We’ll see how my attempt goes this evening, but I do have a few t-shirts that need retiring!
Question: what is the dark metal piece indicated by the screwdriver in this photo? It does not match the diagram for what should be associated with the bobbin case in the manual for my machine. This is a singer Stylist 413, for the curious.
ETA The pictures in the manual make it look like that shouldn’t be there at all.
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Meanwhile, the treadle is much happier with oil.
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That’s the machine my grandma has! It sews beautifully
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I also have that machine! Well, it’s at my parent’s house. It was the very first machine I learned on, from my grandmother. I BETTER BE GETTING IT YO. 
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It does! It’s a model 66, and singer made about a zillion of them.
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Also we lost power again this afternoon ( still lots and lots of tornado repair along my road so probably related), and it kept sewing…
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I have a similar machine I want to get up and running some day!
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They are remarkably simple machines. Also, a lot of the guts are brass, which helps with rust issues.
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Folks, I DID IT! I made bias tape!
What a pain in the ass. Please don’t look too closely, you’ll see the jagged edges.
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Looks great to me!
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Imma bump this in hopes someone (@Ckni27 ?) will have seen something like that dark metal piece before. I’m 99% sure it’s been added to the machine at some point after it left the factory, and I don’t know why. (Darn, you still have to click to see the picture.)
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I saw your photo but I have no idea what it is without being able to play with it. It might be some kind of add on to the bobbin case or something for the feeding of the fabrics? Wa the machine ever used for any kind of specific application where someone might have needed additional functionality?
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Thanks. That’s my best guess. This machine is a thrift store purchase, so I’m not sure. I’m gonna take the piece out and see what it looks like under there. I need to get it out to get my epically stuck thread loose, anyway.
In working on cleaning/oiling at, I did discover the last time it was serviced was in September 1987! 
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I’m going to pull a sewing machine out of my closet over the weekend and see if it’s any good. Currently trying to think through old clothes in the house to see if there’s anything I could repurpose or if I need to order fabric in order to do anything more than a face mask.
I’ve asked my sister if she’ll be a guinea pig for me – she’s smaller than me so I won’t have to use quite as much fabric if I try and make her a skirt.
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Well, there’s one mystery solved. The added piece was to adapt a bobbin case that did not come with this machine to this machine. It’s a singer bobbin case, but the one that shipped with the 413 was plastic, and this one is metal.Should be better if I can get it to work – there’s the rub.
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Oooh yeah metal bobbin cases all the way. Plastic parts in sewing machines are the worst.
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If you have parchment or wax paper you can put it on top and use that as your pattern, I hate tracing patterns with the original on top so that’s what I usually do when I have to do this.
I should note this is because I’m bad at tracing and all my chalk and transfer papers were bought before I was born and given to me by my grandma so you may not have the same issues I did with the lines not showing up 
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