Her 98 th birthday is coming up in a couple months - a perfect deadline for giving her a makeover. A few hours and a box of q-tips later, we had her functional though still a sorry sight compared to her sisters. She came as a package deal with Bea, and I only narrowly escaped a third that day (fortunately there wasn’t enough room in the car for the cabinet). These old girls are made to work, and with some patience and a good cleaning, they usually still do.Ĭlara, poor dear, was one of the worst off.

Ones in good condition certainly sell for more, but since I get them for use and don’t mind cleaning up and tuning them, I don’t mind getting beaten-up machines. There was little resale value to begin with these machines were made by the millions and built to last, so they aren’t as rare as one might think. If we’re going so far already, why not give her a pretty new design to match? Cleaning her up as thoroughly as I planned would likely ruin any potential antique value, so there was no reason not to go all the way, really. I planned on doing a bit more than the usual cleaning with this one, mostly to see what a difference a timing adjustment and reduced friction from clean hardware would do for her stitching. But they were built well even if their mechanisms are frozen up with old grease and disuse they often need nothing more than a good cleaning and a little adjustment to come back to life.

A couple of these machines came in lovely condition, although most of them certainly did not – decades of grime, missing parts, and even faulty wiring are par for the course for cheap or free machines.

Singer red eye 66 sewing machine