Touch-up paint for a white (pale celery) Featherweight

I was letting my mouse wander freely through eBay today and noticed several things of interest. Somehow my mouse went directly to "Featherweight 221" I am Always interested in the "RARE" machines, AND THERE ARE SOOOOO MANY RARE MACHINES" on eBay. I really must do some research as I swear I NEVER KNEW THERE WERE SO MANY "RARE MACHINES" AND I must have about 30 of those same machines. I'M WILDLY RICH!!!! There was another machine that kind of looked like a Featherweight, I mean, it had a needle and it had a hand wheel. It must be quite good as the title of the auction stated "MADE IN CANADA AND IT DOES ALL THE THINGS A FEATHERWEIGHT DOES. Now there's a commendation. $89 plus $36.00 for shipping "as it is a heavy Featherweight." Another was a person who was selling touch-up paint for Singer model 301's. Brown ones. A one ounce bottle was going for $18, but it had a brush in its cap! If you have a white (pale celery) Featherweight with paint chips there is a solution. I will assume you have a copy of my book "The Featherweight 221 and I". In the last half of the book I go into repairing chips in the paint of a Featherweight and although I was talking of a black machine, it goes the same way with the celery white machines. In basic you clean the hole in the paint that is the chip and fill the chip with paint, NOT IN BRUSH STROKES, but dip into the paint in the tubes I will describe and let a drip/drop of paint touch down and fill the hole a little more than flush. That's not the issue here, I want to tell you the formula for the color so you can make a very acceptable mix that will not disappoint. At better automotive shops (for some reason, not NAPA) you can buy tubes of Dupli-Color automotive (lacquer based) touch-up paint that comes in a tube that looks like a short felt-tip pen in a blister pack hanging on a peg. You need two at about $7 each. The first is "Pure White", part number NG GM 387. The second is "Dark Green", part number NG GM 517. Shake the tubes of paint to mix them and open the new tube of White paint and open the dark green as well. I make a point out of "a new tube of white" so we have a known amount of paint in the tube when we mix the color we are going for. From the Dark Green tube take 16 drops of paint and add it to the white paint. The process is like this; with the white tube open, open the green and using the green tube's brush, mounted on the inside of the cap, dip deep into the green and let the paint run down the brush and drip into the white paint. 16 times. Do not cross pollinate the brushes, keep the white paint white and the green brush green. Only when you have acquired your 16 drops of green paint and put them into the white paint can you put the white paint's brush back into the white paint's tube. (read these words a few times and it will make sense), seal it up and shake the fool out of it. There is a weight within the tube that will thunk up and down mixing the paint for you. Before you use your paint, shake it to mix it well BUT LET IT SIT QUIET FOR AN HOUR BEFORE APPLYING IT. Shaking the paint tube will mix air into the paint that we pros call bubbles. If you let it set for an hour the bubbles rise to the top and pop, a process we pros call p................... You can apply a little of your touch-up anywhere on the base of the machine and check the color mach. You can wipe the touch-up paint off with a little lacquer thinner or acetone on a rag and you will not damage the paint on the white machine. DO NOT GET LACQUER THINNER OR ACETONE NEAR ANY OF THE BLACK LETTERING ON THE WHITE MACHINES BASE OR ARM/LIGHT SHADE AND DO NOT WIPE THE ALUMINUM BAND AROUND THE MOTOR. For those having a black machine as well, DON'T WIPE THE FINISH WITH AN ACETONE/LACQUER THINNER SOAKED RAG, EVER, except to remove the paint from a black machine. NOW YOU'VE GOT A FULL OUNCE OF PAINT FOR $14 WHICH MAKES THE FELLOW ON EBAY not LOOK look so odious, EXCEPT MINE IS A PERFECT MATCH, says the color blind man who is writing this. Say goodnight, Dave Goodnight.

This one I cannot just keep to myself.

I received this email the other day and I think I read it fifteen times in a row. I love it and wanted to pass it on, with permission, nuff said. Dear Dave and Sharon, I have a story to tell you about my Singer 221. I married my husband in September, 1959 in Cleveland when I was 18 and he was 22. By January, 1960 he had been transferred to Baltimore, MD. We were poor as church mice so having children wasn't something we could do right away. We decided that we should have our first child by our second anniversary. BUT, I told him I couldn't have a baby until I had a sewing machine! Another young wife in our apartment building was making slipcovers for her sofa out of naugahyde. Remember that heavy, heavy fabric-backed fake leather stuff? She was using her mother's Featherweight to do it. I wanted a Featherweight. My husband was in Naval Reserves and in talking to a fellow sailor on his once-a-month duty weekend, he found that sailor's day job was working in a Singer store (yes, there were such things in 1960). When he jokingly told the man about my ultimatum, the man said, when we were ready to buy, call him and he'd take a brand new machine out of the box and put it in the display window. He'd then be able to give us a 5% discount. When my husband got home from that weekend he told me what his fellow sailor had said. I could hardly wait until we saved enough money to go down to the store and take MY Featherweight home. It wasn't long before I was sewing my maternity clothes, then all the toddler clothes and my wardrobe on my trusty Featherweight. Over the years I've maintained my Featherweight carefully, even when I had other machines for my quilting. When I went to classes where I knew I would only be doing straight stitching, my 221 always was my go-to machine. It sews a much better stitch than my other machines. I love it! Thanks for being there and carrying on the love affair with the Singer 221s. I'm glad you understand my passion for my machine. Denise of Leesburg, FL

CORROSION ON THE ATTACHMENTS WE CHARISH

I was asked what to do with corrosion on the attachments that came with our Featherweights? I've gone so far as to sand blast the attachments. Where the corrosion was the sand blasting removed it but it took it down to bare metal also ready to rust and they did not look very good. But the main problem was that the sand of the sand blasting process, we used a very fine grade "medium" (as it is called), will get into everything and I still can't get the rufflier to work without grinding and grating. There are parts of the ruffler that can be removed by removing a screw or two and this will give you access you didn't have as a complete attachment. Use your digital camera in its macro-function (close-up function)and get a picture of what you took apart to help put that puppy back together, or is a thing that is common to me alone. Steel wool in a four ought grade (0000) will do a pretty good job where you can reach the corrosion. Navel jelly doesn't do what we desire, it will leave a pitted surface that isn't much of an improvement over what you started with, but it isn't reddish any more!, it's more like black. There are small rock tumblers sold (harbor Freight) that with a fine garnet based medium (or sand box sand)will clean the attachments and remove a lot of the corrosion but the cost will be about $40 if you do not have the small rock tumbler plus the medium and you could buy three replacement attachment sets on eBay for that. If you use the rock tumbler you must use enough medium to pretty well fill the tumbler with your attachments added. You do not want the contents to tumble without sufficient sand falling onto each other causing damage. They slide about in the sand and gently abrades the corrosion off. Then clean the fool out of the attachment to get the medium (grit, sand) out of them and oil them. Even the parts without moving parts will like a film of oil to prevent rust in the future. Any method you use will leave your attachments prone to rust so don't leave them in the bathtub any more. The best thing I've done to come up with a great set of attachments is to look for a replacement in good condition. The main cause of corrosion in our attachments is the same cause that made the and make a Featherweight case and machines smell not so pretty good. Newer designs in machines came about and people wanted the new machines that zig-zagged and had six other built-in stitches as well. Our Feathers were relegated to the basement or the shed and after 20 years of "temperature controlled storage"..............well.......... From the methods above I would suggest the four ought steel wool (0000)for most applications. I would suggest the use of a rubber glove on the hand you hold the steel wool in as you can get very fine slivers that will bug you.