Mom bought an antique sewing machine!!!

How did she know?!?!

Mom was driving past a consignment shop in Milford awhile ago and saw this lovely piece of "furniture" outside the front door. I say furniture because if it had been me I would have been all "Oh look at the nice little table. I wonder if it has a twin!" But mom knew what probably very few people would- THERE WAS A SEWING MACHINE INSIDE! Or at least, there used to be. She was hoping there might still be something inside. I have no idea how she knew that. The photo above is literally what she saw from the street.

!!!!!!!!! 

Mom had told me about this a couple weeks ago and then I kind of forgot about it. She went back to see if it was still there on Thursday and bought it for $25. What a steal! But it's kind of heavy so I came over after work to help her get it home from the store (that was a whole separate fiasco). Then we set it up in the driveway to take a look.

Look how big the work surface is!

Some moron painted it white but we're going to try and refinish it this fall/winter (right Mom?! :) This is actually electric (I know it looks much more ancient than that) and came with all the original attachments, manual, feet, etc. Mom found them all in these side compartments that the consignment lady didn't even know about!

The two sides lift up to show little organizers, but under THOSE is a
big open space where lots of things were hiding!

Jackpot!! Everything in wonderful condition.

The original manual, from July 1927. :)

Two heavy tin boxes, and inside....

All kinds of feet and attachments! We decided you'd have to be either an
engineer or my Papa to figure out a machine like this nowadays.

Those things above can make ruffles and all kinds of crazy things. But, one of the coolest things emerged: the buttonholer.

It came in this little rectangular leather case that folds up and snaps all together.
It has its own little instruction booklet and appears to be in perfect condition.

However I also feel like some of its attachments resemble old torture devices.
Kind of sinister looking huh?

So after looking through everything we decided to plug it in and see what, if anything, happened.

Yeah...I don't think that plug is up to code...

The answer at first was: Nothing. Nothing happened. UNTIL, I pressed this:

Turns out these were controlled by the side of the leg/knee while sitting down.
Just press your leg against it and the motor starts whirring!

Unfortunately it didn't all start turning and the needle (which is still in the machine!) didn't go anywhere. BUT I think there is hope. Because the needle does move up and down when I turn the wheel at the end. We just need to get the wheel cleaned and lubricated and I think it might actually "work" some day.

Look how huge those diaper pins are!!

That last photo is the part of things like this that I really love. I wonder what kind of baby the woman had. And if she made diapers for it. There was still a threaded bobbin in the machine with some God-awful red/orange/rust 70s-type thread in it. What was the last thing she made before she put this machine away forever? Why did she decide to stop sewing? Because she couldn't any more or because she didn't want to anymore? Is she still alive today?

This was such a fun little adventure with Mom--almost like a treasure hunt. Can't wait to see what else can come of this little machine!