In this post, I wrote about saying good-bye to the very first new sewing machine I ever bought for myself – a 30 stitch mechanical Kenmore affectionately referred to as “Old Faithful.” She was a mid-1990’s vintage that was with me from first house to current house, grad school and library maker space activities at school. She was quiet, reliable and kid-friendly.

At Saturday’s machine maintenance class at the SQTM, not one – but two – Kenmore mechanical machines from about the same era as Old Faithful were present. It was wonderful to see these 30 year-old mechanical machines still going strong! Not surprising, as these models were made by Janome. I remember considering the updated teal “Old Faithful” model with needle-up/down, speed control slider and the all-important blanket stitch when I seriously got into quilting. I went with the computerized Pfaff 2046 instead. I was back to a Janome machine within two years.

The universe has a wicked sense of humor. On Sunday afternoon, an updated teal model of “Old Faithful” crossed my path. The story goes that the machine was part of an abandoned storage unit that a flipper had purchased. I brought the sewing machine home to evaluate it for use as a demo machine for Block Party (kid’s sewing) outreach or to pass it along to another guild member who leads a teen sewing group at a nearby library.

After working on the machine, I believe the story about it’s history. A customer pick-up label on the side of the box indicates someone purchased the sewing machine in late October 2005 from a Sears store near Las Vegas. The box had been opened and the foot pedal was missing. However, the machine itself is in pristine – essentially untouched – condition. It came with the original brown paper square under the needle and the thin packing tape used for shipping still on certain parts of the machine. It’s almost as if someone opened the box to confirm what they’d purchased and put it away. Then, life apparently happened and the machine wound up in a storage unit somewhere. Said storage unit contents were eventually auctioned off to recover unpaid fees. The universe then made sure it got to me.

Surprisingly, the machine actually sewed right out of the box. The start/stop feature was a little hesitant at first, but it was soon humming along. I oiled and greased the parts I could reach without taking the thing totally apart. That helped! A replacement foot pedal magically arrived via Amazon the next day. I located a service manual late last night. At some point, I’ll remove the covers, clean out the old gunk and add new. This sweet little machine seems to improve the more I use it. The guild member running the teen sewing program at the library informed me she currently has enough machines, so I’ll keep this one to use as a demo machine at different events.