Sometimes dating a machine isn't as easy as it seems. Here is the serial number.
That first letter is hard to read because of that black splotch. It looks like a C to me. I even took a rubbing and it still looked like a C. I looked up C series machines, and they were all made in Prussia, but the records were lost in the 1940's. As far as I knew Red Eye decals were mostly an American thing, and when I looked up Prussian Singers, they had a different medallion than this one.
With the decals indicating American, and the medallion being wrong for Prussia, I decided the first letter must be a G, and from there it was easy to date. This machine was made in 1918, so it is 100 years old!
I knew it was an early Singer 66, because of the decorative end plate and the fact the presser foot is back clamping.
New sewing machines are pretty ugly compared to these beauties.
Now that school is out for the summer, I wanted to do a project with the grandtwins. I decided I'd like to use a handcrank to teach them, since I don't have to worry about them going much too fast on an electric. At 7, I thought it would be too hard for them to reach everything on a treadle.
I dug out my five inch squares from my scrap user system. I wasn't sure how interested they'd be, and I didn't want to work with anything smaller. I decided a 4x5 layout would work well for a doll/stuffed animal quilt.
First rows done. I didn't want to press my luck, or have them get tired of sewing, so I would only have them sew a couple seams before we'd take a break. I had them for a couple days, so there wasn't a big rush.
They eventually got more comfortable with the machine. I was glad a had an adjustable height table to put the machine on, lowering the table made it much easier for them to work the machine.
I ended up doing the quilting and binding myself, but they helped pin-baste. They went home from their three days at Nana's house with finished quilts! New quilters at my house, on a 100 year old machine!
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