Vintage Sewing vs Vintage Sewing Machine, Part One

I was planning on entering the Pattern Review Vintage Sewing Contest. It is my favorite of them all.

This is Becky, the Kenmore 1040.

She is not a vintage dress pattern. She's a 1972 machine.

 

 Quite possibly the cleanest used machine I have ever bought. All the parts are in excellent shape. Timing is a little off - the needle is brushing something. This is the sort of machine you can do most of the work on yourself. A three quarter size, 1972, metal gear driven. Came with the plastic 'roses' case, all in perfect shape. She's been named Becky for the lovely woman who sold her to me. Yes, one honest sale on Ebay! We are out there! Found the manual online, found some pretty great webpages on the 1040, and am just having a wonderful time.

 Becky has a tools box and a flip out table at the end of the bed. The box covers the access to the bobbin. It rattles some; I may stuff it full of batting and put the tools elsewhere.  She came with a piping foot and a blind hem foot, but not a zipper foot; the easiest one to replace.

For every lousy sale on Ebay, there's one that makes you glad you live in such a nice world! This is that one.

little flip table and tool box  

My problem is this: the #15 bobbin of the Kenmore 1040 has a slightly larger hole (thinner material for the central tube) than the #15 bobbin of today. It's the same exterior size as the #15 and the Bernina bobbin shown on the right, but that tube is just too small for the bobbin winder pin.

So I have two bobbins I can load on this machine, and a pile from the B-word I can empty.

The BWord sucked a thread into the handwheel and I cannot safely open it to remove it. So it needs an expensive trip to the "Oh, we don't have the parts" store nearby, or a car trip vacation to the place where the guy can fix it, but not anytime soon. Becky is supposed to solve that problem. I just thought I had a little more time to get to that point.

I was planning on sewing for the Pattern Review Vintage Contest, and then taking the summer work break.

Now I may just be entering this machine in the contest. It is older than 1980.

Oh, there's more to this.  Much, much more.

Want more Kenmore?