This is a very special machine to me. It is my oldest machine, and this year, in 2021,
it turns 150 years old. It was made in 1871.
I haven't spoken about my residence in my content before,
but based on the research I've done, its construction
was completed a year earlier, in 1870. I rather like entertaining the fantasy
that this machine could have been bought new by the very people who had my house built.
Singer's "New Family" model sewing machine later known as their model 12)
was the first mass-produced sewing machine.
From what I've read, the machine was first produced in 1863, undergoing various design
revisions until the last models rolled off Singer's Scottish production line in 1902.
Isaac Singer's business partner was his attorney, Edward Clark.
They ran the original "installment sale" or "rent-to-buy" plan, which made the machines
available to a wider range of purchasers and, as a result, boosted their sales.
They also offered special pricing on trade-ins, but allegedly destroyed
many of these trade-ins in an attempt to reduce any possible second-hand market. Perhaps this,
coupled with the low numbers initially produced, is why you just don't see these New Family models
(or ealier) coming up for sale every day. They're around, but not in huge numbers.
To this machine. It looks beautifully simple.
There are no decals, and I have found no evidence that it ever had any
There's very little that's going on when you compare it to the machines that were
made even just 20 years later, but that's not altogether surprising. I could be wrong,
but believe that this was only the third machine put into production by Singer.
There were quite a number of revisions made to this machine in its near-40 years of production.
The appearance of my 1871 model, for example, is the result of a few changes to the casting
design - particularly to improve the ability to access the shuttle if it were to jam.
The shuttle runs in a transverse direction - in a straight line from side to side,
unlike the later vibrating shuttle, 27, and 28 machines which run from front to back in an arc
The shuttle itself is different, too.
You can see here, the shuttle for the New Family machines is often referred to as
a "boat shuttle" because the bobbin spool just sits straight down inside
whereas that of the vibrating shuttle, 27, and 28 machines slots into the end of the shuttle.
The stitch length is adjusted by sliding a simple bar on the bed of the machine
to the left to shorten the stitches, or to the right
to lengthen them. (We'll look at how this works in a moment when we examine the underside)
Next to this adjustment is the bobbin spool winder which has to be held in
place manually against the balance wheel in order for it to operate. There is no
thread guide for even winding of the bobbin spool itself, so you have to guide the thread by hand.
To the balance wheel, now ... there is no stop-motion or clutch on this version to
allow you to disable the stitching mechanism. That was a feature that was added in later revisions.
The access panel at the rear of the machine runs its entire length, and as a result,
provides a different look at the inner workings to the one you see in newer machines.
The mechanics behind the faceplate are very simple.
On the outside, you have the tension discs, tension adjustment screw, and thread check lever.
Notice that there is no visible spring on the tension discs as we see in later models.
This is the rear of the faceplate
you can see how the tension adjustment screw changes the pressure on between the discs.
There is also a 3-setting adjustable spring for the thread check lever.
Different to later models, where the needle inserts as far as it can go into a slot,
the needle simply clamps to the side of the needle bar.
The top of the needle bar on the New Family models bear a notched line to use when setting
your needle. This notch is to supposed to align with the top of the faceplate
and then the eye of the needle is to align with the top of the needle plate at
which point the needle is then clamped in place. In setting the needle,
you can use a pin to hold the needle eye in place while tightening the screw.
You should also note that the long groove of the needle faces forwards and not to the left.
You thread from front to back.
Looking at the underside, you can see how everything works together.
The crank on the right is attached to the shuttle carrier and the feed lever.
The feed lever attaches to the stitch-regulator,
so adjusting the screw on the top, adjusts how far the feed dogs are able to move.
You might see that the stitch-regulator bar has two screw holes. You can place your screw
in the far right screw hole if you need your stitch length to be even shorter.
Slid on the way to the left in this position, the stitches become impossibly small.
Let's get this 150-yr-old New Family sewing machine
threaded and sewing. first the shuttle and
empty bobbin spool are removed in order to wind the bobbin spool with thread
First, the shuttle and empty bobbin spool are removed in
order to wind the bobbin spool with thread. By pressing the side of the bobbin spool against
this sprung end, it pops out. Do be careful though... sometimes it tries to go for a fly!!!!!
A spool of thread is sat on the spool pin at the top.
The thread runs through the coiled thread guide, through the end of your shuttle spool,
and can then be manually looped around a couple of times just to secure it
It is positioned into the spool winder which is then held in place against the balance wheel...
and winding the spool can take place.
Now, threading the shuttle. I bought THIS shuttle separately, as my machine was missing one.
The original shuttles for New Family machines
had a series of holes to be threaded in pairs in order to adjust the tension of the thread.
The bobbin spool of thread gets placed in toward the pointed end of the shuttle first - the end
that has the spring. The thread should be coming over the top toward the regulator bar.
The rear of the spool is then pressed gently until it slots into its hole.
The thread gets passed down a slit at the end and looped around the bar.
Gently using your thumb to keep the thread in place,
you can then slide it into a notch on the other side
behind the tension spring, through the slit to the outside, and under the tongue of the outer spring
The shuttle then sits into the shuttle carrier
with the open section facing towards you like this.
For threading the needle, we take the top thread from the coiled thread guide
down around the tension discs,
up through the eye of the check lever, down through the small thread guide
built into the needle clamp, and then through the needle from front to back
The instructions say that both the upper and lower threads tensions are supposed to be "as tight as
they will bear without breaking" for firm textured fabrics ... and less for thin or soft fabrics.
Now, before I demonstrate the stitching, I want to talk about an issue I had with this machine.
When I first bought it, 15 years ago, I could not get it to stitch properly.
I returned to it over the years, hoping that something new would present itself
and correct the stitching, but nothing ever did. This is what my stitches looked like. Smooth on
the topside, but a total mess of threads on the underside.
Normally, this would be explained as a tension imbalance - that the lower tension was too tight,
and the upper tension was too loose. And certainly, it looked that way - but the
problem was, my top tension was tight to the point of breaking. There was no way I could tighten it
further. Neither could I loosen the lower tension without the adjuster screw coming completing out.
But with a machine that wasn't sewing correctly, I figured I had nothing to lose.
When I looked carefully at the relationship between the needle and the feed dogs, I saw that
the feed dogs were still moving backwards (which would mean pulling the fabric forwards) when the
needle would start entering the fabric. My feeling that this was a timing issue was solidified.
I removed the back panel and took a guess that the screw at the end of the top arm
would allow me to adjust the timing. The screw was very stiff, but thanks to the snug fit of
a Chapman screwdriver bit, I managed to get it out without damaging the head.
With the screw removed, I could slide the gear on the arm rod to the side,
and advance the gear for the lower movements so that the feed dogs were
starting to descend below the needle plate when the needle would penetrate the fabric.
The gear on the arm was then slid back across and screwed back in place.
The stitch was nearly perfect. A slight tweaking of the tensions, and it WAS perfect.
Let me now show you how it stitches.
First, I will use my hand on the balance wheel so that you can also view the beautifully
simple underside of the machine in action, before doing a full treadle demonstration.
On the underside, you can see how the needle pierces through,
bringing the top thread with it ...
which then passes over and around the shuttle, forming the stitch.
Before I do treadle, I wish to point out one area of excessive noise with my machine.
The pitman is the term for the connecting rod between the treadle and the main flywheel.
It is very basic length of wood with two holes slotting over metal bearings.
As you can imagine, being in use for 150 years,
the wood has been pushed away from the edges of the holes,
so there's more movement than there should be. As a result, it's noisier than it should be.
But the sound, to me at least, is a beautiful reminder of mechanical
engineering that has stood the test of 150 years.
Born in 1871, this sewing machine is most definitely NOT over the hill!