Wednesday, September 3, 2008

1958 Singer Slant-O-Matic Sewing Machine



Well heres the story. When I was growing up if I needed something sewed my mom or grandma could stitch it right up for me. Now I live in a different town. EVERY pair of pants I own is ripped.

When I showed up to work last week I came walking up to my office and my daughters mom was there. The pants I had on were ripped on the right side seam. They were ripped about 12 inches. My pant leg was flopping around and my leg was clearly visible.

I was having had bad day and my ribs hurt like hell from an accident I had. I dont recall the exact conversation but I basically said ALL of my pants are ripped and nobody in this town sews.

I mean I have asked many people. In the past I have paid someone a few bucks for a quicky sew job or to slap a patch on an old pair of jeans. For some reason now I could find no one.'

At work i taped my pant legs up. Yes I taped them up. My ex laughed but I did what I had to do.

I ride my bicycle or walk everywhere. When I ride my bike I catch my pants in the chain and rip the seam. Thats why all of my pants are ripped. I don't have much expendable income so I can't just go buy new pants.

That weekend I was at my exes house spending time with her and my daughter. She mentioned that her aunt did have an old sewing machine for sale and she would call to see if she still had it or had sold it. I said I would definitely be interested.

SO over the weekend I ended up buying a 1958 Singer SlantO-Matic sewing machine for $15.00 .
Yesterday evening I busted it out and set it up. It still has the original manual. Thank god for that or I never would of got past plugging it in. 

It took me about 4 hours to get my first pair of pants sewed up. I spent forever trying to get the thread and bobbin set up. When I finally got it working the thread busted. I would rethread it and go again. Same results. I finally got it going and stithed up my first pair of pants. It wasn't pretty but it will work perfectly fine for me. I was so excited I got them stitched up and the sewing  machine working.

I was so stoked up I grabbed another pair of khaki pants to sew up. I immediately ran into problems. My thread was busting and it was not sewing. "WTF"...I thought. I just had it going fine. I realized I had forgot to lower my Presser Foot. I lowered it and my needle thread busted again. I changed needles and put in a brand new size 14 needle.

I rethreaded everything and I was back in business.

I have no scrap material so after I stitched up my two pair of pants I grabbed an old ball cap. I picked out one of the fancy stitches and tested it out. It came out looking EXACTLY like the picture in the Singer manual! Yeah Baby!

My two stitching jobs would of took an average sewer 10 to 15 minutes at most. It took me about 4 1/2 hours. If I would of had someone here to ask questions it would of gone a lot smoother and faster.

I ran into multiple problems and overcame them all with patience. The biggest problem I had was with the thread from the bobbin. The manual said to lower the needle until it picked up the thread from the bobbin. It never happened. I tried everything. Still not sure whats wrong. I overcame the problem by removing the throat plate and then feeding the thread up.

I'll find a good forum on the web and ask a few questions there. I will also be going to visit my mom in 9 days and will ask her for some tips too. 

The sewing machine has already paid for itself. The last time I paid someone to do some mending work for me I paid $15.00. $15.00 is how much I paid for my 1958 Singer Slant-O-Matic sewing machine. 

As the manual says "The Slant-O-Matic - The Greatest sewing Machine Ever Built!" Or at least it was in 1958. 50 years later this American made sewing machine still works. Do you think a Chinese built sewing machine would last 50 years?