Oh my! When I first saw a singer Featherweight at a fellow quilters home I swooned! I fell in love instantly with the whole idea of these tiny cute little ‘not antique’ oldies of the sewing machine world. and that was the beginning … or was it… 

I learnt to sew on my mum’s old mint green Singer, I have that machine now after I rescued it – can you believe she was going to throw it out to the tip! Well not on my watch – but that is another story.

When I took possession, I tried to get mums old workhorse fixed up and working like new but in reality it had done so much work. Its still got life and is going but the refurbishment gave it a whole new look and I recall being so disappointed because it longer looked like mums old machine. That machine sits in my studio still, and much to my delight its the one my grandson plays with all the time and has from the moment he could crawl.

But I digress – the featherweight is nothing like mum’s old machine – chalk and cheese in the weight department. Mum’s machine weights a ton! its heavy and clunky to carry and the case is just not great to be honest.

The featherweight however, as the name suggests is light – around 6 kgs at absolute most I believe.. I know they are small enough to take on planes or so I’m told. I enquired once to see if I could take it on my next work trip as carry on but the airport seemed to think it would be allowed and they couldn’t guaranteed the under carriage luggage wouldn’t get tossed around to much so I’m not taking that risk with my precious.

Featherweights are not really antique – there are some that are from small manufacturing runs but overall literally 100s of 1000s were produced. Despite that they are very much sought after and once I knew i wanted one – the minute I saw my first one I started hunting around. I eventually found one online and snapped it up at what i thought was a great price – I probably paid too much. 

Not long after Hubby rang me to say he found one and did I want it. Well YES! of course – silly question right. There are two types  of Featherweights – a 221 and a 222. The 221 are what I consider basic – they only straight stitch. The 222 – well the 222 they have a base you can remove but more importantly you can if you wanted to Free motion quilt on them.

Imagine that –  I have an image in my head of way back in the past the ladies sitting at their little sewing machines quilting together any scrap they could find and although that would not have been on a featherweight as they didn’t start to come onto the market until mid 1940s I still imagine them using one. 

Anyway yes I wanted a second one – I wanted one of each. it was totally irrational but anyways.. My second featherweight had been brought new from the grandmother of the lady I got it from. That just seemed so special to me. 

I no longer actively look BUT  I have collected more since then . All up so far I have 4. Although hubby insists that one of those is his.

The other thing I love about these cute little beautiful machines is the simplicity – I have undertaken a course and can pull one down to its bones and reconstruct it  – electrical work and all! Although doing this is something I’m building confidence in and that is the reason I haven’t yet cleaned up and fixed the most recent addition. 

When I pulled them down, cleaned them up I actually learnt a lot – not just about the Featherweight story but also about the way sewing machines work in general  –  they are all pretty much the same mechanically. It was very eye opening.

The other thing I love so much about owning a Featherweight is I can pull it out and set it up in the smallest of spaces. Its great for taking along to sewing groups for stitch ins. Sew compact and light! 

If you keep an eye out on the website and my socials you are likely to see them in the background and if you are lucky enough to also have a Singer Featherweight sewing machine send me a photo and place me at the top of the list if ever you want to sell it!