Authentic Hand Cranks

The past few years I've been interested in hand crank sewing machines, my interest piqued because of the Treadle-On group and specifically, the River Rats TOGA I've been attending. When you see them in action and try one out for yourself, it's a bit hard to resist. They are generally old, beautiful, and somewhat smaller than a standard sewing machine. Up until this time I've converted a few 3/4 sized Singers into hand cranks with an after market crank:

Singer 99 with after-market handcrank added

They are not as nice but affordable and gives you a taste of this type of sewing. Then I bought a nice German hand crank and got a better one:

German hand crank in fancy wood case

The action is smooth, precise, and perfect for piecing blocks when quilting. Just in case you are not a quilter and ask "What is piecing?" as I once did, it's where you are sewing together the pieces cut out to make the whole of a block (and the blocks sewn together to make the top of the quilt, etc.). The more precise in cutting and sewing, the better your pieces fit together, look better, and you have fewer problems, at least with your quilting project. After using the German machine I had an opportunity to buy a Harris from Joe, something I wrote about in Three of a Kind. The Harris is a fairly small hand crank sewing machine and I've found it works well on the ironing board. As I cut, press, and pin with a cutting mat on my ironing board, there's room for the Harris on one end for sewing and then back to pressing. That's how I sew those block-of-the-month patterns where each block is done only once with precise directions. No multiple layers or cuts so setting it up on the ironing board works good for me.

Beloved Harris in wood case

At First Quilters last Saturday I had a request for a hand crank sewing machine so I brought an after market crank and a a Singer 99 for demonstration. As fascinating as something like that is, it's still a very heavy sewing machine, not great for travel as the woman who was interested was thinking about. When someone has a request, I start looking and the next day a child's sewing machine was for sale, a Singer model 40 hand crank:

Singer model #40 hand crank

The owner told me how much she used it as a little girl with all boys in her family: this was something all her own. Missing a needle and the case was pretty cracked up, I worked on it until she was purring again. Needles? I found some round shank industrial shorts that worked and were just lying around, waiting for the right sewing machine. The case could be taped up with colored Duck tape for a passable cover when traveling. The only hitch I can see is that it's a chain stitcher, not a lock stitch. With a chain stitch you only need a spool of thread for the top, no bobbin, but unless you secure the thread at the end it can be easily pulled out, a plus for mistakes but a minus for longevity. My research on chain stitching tells me it's more flexible and less likely to break that a lock-stitch but I'm going to have to try this one out.

Chainstitch front

Chainstitch back

With a taped up carrying case, it looks more like a child's play doctor kit:

Singer model #40 carrying case (tape on bottom side)

Even though it's a toy sewing machine, something I scoff at, this one might just be okay!