Antique Sewing Machine Restoration

09/05/2026

My daughter and son-in-law found this one for me from their business trip to France last week!

Info: Ma Cousette (often written as Macousette) is a highly collectible line of vintage French children's sewing machines produced primarily between the 1950s and 1970s.

Originally manufactured in France as functional toys, these miniature machines feature a real metal needle, a manual hand crank, and frequently ran on large batteries to power an internal mechanism and a small work light.

Today, they are highly sought after by vintage toy collectors and sewing enthusiasts as charming decorative pieces for craft rooms.

09/04/2026

Cleaning a Singer Ultralock serger to be donated to a teen learning to sew on knits and fabrics that tend to unravel at the seam…

Some tips on adjusting tension: test using 4 different colors of thread to see how it works and which may be too tight or too loose, based on the thread colors!

Once you have the stitching looking good, cut the thread at the spool and put on four of the right color for your actual project. Tie them off to the old threads and you can carefully pull it through the tensioners and path to the needles and loopers. You may have to then cut the tied end to get through the final needle holes and looper holes but it’s quicker than retreading everything from scratch!

09/04/2026

Working on some 4-H shirts for my granddaughters today…

08/30/2026

08/30/2026

One of the teens who received a Singer 15-91 from the donated machines shared these pictures from one of her first craft projects: a nice bag with a zipper!

08/28/2026

A sweet lady from Anniston AL dropped off a free machine for a teen last week while she and her husband were at a Ham Radio convention in town. This is a wonderful machine with lots of attachments, fashion discs and a reference book.

Send me a private message if you have a teen who is learning to sew, or if you picked up one of the earlier/simpler ones and want to swap it for an upgrade.

Also note in one of the pictures that many times the parts costs are trivial to the labor charges (shop name hidden on purpose). This is the difference between a shop running a business and paying bills vs working on machines as a hobby. This is why I focus on the old ones which might otherwise not be worth restoring.

08/22/2026

One of my neighbors found a Singer 201 centennial in an estate sale, but the wiring was degraded to the point that it blew the breaker when plugged in. A new wiring kit and rewired motor coil and it’s ready to go!

08/22/2026

Click on this link in blue and identify all the moving parts in the ultra slow motion video of a Juki serger. 2 loopers, 1 or 2 needles, feed dogs, walking foot and the edge cutter: https://fb.watch/J99Uq-1cuh/?fs=e

08/21/2026

One of the favorites in my collection. Found this one in my price range after several years of searching. No bobbin, creates tiny chain stitches underneath the needle plate using a rotating hook.

08/20/2026

Customer referral from my friends in Fayetteville TN. A needle busted and she was concerned that the timing might be off. After cleaning and a new needle, long groove on the left, it’s stitching fine. It’s nearly impossible to mess up timing on these heavy duty machines, the needle busts before it causes anything on the bobbin hook to slip. Typical cause of a busted needle is forcing or pulling the material vs letting the feed dogs do the work. The needle eye passes so close to the hook that pulling it a bit to the side will hit the hook and pop the needle. Now ready to go home and start her next project.