Domestic. Army.
(I promise more sewing posts, fewer machine posts, in the future!)
The Domestic Special—AKA the Army Machine
In breaking news, she sews! Yay! And my gawd, what a beautiful stitch it is, too. Nothing like the wannabe zig-zag of the White*. And fast. The only limit to the power is that the motor turns a rubber wheel which turns the flywheel, and this rubber wheel is old and hard and a bit worn down, so sometimes you need to give the flywheel a nudge to get it started. Presumably it’s possible to replace the little rubber wheel at some point. (Incidentally, the belt on my Featherweight slips similarly, so it should be adjusted or possibly replaced as well. Someday when I’m a little more secure about this vintage machine thing ;).)
Fortunately, she uses a standard needle, that goes in sideways, exactly the same as my Featherweight.
Except that the Featherweight threads right to left, and this one threads left to right. Which was a bit of a WTF moment, but we got past it.
In terms of functionality, it’s similar to the Featherweight. There’s a lever for the stitch-length/reverse, just like on the Featherweight (this one’s very stiff, though. I need to figure out if it’s possible to oil it.) The tension/threading apparatus is quite different, though—it has a lever, too, and there’s no disc to wrap it around. I figured it out, though! The system of threading is fairly sketchy—there’s a lot of places the thread is kinda left to do its own thing, and it rubs against the case of the machine in a number of places. On the other hand, the up-and-down-arm-part (the manual calls this the take-up) has a hole with a covered slot you can kind of floss the thread into, rather than just a plain hole like most vintage machines (of my acquaintance, which is admittedly limited). (My new Janome has kind of a slot in this as well, but the way the slot opens occasionally the thread slips out of it which can be a pain in the butt.)
I want to thank both Peter and Claire for suggestions of manuals and comparable machines. I actually tracked down a teensy bit of information about Domestic sewing machines here, and they have three different manuals. This is the one closest to my machine, although I think it’s a slightly newer (or perhaps just more expensive) version than mine as it has a tension dial rather than lever, and a slightly more advanced-looking stitch length mechanism. There’s no date on the manual, but the font looks sort of 50s to me (I know, so precise). I’m guessing late 40s or 50s for this machine—I’d be surprised if it was as late as 60s (but then, they were still making Featherweights through the 60s). Vintage aficionados care to weigh in?
Also, just because I’m obsessive that way, here’s more photos (in no particular order) of the various feet and attachments than you can shake a stick at. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Fortunately, most of these are covered in the manual…
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- This foot (if it is a foot) does not fit the machine. It looks like a standard low-shank attachment. Other than that, I am confused.
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- Combination Tucker, Edgestitcher, and Top-Braider. I am scared. And very glad for the manual.
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- Motor. Rather than having a belt, the motor spins this rubber bit which spins the flywheel. However, the rubber’s a bit stiff and worn and sometimes skips or doesn’t start stitching. And the flywheel turns backwards to stitch forwards, which is breaking my little brain.
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- Bobbin case and housing. Tyo had it out, re-threaded the bobbin case, and put it back in. I shall have to get her to show me how, because I can’t figure it out. (Or read the manual, of course…)
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- Another view of the ruffler.
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- The ruffler will gather ever 1, 6, or 12 stitches.
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- The Ruffler. The ultimate scary sewing attachment. Pretty stoked about how well this one works for both ruffles and tucks. Although heavier fabric did not work well at all.
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- Tension control lever
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- Shirring plate and shirring(gathering) foot. Oddly, the manual does not illustrate the two being used together.
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- Quilting foot.
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- Built-in thread-cutter
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- Hemmers. Only the narrow rolled-hemmer on the right doesn’t work—the needle is a little off-centre in its hole and misses the fold. The others all worked surprisingly well, although the widest one was pretty tricky to get started.
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- Binder foot. This one’s going to take some work. I know there’s tutorials out there for using them… (I found directions for doing some REALLY NEAT bound buttonholes with these… I want to try them!
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- Straight stitch foot and seam-guide. I finally figured out what those weird metal plates with the slits are! đŸ™‚
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- Tension apparatus. Weird to thread.
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- Samples. Hemmers (two sizes), and ruffles and tucks. I’ve never been able to get tucks out of my modern ruffler on the Janome.
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- Quilting guide-bar. There’s a hole in the presser-foot shank itself to hold this guide-bar. I have just the end inserted, there’s a screw in the back that you have to loosen to actually get it all the way in.
*Toodling around on the yahoo wefixit group led me to this post about sewing machine stitch formation, which basically advocates stitch acceptance. I still think something’s up with the White, though, as the stitch is WAY more zig-looking than my other machines, even with the straight-stitch needle plate in place. That being said, it does a mean zigzag, so I’m not really complaining.
Tanit-Isis Sews 