Singer 360 Fashion Mate Sewing Machine

 Bought Machine at the Goodwill for $9.99.  Opened it up today to see what I had.  This is a Beautiful Singer 360.  Most reviews of this machine seem to be positive. People like them .There are some gripes that the machine is made of plastic, but very little of the actual machine is plastic. I did not see any plastic gears inside, but Maybe one. This machine was never out long enough to be worn. It is in almost mint condition.

This is the singer 360 as found. Not very dirty. Easy clean up.

The Bottom of the 360 . the timing belt  is right out in the open, definitely have to be
careful 

 After a Little Cleaning and oiling, I replaced the bobbin wind tire , the needle and that is all.

Here is the machine and it's stitches. 

Dressmaker 205 White or Dial n Sew Sewing Machine

Dressmaker sewing machines have many makers, Some look like other machines. I have seen White Sewing machines that look almost identical to some Dressmakers, ( White 408s is close to the 205 and also the Dial n Sew ) I have Also seen Universal Sewing Machines with the Dressmaker Logo. Most have "Deluxe" Parts. 

The Machine is Avocado Green in Color with a cream secondary,but instead of being from the 70's, I believe this one is from the early 50's.  It has a Mid Century Modern (great new phrase everyone uses) Look to it. Lots of  Chrome Like a 57 Chevy would have.  It makes it a stunning machine to look at, with its shiny green enamelware,Chrome features, and Black contrast plates.

The Model 205 Dressmaker. Serial Number 54301.  It came to me a little dirty,and at a fairly low price from the Canton, Texas Goodwill because they could not get the machine to move.  ( The bobbin was in incorrectly) .  It came with a case and a metal foot pedal, a bobbin and 2 spools of Dritz thread.
Here are the Before and after posts.

The manual can be downloaded from a site called Dressmaker manuals Online for $10.00 or you can order a hard copy or a CD. I could not find any free manuals for this machine, But I bet the manual is a standard manual.

Here is a little about the Machine and the Clean up:

Finished Dressmaker 205

Finished Dressmaker 205 with Foot Pedal & Cords ,Thread and
Needle 

Machine's Light Switch is on the Backside. I love to turn the little knob to switch it on. The turning knob switches of the past are great.  The light is bright and Makes the work space very easy to see. The Machine's motor is pretty quiet. Of course without the machine in a table it has normal vibration.  Less so in the case. The motor runs smooth and the needle goes up and down with ease.

The Bobbin Winder Works great and the Bobbin thread winds perfectly. I had a pic, but I think it never loaded. 

This is a side loading Bobbin machine, it is also a side loading needle. or I think they call it a left loading needle? Not sure. 

PROBLEMS

I had some trouble with the dial to get the Zig zag stitches.  The knob has 2 screws that hold it in place. I do not know why they could not have made the inside knob with a flat piece so the pins did some good.  Instead it trys to strip the knob pin no matter how tight you try to get them.  I put some plumbers tape on the inside metal piece then put the dial back on and tightened it with a better screwdriver. Also, none of this will do you any good if you don't first turn the wheel in the back until it releases what ever mechanism it has to prevent you from changing things as you sew.  I found this out the hard way.  

I am hoping the tape will do the trick.  The man at Home Depot thought that it would... Yee have little faith, but I cross my fingers and spend my $1.98 for the tape.  I hope it will hold, but i am warning the buyer of the machine about it in the Ad when I sell it.  I may even give them a langth of the tape in a little package.  

The Stitch Lengthen knob has no front cover. This knob also has the push button  reverse mechanism by pushing the pin in the center. (I am at a loss for the correct wordings for these parts, can you tell? )

The only other problem I encountered of course is the Tension. It is my pet peeve not to be able to set it with 5 of my machines so far, which means I have to sell them at a bit of a discount because I cannot get it correct.  One of these days, I will come to an understanding with these machines, and they will cooperate. 

I have included tons of pics. Most of the websites that I have come across no not give enough pics to browse through. It is my wish to give out this pictoral for anyone who needs it.  I wish I had a thread diagram for you, but since I cannot get the tension right, who is to say that I did not thread it correctly?  

So, This is my latest work. I think the Dressmaker is beautiful. I do believe it is a White Machine, and I think that it has many years ahead of it with a seamstress who will love her. I am happy that I was able to work on her and make her beautiful once more.

This is a page I found on the internet.

The Stitch lengthening knob is also a little hard to turn. Work with it and I am sure it will get better. The plumbers tape works so far with the Zig Zag Knob.

This is what the machine looked like when I opened the case.

Before I cleaned the Race,Feed Dogs

Another angle of the uncleaned Bobbin Holder ,Feed Dogs, Etc

Lady with her Top off

Model 205 and light switch

Bobbin Winder Without Cover 

Finished Top view dressmaker 205

Finished Front View Dressmaker 205

Another View DressMaker 205

Needle Plate View Of Dressmaker 205 Blog refuses to turn image

Turned Open Cover of Front of Dressmaker 205

Back View of Finished Dressmaker 205

Motor View of Dressmaker 205

Motor upclose plate Dressmaker 205

BackSide View Dressmaker 205 Sorry it is Sideways

View of the undercarriage of  Dressmaker 205 

Dressmaker 205 Cleaned up and Ready to Dance 

In the Case and Ready to Go Dressmaker 205 

Singer 15-91 ? or 15-88 Nickle Plate 1932 Sewing Machine RARE??

Yesterday, Along with the 2 5808c sewing machines, I also picked up a Singer in a cabinet from the same sale for $20.00.  Thinking it was a 15-88 , I thought that it may make me some money in our Store on Ebay.

I started working on this one today, because I may not have a
chance to once my spouse and son come back from a visit in California tonight.  I brought the cabinet in. It did not look like it had any termite problems. Yay!   The Cabinet itself I don't know if I am savy enough to refinish, but It could be very nice. And it is still very sturdy.

I took the machine out of the cabinet, it was held in by wires to the box inside the cabinet, so I disassembled it, and took it out, marking all the wires with the right color.  I unscrewed the metal holders and took the machine out.   At first glance, I had never seen a sewing machine with the motor held like this one and the weird contraption that went with it.

I set up my work space and got to cleaning. I have been warned by any websites not to use ammonia.   Ammonia is my favorite cleaner. I have been told soap and water and 3in1 oil or kerosene. Well , I don't know about you guys, but I don't have kerosene just lying around , and I think most places will look at you funny if you say purchase a gallon or 2.  Where would you find that anyway?   I did buy some Liquid Wrench, Off which I was told was almost pure kerosene. None of these things really do all that good of a job.  But I scrubbed anyway.  The overcoat on the machine is in ok condition, but is coming off. Apparently The Singers have a coat of some sort over the paint. The paint is pretty and shiny, but you cant get to it because of the stupid overcoat... unless... you use things like Ammonia.  I did that already on my 15-88 and although it is shiny, I took a lot of the gold off the decals. And , you really want to preserve those as much as possible. The replacements are not what you would expect and if you mess up, that is 70 dollars down the toilet.  I have a Red Eye that is stripped and I was going to purchase the replacement stickers.. but not for that price.

So I used soap and water and oil, and got the machine pretty clean. It has a very strange system in the back for the motor.  I will post pics of it. My first idea was since the wires were so bad, I would just take the motor off and buy a hand crank.. Voila !  Not so easy, sister. Not with this baby.  Plus, The way it is set up, I would think someone may want to keep it just for the mechanics .  It has no belt. It is gear driven. I wish all new machines were.  No replacement belts, Ever! and Metal rarely breaks or Corrodes .

I Took the wheel apart, and cleaned everything. It still needs some rust removed.  Most of the gold decals are still gold. It will need a bobbin tire, and new felt, plus a good polish.  I am wondering if I should sell it without rewire. Let someone else do that restoration.  I do not have the foot pedal anyway.

I did look this up on the Singer website, which is one of the best websites for products I have ever came across. It does have a serial number look up, and according to the number, this one was made in 1932.  I looked up 1932 15-88 machines, but none looked like mine, except for one person who had a 15-91 that had a silver singer plate. They called it Nickle.  I thought mine was discolored. But It could very well be nickle.  Theirs was a Rare Find. It is a 1932 15-91 that has a nickle plate and a number dial in nickle. Mine has the same plate and dial.  I have to call the singer hotline on Monday to find out if mine is actually a 15-91.  If it is, it is extremely rare. Made only in 1932, and only 5,000 were ever produced.   I will let you know what I find out on Monday, and I will post the clean up pics then also!

This is the sewing cabinet. Pretty bad shape.

Here is the Pic of the Machine inside the cabinet as found. 

This is what the cabinet looks like when opened.

Here is the Machine getting taken out of the cabinet. I had
to dismantle the plug to get the machine out. 

Here is the Plug and wiring that screams Fire Hazard

Here is the Machine, Finally Out of the cabinet

The Backside Of the Machine Head

I did flip these before Adding..
Here is the Image of the Motor case.  

Again... I did Flip these and they unflipped when I added them
Here is the Pic of the Number Dial and the Nickle Plate

The back end of the machine 

This is the Inside of the Cabinet 

Very Crumbly Bobbin Tire! 

I wish this picture was flipped. I may try this one again.
Front of machine.

Singer 5808c

Singer 5808c 

I bought 2 of these machines for a Dollar Each yesterday in Quinlan, Texas. 
Both are in bad shape.  But, For 1 Dollar each, I thought at the least, I could get some parts off of them.
 The First one in the picture cleaned up pretty well, but unless i scrub the rust off the needle drop and the presser, Plus getting small parts like a new Bobbin winder tire,spool nut, And Felt , i was going to use it for parts. The wheel turns, and I oiled everything more than i should because of the way it was treated, but the wheel turns hard.  There is likely no way that the motor would be able to compensate for this. I will try it anyway.  It the motor is able to work through the hard part so the oil can penetrate , then there is hope.  If not, I have a newer model c that can use the plates and the bottom tray. Plus if the belt is good i may use that also. maybe even the motor.  I hate to part machines out, but this one may be better off. 

The  second one, below, is in better condition. This way a photo of after i cleaned some of the muck off the bottom table.  I will show pics of after wards here too.  The machine works well, I need to order a bobbin tire ( apparently these need to be replaced most, especially if the machines are left out in the sun or in a hot shed.  It also needs a spool pin, it holds the spool of thread on the pole.  It came with one, but it is broken .  Without it, your spool will not stay on and you will have no luck getting any sewing done.  

The First one, After Cleaning 

The Second Machine, Cleaned and Ready. Still needs Bobbin Tire and Spool Pin

Both of these machines should not have been mistreated. They are considered good machines for beginners and did not need to be ruined inside someones shed. It is sad to see this, and I rescue machines just to try to clean them up. Something as useful as a sewing machine should not just end up in the trash.  Sewing is a skill that i wish I had learned as a child. I believe my mom would have taught me if I was less of a pain in the ass when It came to learning new things.  I believe a loose term for my learning disability is "Learning Anarchist" If I don't Understand something, I try really hard to make it impossible for anyone to teach me.  It is so bad. So now, I try to learn on my own. I feel stupid for not just sticking it out , and just learning  when I had the chance.  Actually I think It was a form of ADD, But I hate to use that term that everyone seems to jump to for all their problems.  

The Second machine as received I had already taken the
plate off the bottom 

First one, In bad shape.  As received. 

So anyway, Here are the pics of the machines as I received them.  The pics went out of order, But I guess that is ok. 

I will post and show pics when These are sompleted.  The first one is almost for sure going to be for parts. the second one, I have ordered the Spool pin and the tire , and new felt for the spool, I am getting new bobbins, downloading a manual and finding some attachments before selling this.  

Here she is ready to sell. replaced bobbin wind tire,spool pin. Gave her 2 extra bobbins  plus the wound one inside. a new spool of thread a new needle.  

here are the stitches right now. Will need some adjustment, but they look pretty good. 

here is the open bobbin case