control where the knot ends up.

When you do need to thread the ends into a needle to hide them, it's nearly always sufficient to simply poke or draw them inside something. If the threads are quite long, take a long stitch through the french seam or whatever -- check the other side before drawing the needle through, to make sure that you are going between the layers rather than under them -- and cut the thread close to the fabric under slight tension, so that the end pops back inside.

If the thread is too short for this, push the needle in where you want the thread to go, then thread it. It will unthread itself when all is inside the seam.

When a tuft follows the needle out of the hole, you can snip it under tension or, if too short for that, stick the needle through the upper layer and wave the point back and forth between the layers until it catches the thread and pulls it in. This last is also a good save when you cut the thread a tad too long, but so short that you can't snip it again. Or stretch the fabric gently; thread-ends often pop back in by themselves if given a bit of encouragement.

When the threads are *really* short, thread the needle and push it between the layers eye first. When the needle has gone in far enough that the thread is free of it, pull it out again.

When you sew two pre-hemmed edges together (the tops of the slits in my poncho shirts, for example) it is necessary to put in a bar tack, work a crows-foot tack, sew on an applique', sew a bit of tape across the seam -- or something. Except when you *want* the seam to unravel; I left the ends of the seams in my Youth-Hostel sheet sack entirely raw, so that strain undoes the stitches instead of tearing the fabric. Much easier than putting in a gusset, and it folds flatter and weighs a gram or two less. The stitches can't ravel very far without help -- think how often you have to snip the thread when undoing a seam on purpose.

Joy Beeson

And for yet another way of accomplishing the same thing: "stall" the fabric from being moved by the feeddogs for a few stitches at the beginning and end of a seam. (Careful at first, though... if you tug too hard, you may wind up breaking a needle!).

And yet another way: sew a few stitches forward, stop, lift the presser foot, move the fabric back several stitches worth, stitch again.

And a fidgety way to sew a dart that requires no knots:

1) measure the dart, and reel off about 2x that length of thread from your bobbin -- the thread remains attached to the bobbin. 2) unthread the needle with the upper thread, and wind that thread back onto the spool. 3) thread the bobbin thread end through the needle backwards (i.e., if your needle threads front to back, insert the bobbin thread from the back to the front. 4) thread the upper thread path with the bobbin thread, tying the end of the bobbin thread onto the end of the thread from the spool. Take up any slack at the needle. 5) sink the needle into the point of the dart, catching only a single thread; sew the dart from the point to the wide end. Clip the thread ends.

Kay

Thanks to everyone once again. I think I need to go away and practice.

I don't think I'll be doing darts just yet though.

An update on the machine - I finally found the serial number underneath. It's an early 1961 number so hopefully that's old enough to be well-built and reliable machine (unless it was a Friday afternoon job!)

I've put a couple of pics of the extra foot at

if Kay or anyoneelse would like to try and identify it. It's got a sort of spiral downthe centre. Cheers

Anne

That's for doing narrow rolled hems! :) I have lots of them for different machines. Here's how you use it:

and plenty other pix appear in the Creating a Court Gown project on my web site - URL below.

1961 is a good year for a 99K! :) Late enough to go backwards, early enough to be all metal and a tough little machine. I do love mine - the Frankensinger cobbled together out of at least two others after an accident with a ship! Irene thinks they are indestructible, but a 40 foot drop into the hold of a ship will do nicely! :(

Anne, that's a 'narrow hemmer' foot, Singer put them in most of the attachments boxes that came with the machines.

-Irene=20

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

--------------

This is really easy to do with a wind-in-place bobbin on some Singers. You just wind some thread on the bobbin and don't clip the thread, so you have a continuous thread from the spool through the threading route into the bobbin. Nifty.

I've had a look at your site. Lot's of nice stuff and pretty dresses. But's it's also scary stuff for a beginner.

I'm going to concentrate on cutting out rectangular pieces and sewing them together. Little bags to start with and then perhaps a bedspread. One day I *might* try to do something with the skirt pattern I bought last summer.

If this one gets dropped it's mostly likely to be on my foot and I can imagine who'll come off worst.

Anne

Anne, thanks for the tip on where to look for the serial number on the

99K. Mine is set into a cabinet that looks as if it is 1940s or 50s. I found it in a thrift store, and it nagged me for 2 weeks before I caved in and bought it. There is something indescribably appealing about that machine.

There's something wrong with the tension on mine, and I will manage to fix it eventually, just as soon as I build up the tolerance for fiddly work like that.

Miz Spike

Look at

This is the best darn site for understanding how to deal with a tension on an older machine. Gotta love it!

An addendum I remembered while doing a bit of mending this morning:

when you need to hide a tuft of thread that you overlooked while it was still possible to pull it in from the other side, and a needle big enough to lasso it is too big to push in eye first,

thread both ends of a separate piece of thread into a needle,

poke the needle in where the tuft emerges from the fabric,

bring it out well beyond the length of the thread to be hidden,

pull the needle until the eye touches the fabric,

arrange the loop of thread to encircle the tuft,

pull the two ends until the loop is small,

use fingernails if you've got 'em or tweezers if you don't to make sure the tuft is still inside the loop,

pull the loop out of the needle,

pull the needle out of the fabric.

-------------------------- And next time, check for stray ends *first*.

Joy Beeson