**My apologies to my Facebook friends who have already heard this story.** This is the sad unloved condition of my little 221K when I found her.  This was my first sighting of an albino featherweight and I was smitten. But, so much dirt! I think the people at the thrift shop must have thought she was a toy since no self respecting sewist would let his/her tools get in this condition.  You can see there were places that stickers had been removed and the back of the case has some red magic marker on it.  But, do you see that price??? Be still my heart!

 

I had gone  to the thrift shop to look at a black Singer to check the serial number for the model. I had decided it wasn’t one I wanted so I was just wandering the shop. As I came around a corner there was a couple in front of me. The man said….”what’s that?”  The woman said….”the tag says Singer”. My heart stopped. Even if it was an empty case I would have bought it. I stayed back, lurking, looking uninterested but making sure nobody was coming up behind me. I was going to defend that aisle and the thing tagged Singer if that couple moved on.

Oh my gosh….they moved on! I swooped in and snatched up the case. An eagle after a rabbit couldn’t have been faster.  It was heavier than a box so it had something in it. I gently raised the lid and peeked inside, not even taking the machine out so I didn’t risk a sneak attack by another shopper. Keeping a straight, uninterested face I made my way to the front to pay.  Then my heart nearly stopped as the cashier said, “What’s this?” and opened it. Then she said,” looks like a pretty dirty toy”. Not saying anything I kept a poker face,paid for it and calmly walked to the door.  Ron was waiting in the car and he knew by the way I was smiling as I came out that I had found a treasure.

It took me 2 days to make sure she was properly cleaned and oiled. I am still working on getting the flywheel off. So many vintage machines had WD40 used on them. That stuff turns to varnish over the years and glues metal together. But she sews. And she sews perfectly.