Singer Featherweight

I've seen quite a few of these little Singer Featherweight machines - at auctions and thrift stores - always fetching a higher price than I can understand - what is so special about these ?

Here's just one example - local online estate auction -

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After the auctioneer fee and sales tax - this one will sell for ~ $ 300. !

It can't be the " rarity " - it is one of the most common vintage machines that I come across.

I'm accustomed to paying ~ $ 50. for the vintage Elna machines .. John T.

Reply to
hubops
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FWIW, I bought my anchor-weight Husqvarna for $3 at a yard sale (only missing one of the stitch-choice wheels) and a box of attachments at a rummage same for a buck. I love it.

Last time I looked the standard price for a Featherweight was $250. Inflation.

My guess: they were made in a a time when quality mattered and they can be transported easily from place to place. If I were going to buy a new machine I'd choose a Brother based on the price/performance of the dirt-cheap laser printer I bought 9 years ago and which still works perfectly.

Reply to
The Real Bev

They are relatively light and luggable for a Singer machine of that era (though I prefer the 301 to the 221/222) and are pretty reliable little machines. When quilting took off during the early 90s, they developed the reputation for "perfect stitches" (true for just about any decent straight stitch machine, or multi-stitch machine with a straight stitch plate and foot), and became quite fashionable. The prices went up and have been slow to come down. I had several given to me in the late 70s and 80s... I rehabbed them and passed them on to someone who could use them. Shoulda hung onto them and gotten rich a decade or so later.

;-)

Kay

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Reply to
Kay Lancaster

OK Thanks. I guess that would be similar with the Elna " Grasshopper " from the early - mid 1950's .. also very common in my area - smallish ; knee-control - said to make nice straight stitches. - and asking bigger prices - not sure if they are actually getting those prices .. John T.

Reply to
hubops

I about dropped my teeth when a quilt shop owner told me he'd just bought a boring black 222 for his wife, and paid $750 for it, back in 1995. And it had rusty spots on the chrome!

That was about the time I kept finding abandoned 15-91s, 66s, 301s and 201s at the foot of my driveway, after it became known that I rehabbed them and gave them to a couple of charities to pass on.

I sewed on a 301 for 35 years, and the aluminum body sure made it easier to lug around (and I did!) compared to the cast iron beauties I could have afforded then. But that's really the only reason I'd go back to a straight stitch only machine: I had to have something vintage to haul with me.

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Reply to
Kay Lancaster

Put it this way. My Dad traded my Mom's Featherweight for a "modern" zigzag machine (that is now itself fairly well regarded). She tried it out. He slept on the couch for a month.

I don't really know what's good about it--I was just a kid and didn't sew and I've never had a chance to use one since. But she was quite distraught.

Reply to
J. Clarke

I stand corrected - $ 410. ! ! .. plus auctioneer fee plus sales tax ... Yikes. John T.

Reply to
hubops

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