The closest thing to a barn find, yet!

I’ve been meaning to blog about this for two weeks, but I’ve been tied up, what with all of the vintage sewing machine madness! So I wasn’t planning on getting any more machines since I had the 201-2 (straight stitch only), the 401A (zigzag) and the 503A (also zigzag – AKA “Rocketeer”). Oh, and the 750, which was going to get sold. I was trolling Craigslist to see how much sewing machine cabinets were going for to get an idea how much I might be able to get for mine. Bad idea!! I saw this great sewing machine desk that said “make an offehr.” SWEET! I actually DID need a new storage unit since mine had breaking drawers, thanks to my little humans! The bonus about this desk was that it happened to come with a sewing machine. Got the price and everything arranged and went to pick it up. Once we got it home and started looking at the machine, we realized we’d gotten a STEAL! $60 for the desk and machine, and the machine was in really great condition. Definitely the closest thing to a barn find! The machine worked just fine and it wasn’t really all that dirty (only spent about 30 minutes to an hour cleaning it up). The only two issues were that the power cord was a bit chewed up and it needed a new bobbin winder tire. Both of those together cost about $9. Boy was I happy! Now I’d have a backup machine just in case my Rocketeer decided to go bonkers.

Sadly, since then, the 401 has been behaving badly . . . not starting right away when I depress the foot controller and not sewing through all the layers of fabric that I need for it to sew through. The Rocketeer seems to be fine, now. (Had some issues with breaking thread and skipped stitches, but got that all solved, I think!) And it, the Rocketeer, seems to have no issues sewing through many layers of fabric. Sooo, not sure if I’ll keep the 401 since I really do need for it to be a bit more heavy duty. I suppose if I was only going to be doing light household sewing it would be just fine. Hence, I may be shining it up and then selling it to someone who could make better use of it.

In any case, it still was a great find. The desk is only so-so . . . I love the drawers, and it fits into the sewing area much better than the previous storage solution. But, the way the sewing machine is anchored to the desk makes it so that you can’t get to the bottom of the machine to oil it unless you detach it from the table. Not exactly convenient. Right now I just have the Rocketeer sitting, unattached on the desk, until I figure out a way to attach it the will still afford me access to the bottom.

But I digress . . . I was talking about my barn find. Whether or not I decide to keep it, I’m still pretty happy that we were able to get the machine for such a good price!

Of course, I didn’t get a pic of the 401 in the sewing desk before doing my major switcheroo, but here’s a pic of the machine itself.  Actually, this is a pic of it sitting on top of the desk, but you can’t really see the desk . . LOL