Getting a replacement belt for the White Featherweight 221

    Determining the birth date of your Featherweight is fairly straight forward but the information you find can be a little misleading as well.
   If you go to; singer.com you will find a "button" that will take you to "Singer support" and from there you go to "machine serial numbers". There were several variations of the serial numbers on Singer sewing machines over the years. The earliest serial numbers for Singer machines were simply six numbers. Then there came a single letter before six numbers, and close on its heals was the double letter with six that Featherweight owners relate to. Select the "Two Letter Prefixes ".
    If the first letter of your Feather's serial number is an "A  your machine was born in Elizabethport, New Jersey, USA. If your serial number is proceeded with an "E" your machine was born at the United Kingdom's Clydebank Scotland site. If you desire to print out all the pages of the Singer serial numbers, even just the single letter serial numbers, you will need a lot of paper in your printer before you begin. I went through a pile of paper and just the twos letter prefix numbers filled a one inch binder.

    Another thing about the serial numbers. When one goes to the Singer web site they will find a very specific date written before the year of the machine's manufacture you are looking up. This date is not the machine's birth date. For production record keeping and production planning a "block" of numbers was set aside on this date shown and thousands of machines were built with numbers in a sequence taken from this block of numbers. The year stated is dead-on, the month/date will be somewhere between the date shown and the date of the next block of numbers having to be set about three months further down the road. The numbers after the prefix can give you a feel for a date by subtracting the first block of serial numbers form the next block of numbers and noting where your serial number fits into that string of numbers, but you cannot come up with an absolute date by day and hour, sorry.

White belts for white Featherweight sewing machines that are green (?)

    It interests me the way the desire/need for products flows in and out like the tides. For years I have not had a single request about a white belt and now I have had three requests in two days, and I now have a well rehearsed answer.

     They don't exist, sorry.

     I've asked around for them a good deal over the years and I even asked about getting some made. I was told that if I would pay the up-front costs for 10,000 belts they would manufacture them for me. I told them I would get with my staff, we would think on it and get back with them. The infamous "be-back".

    The white belt has not been manufactured in 50 years. The demand for the white belt does not justify the expense of gearing up to produce them (even though I know of several who would stand in line for a week in January for the store to open). A supply of originals was found about 10 years ago, in the back of an obscure storeroom, and they sold instantly. They sold to people who pondered later why they so urgently needed a 40 year old rotting piece of rubber covered with white cloth.

    New white belts do not exist any longer I fear. You will have to settle for a black belt. May I caution you that there is a cogged vinyl belt that isn't white and isn't much good in my opinion. These clear to light tan colored belts are difficult to adjust and I don't think they look good on a machine of any color.   

    I have honestly looked pretty hard to find white belts for myself to no avail. The market for black motor belts is strong because there were many more black machines manufactured.

    Black is basic and goes with most everything I have been told.

Times, they are changin'

      Thread has changed over the years since our Featherweights were born. I love many of the new threads and I'm not here to say I have a problem with them, but your Featherweight might.
      Several times this last month I have had people call asking "what is wrong with their Featherweight? The stitch in the fabric is all loopy and loose..........."
      The Featherweight was created at a time when 50 weight thread was the norm. Several times recently I have had people having problems with their machines and the common denominator was that they were using  the "new" fine threads that are becoming quite popular. I don't want to name brand-names because it isn't about any one manufacturer or brand, it's the weight (physical size) of the thread that is causing a problem.
    If you are not happy with your machines stitch or the thread tension try changing to a thread of heavier weight.

Don't replace your bobbin case too quickly!

     In the years that I have been working with Featherweights I've noticed that problems with Feathers seem to happen in clusters. I don't find a problem but what the problem does not repeat itself, repeatedly, within days. Case in point: a bobbin case not adjusting as it should. If yours seems to have but one setting; loose, it might seem like it is "time for a replacement bobbin case", Oh bother!
    How you remove the thread from your bobbin case might determine how you will spend your next $75.00. If you function like I did not so long ago you probably remove your bobbin from the bobbin case to change thread by dumping the bobbin in your hand and pulling the thread out of the case from inside, just jerking on the bobbin and dragging the thread out screaming!. (I'm trying to make it sound like a rude thing, did it work?) But we are not going to do that any more, are we?
     Instead let the bobbin drop gently into your cupped hand and cut the thread with your best gold plated (titanium bladed) stork scissors you keep warm in a velvet lined basket beside your Featherweight.
     Now, pull the thread out of the bobbin case from the outside which is pulling the thread out from the case in the normal direction the thread would travel.
     Why? The bobbin case is designed for the thread to pass through it one way. That's why there are no options as to how to install the bobbin case even though some have tried. If thread is pulled backwards through the bobbin case (as in; jerked removed from the inside) the little metal strap on the outside of the bobbin case (that is the tension spring) will "shave" the lint from the thread making its own lint if there wasn't any. This "free-at-last" lint collection builds up under the open end of the strap spring and it can have enough body (mass) to hold the spring's tip up and off of the side of the bobbin case allowing the thread to just pull through this tension device without resistance (tension). It will be held up and off by the tiniest amount and it will not be easy to see unless you really look.
    Cure? Stop pulling the thread the wrong way. If you already have a zero tension case; remove the tension adjusting screw (over a towel!!!) and loosen the screw at the end of the strap about one turn to loosen the strap. Using a flat tooth-pick, inset the flat end of the tooth-pick under the strap about where the tension screw was and wipe sideways to the tip of the spring where the thread comes out. The pellet of lint that comes out will be tiny and you'll think that I am pulling your leg, but April-fools Day was yesterday and I'm over it.
     Put things back together, reset the tension and enjoy. It is possible you might have to remove both screws to clean out completely from under the strap tension spring. Please work over a towel to keep from loosing one of the screws.