In a Shop Window in Rome

Not the usual touristy photo, but I spotted this little Frister and Rossmann in a tailor's shop window in Rome and had to take a couple of pictures.

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The First Machine I Cleaned Up - 1937 Frister and Rossmann Transverse Shuttle

It hadn't been used for a long time when I got it.  It was a bit grimy and stiff, and over about a fortnight I cleaned it up.  This is the machine that I learnt so much from.  Once it was oiled and running it was an absolute joy to sew with.

Eventually I made the Youtube videos to show that with very basic equipment, anyone can clean  up an old sewing machine - provided it isn't rusty or otherwise too far gone.  You don't need a workshop and fancy tools.  I do all my tinkering on the dining room table - well covered with old newspaper of course.

Adjusting the Stitch Length

All my transverse shuttle machines have a sliding knob on the bed of the machine for adjusting the stitch length.  This photo is of the Little Vesta.  The knob is unscrewed a little to allow it to slide from side to side, and is tightened back down into position once the stitch length is adjusted.

When I started work on one of my machines the knob was jammed firm and would not slide until I had given it oil and persuasion over several days.

Often people clean up an old machine with this type of stitch length adjustment and then find that the material will not feed through the teeth when they first try to sew.  They think they have a serious problem with the machine, but then find that they had unwittingly had the stitch length set at nought. If only every problem with a sewing machine were so easy to solve!

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The Little Vesta

This beautiful Little Vesta, dating from the 1920s or 30s, had the honour of making Little Red Riding Hood.  It seemed to me to be the perfect project for this machine, and was the first item made with with it for decades.

It is a tiny machine.  Sitting the doll next to it makes it look even smaller.

I found this machine over twenty five years ago in a second hand furniture shop.  It was not until we had the internet that I found out where Vesta machines were made and who by.  A good twenty years or more after buying it, I finally hauled it out of the cupboard and cleaned it up.

The next thing to do was try it out.  I was not disappointed, it makes a perfect stitch.  Then came the video.  It all took on a flavour of Watch With Mother with Little Red Riding Hood at the end.

Perhaps I should make another rag doll one day soon.  When I do, I will use this machine again.

A Bit Battered but Pretty

This is a Singer 48K that I found in a second hand shop in South Wales a few weeks ago.  It is in a bit of a state - the metal will never shine again, it is too far gone -  but the decals are incredibly pretty and I have a serious soft spot for transverse shuttle machines, so it came home with me.  The design of the decals is known as Ottoman Carnation.  

This machine has joined the queue for a clean up, but it might have a long wait.  I have a quilt to finish and I need to keep my hands clean.  

A Shuttle from an Older Transverse Shuttle Machine

This is a boat shuttle from a much older machine.  On this side is the tension spring.

On the other side there is a thin bar that protrudes slightly at the end of the shuttle.  

The flat side is open, so the shuttle looks like a little boat.

This shuttle belongs to a Stoewer Transverse Shuttle machine which I have yet to clean up.  When I have done that, if I can work out how to explain how to thread this shuttle, I will post more pictures.

A Shuttle for a Late Transverse Shuttle Machine

This shuttle belongs to a 1930s Frister and Rossmann Transverse Shuttle machine.  Viewed from this side it looks just like the shuttle for a vibrating shuttle machine.

However, the other side is flat, so it can fit in the narrow shuttle carriage.

This type of shuttle is a hybrid shuttle.  It  fits into the same sized space as the open sided boat shuttle which was used on older TS machines, but the flat side is closed.  Loading the bobbin and threading the shuttle is done in exactly the same way as with the bullet shaped shuttles for Vibrating Shuttle machines. 

Vesta Transverse Shuttle

They didn't have to make them beautiful, but they did.  Vesta machines have a charm all their own, being built to a smaller scale and with exquisite decals  If you sit this machine beside a Frister and Rossmann the F&R looks an absolute brute and a monster in comparison.

When I bought this machine it had been in the same family since new.  It barely needed cleaning and seems to have been hardly used.  I bring it out from time to time just for the pleasure of looking at it.  The rest of the time it is kept safely away under its cover, away from all the steam and damp that fill English houses and that would soon have any uncovered machine screaming out for the rust remover.

The decals to me look like mid European peasant embroidery.  If anybody ever comes up with pictures of embroidery reminiscent of the design on this machine, please let me know - I will be intrigued.  I will put some close-up pictures of the decals in posts later this week.

Ejecting a Transverse Shuttle

This photo of a Little Vesta machine shows how easy it is to remove the shuttle on a TS machine. The photo is taken from the back of the machine.

The slide plate is attached to a very nifty little mechanism.  Pull it open as far as it will go (it is designed not to slide right off), and up pops the shuttle.  Couldn't be simpler.

Transverse Shuttles

All the machines I have shown so far have been Vibrating Shuttle machines, where the shuttle carriage is to the right of the needle and the shuttle moves back and forth in an arc.  Singer patented their design for Vibrating Shuttles in 1886.  Before then they had been manufacturing Transverse Shuttle machines.

These photographs are of a Frister and Rossmann Transverse Shuttle machine manufactured (probably) in the mid to late 1930s.  German manufacturers continued making Transverse Shuttle machines until the outbreak of the Second World War, when most manufacturers switched over to the production of arms.

The shuttle moves from side to side in a straight line behind the needle.  It fits snugly into its little bed, as shown in the second photo where I have slid back the plate.

The needle is threaded from front to back, whereas on a VS machine it is threaded from left to right.  Different, but the same principle - in both cases you take the thread through the needle towards the shuttle.

TS machines make an excellent stitch, equal to that of any VS machine, which no doubt explains why the Germans didn't stop making them until history so rudely intervened.