What is in the box?

 Well, its my Christmas present from my dad. But what is it?

Can you guess yet?

Yep, it's a sewing machine. To be more accurate it is a Singer Featherweight 221K, a light and portable sewing machine.

Amongst  my dad's many and varied talents, he volunteers as an electrical tester for charity shops. He tests and certifies electrical donations are safe, so the charity shops can sell them. This was a donation which came across his electrical testing table, and he thought it might be something I might like. He was quite right!

I've been doing some digging on the Internet to find out a bit more about this machine. These models were made from the 1930s to the 1960s, and based on the lack of a model number this machine was made before 1953. It seems the earlier models also have this rather attractive 'Egyptian scrollwork' pattern on the face plate.

Having been taught to sew on my mum's old Singer I can certainly say that this machine is substantially lighter than the full sized Singer, and I can see why it was popular with occasional sewers who wanted to be able to pack it away easily.

Part of the marketing for this machine was that although it was smaller and lighter, it had the same functionality and quality as the big machine. To prove that it could do just as much as the main machine, all Featherweight sewing machines were supplied with a comprehensive range of attachments for specialist sewing techniques.

These are just some of the many attachments which came with mine, they do everything from making and attaching bias binding, darning and ruffles. All of these feet, plus the instruction book, needles, oil and a spare bulb pack neatly into a tray which sits into the top of the case above the machine.

The only think missing are the bobbins, you can see the five holders for the bobbin all sad and empty. My fabulous father hunted some up for me on the Internet and I am now all set and ready to go.

The only questions is where will I be going with my portable featherweight Singer? Well I have promised to teach a couple of friends to sew, so I think this little machine is going to get a lot of use!