Discovery

With my last big buying spree in Windfall, I am working to bring many of them inside to avoid any problems with garage storage. It's getting cool at night and sewing machines need to be kept at a stable temperature so they are making their way inside. The first one I looked at is the Signature URR-988C:

Signature URR-988C

a nice looking machine that has been dropped. That's right, it was dropped or hit with enough force the presser foot tension knob was bent and broke off the housing. This housing is part of the cast framework of the sewing machine so it cannot be replaced, only repaired.

Presser foot tension knob

Broken part circled on left: see the cracks?

 Why go to all of the fuss for one machine? I took a good look at it and noticed there was a large flat disk on the top of it, the changeable cam for decorative stitches, and thought it looked familiar. Looking through my sets of cams I found this:

Complete set of accessories and cams for Signature URR-988

I found this set of accessories at a resale shop sometime in the past three years and picked it up, hoping I could use it one day. Today is that day! Except I need to get this broken piece fixed. I showed it to Roland who gave me a great suggestion to have the piece drilled for screws to keep it in place (I have a new knob already) so I will need to find a machinist who can and will do this for me. So for now the Signature URR-988C is waiting.

Next up is the New Home 108, a more modern sewing machine with a built in carrying handle and a nice variety of stitches. It just needed to be cleaned up and oiled, already stitching just fine. Just to do due diligence I took off the bottom covers and found something brown and dry flaking off the bottom covers. It hadn't dripped down the sides because there were no streaks, it wasn't oily or sticky, just a thin brown sheet of something that came off in flakes. Very weird but easily cleaned off and she's a great beginner's sewing machine now.

New Home 108

The tension was perfect and stitch quality was good:

Front of stitch sample

Bobbin side of stitch sample

There was a four step buttonhole that wasn't great but did make an adequate buttonhole, nothing fancy but slightly uneven. Maybe I should have looked in the manual that came with the machine to see if I should be using a special presser foot but for my first try it wasn't too bad. Yup, a nice beginner's sewing machine that I will sell with that in mind.

Wish I could have added the Kenmore I've been practicing free motion on but that's going to have to wait until next time so stay tuned for further reviews of the machines that came in a Windfall!