Monday, November 27, 2017

Today in sidewalk finds



Earlier today, EVG contributor Derek Berg spotted this Singer antique treadle sewing machine with cabinet table up for grabs on Seventh Street ... a short time later, he spotted this couple taking it home...

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whether you keep it for the cabinet, or as use it a working sewing machine, THAT is the Find of the Day!

Anonymous said...

Good for that couple! Those old Singer sewing machines were built like tanks. My grandmother had one just like that, and my mother had it converted from treadle to electric-powered and continued to use it for decades. And BTW, not that the wooden stand is beautifully made & finished.

Brian said...

Where is the treadle on this machine? Not convinced this is worth much as an antique without the treadle.

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Score!

derek berg said...

It has a very worn out power cord so there probably wasn't a treadle.

Anonymous said...

Will this be on E Bay

Anonymous said...

Donnie, I like to think they will sew with it! Which would make me happy, for reasons that are unclear. (Nostalgia?)

Anonymous said...

This Singer machine has steel gears, so you can sew almost anything on it -- from batiste and crepe to heavy woolen fabric. It is the Mack truck of sewing machines. Great find!

Anonymous said...

@Donnie: It doesn't have to have the treadle, and it doesn't need to be sold as an antique. It could be converted to electrical-pedal use even today, or, for all we know, it could be sold/rented as a prop. Glad these people salvaged it, whatever they are going to do with it.

IzF said...

I grew up with one of those and learned how to sew on it.
The weirdest thing is that I dreamt about it LAST night!!!

Brian said...

Something like 20 years ago I saw a machine like this at the weekend antique fairs in what were then parking lots in the 20s on 6th avenue. I was told that although it looked old-fashioned and interesting, it was not worth much because there were so many of them in existence. This one does not have a treadle. Ok, if the machine works I can see someone taking it because they want to use it. Or if they like the look of the table they might try refinishing it and keeping it.

Anonymous said...

My grandma had this exact one. Only now since mr roommate brought used wood n bedbugs into my apt...I no longer take Street finds home. ;(. Cost me thousands to rid the bedbugs..

Anonymous said...

FIND ! A little cleaning and the machine is steady for another’s 30 or 40 yrs. far sturdier and effective than the cheap junk these days.

Anonymous said...

@Donnie: Nowadays there are not as many of them around, b/c so many people just threw them away. Only lately have I seen people begin to appreciate how tough that simple-looking machine is! Generations of my female relatives used machines identical to that, for everything from sewing fine silk items to making overcoats and coat linings.

Anonymous said...

I don't think that is true treadle machine where you literally pump the treadle to make it sew. This has an electric chord dangling off it. I had one like it and all it would do was a straight stitch. So reliable and always worked. Wish I had never replaced it with a machine that could do a zig zag stitch.