1951 Vintage Singer 201K Sewing Machine

I thought it was about time for another blog post. I know I have been slacking lately, I apologise. I didn't realise that my last blog was back in February. Wow time does fly when you are busy.

Before I start telling you about my new Vintage Sewing Machine I better tell you what has been happening. My last blog post was just before Crufts, so lets start there.

Crufts 2012 was an amazing experience for us, not only did we have three of Luna's puppies entered in the Special Puppy Bitch class, Luna was entered in the Open Bitch Class so all in all we had 4 dogs to get ready for action on the day. Lily (Nightsabre Larissa by Lily) handled by her young owner Harriet (see photo) won the puppy bitch class, with her sisters Ebony (Nightsabre Elara in Ebony) and Deva (Nightsabre Venus of Lauraldean) getting a 3rd and 4th respectively. This was certainly a good start to the day. Our own Luna then took 2nd in a very strong Open class. At the end of the competition Lily had to go back in for the Challenge for Best Puppy in Breed and she Won!  It certainly was an amazing feeling to have bred a CRUFTS Best Puppy in Breed in our first litter. Needless to say we were over the moon with the results at CRUFTS this year. Ok, Luna didn't win Best of Breed for a third year, but then I wasn't sure the judge would like her in the first place. So all in all we had a fab day.

The pup we kept, Seina (Nightsabre Io for Seina) sadly didn't qualify for Crufts 2012 so she had to stay at home. Since Crufts we have done 2 shows and Seina has already qualified for Crufts 2013 with a well deserved 2nd place in the Puppy Bitch class at Bath Championship Show.  We also took her to Southern Counties Championship show where she won the Junior Bitch Class.

The next big thing to go on here was the 1st Birthday party for the Moon litter. We held the party a few days early on Saturday the 26th May and I am pleased to say that 6 our of the 7 puppies in the litter were able to attend the party. It was a scorching day, to be honest probably a bit too hot but at the same time everyone enjoyed themselves, including the dogs! So another big success for the Nightsabre Kennel. We are now concidering organising a yearly Nightsabre day.

Onto Sewing...

I have started making showing armbands for the dog showing community and named them Lunar Showbands. I have been busy on my little sewing machine creating several designs and working out the best way to contruct them. I launched the Lunar Showbands on Facebook on the 5th of May and have slowly been promoting them at the shows we have been attending over the last month.

Of course this little venture meant that I assessed my little Toyota sewing machine and realised that she is not really up to the job of making these showing armbands as I have to sew many layers together and I needed a machine that would be better suited to the job. After a lot of research into different sewing machines and their capabilities I came across "The Sewing Forum" were I found a mine of information and knowledge. This started to direct my attention towards Vintage sewing machines.

To cut a long story short (well a little shorter!), I found two Vintage Singer 201K's on Ebay that were within collecting distance, one was a hand crank and my preferred machine, the other an electric version with a knee lever control. The 201K with the hand crank was up first, I decided to be sneaky and try to put in a bid with 10 seconds to go... For a whole 2 seconds I had the highest bid. Unfortunately someone else had the same idea and beat my bid 2 seconds later. I didn't have a chance to put in a higher bid so I lost the auction.

A few days later it was getting close to the end of the auction on the electric 201K with the knee lever control. to be honest by this time I had completely forgotten that I was watching the item on Ebay. Luckily I got an email from Ebay reminding me that I only had a few minutes left to place a bid for the item. I decided to take a chance and see if I could get this machine instead. This time I waited until there was just 7 seconds to go to put in my bid and was lucky enough to win the auction.

So I collected my 1951 Vintage Singer 201K Sewing Machine yesterday morning and I was very surprised at the obvious good condition the machine is in. Okay it needs a bit of TLC and a good clean/ oiling and perhaps a service, as it hasn't had one according to the lady that I got it off. I'm so pleased with  my purchase, she is such a beautiful Lady, I can't wait to restore her back to her former glorious self.

I did actually make a start overhauling her today, give her a little TLC to put it more mildly :o).

There is a lot of grime, dust and gunk but I'm making good progress in refurbishing her. So far I have cleaned and oiled the bobbin case and the head assembly, cleaned face plate and the needle bar assembly and corrected the position of the sewing foot. Next I tackled the upper tension assembly, took it apart, cleaned and reassembled it.  It seems to be moving a lot smoother now and the dial can be turned from "0" through to "9" without too much resistance, before I overhauled this bit I couldn't turn it past "6" and whatever I tried the tension did not appear to change. I'm hoping that this problem has now been resolved.

Tomorrow I need to go get some more sewing machine oil so I can finish what I started. I'll do another blog post dedicated to the actual refurbishment of this lovely machine, with lots of photos showing the before and after, but for now I think this is it for today. My dinner is nearly ready and needs some attention. Roast Pork served with Roasted Potatoes and Broccoli...