Excited by my success so far, my next adventure found me buying 2 machines in one day, both with good results. Over my lunch hour, I dashed to a house with a young man who had an Elna Top 300. Clearly, he had no idea what he had since he listed it at $40 so the story unfolded that his grandma didn't use it much and she said it didn't work too well. If he wanted to sell it, he could keep whatever he got. He set it up on a very crowded workbench in the garage and it did struggle with a tangled bobbin. I said I would take it for $35 and hoped it wasn't going to have any bigger problems once I got it opened up. Here she is, with a manual, attachments galore, even a generic walking foot so it was worth the price I paid so far:
Isn't she beautiful? So pristine! I can't decide if it's a Swiss made Elna because the manual seems to be printed in Switzerland but the machine seems to be too new. Here is another opportunity to do some research!
Before I went home for the evening, I stopped over to pick up another sewing machine across town that was only $15. The owner said her father gave it to her but she had another machine and was tired of this one always breaking threads. I was hoping I could adjust the tension to solve this problem so I took it home with me.
I did have to play quite a bit with it but I got it to work just fine, even did a great job on denim. Basic straight stitch and zigzag with a 4 step buttonhole were on its menu, along with a needle positioner. I made a nice cover for it with a pouch to hold the foot pedal and promptly sold it to a co-worker who just wanted to hem jeans and do small repairs. This machine can do that very well and will store nicely in a closet until it's needed.
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