My Grandma’s sewing machine has been stored in my sewing room cupboard for many years. To be honest I can’t even remember when it was given to me or by whom.
I pulled it out a few years ago to take a look at it, but when I saw the foot being held by a bobby pin I thought that it wasn’t a good sign and would need costly repairs. And does anyone repair these old machines?
Fast forward another few years and I’ve been thinking about that sewing machine on and off.
When I’m sewing jeans, I think how wonderful it would be to have a second sewing machine to do my topstitching so I don’t have to switch sewing machine needle and thread when sewing seams, before switching to topstitching.
In recent months I’ve started setting up a business selling bags. I currently have a Janome Memory Craft 3500 and even though it sews great when there are a lot of thick layers it struggles. From my research, the older metal sewing machines do a better job of sewing through all these layers. So why buy a new machine when I already have one that I could see if I can get to work?
First Impressions
I carefully pulled the sewing machine out of the cupboard. It was in its own carry case that I think might be vinyl. Getting the sewing machine out of the carry case was awkward. There is no handle so it’s a grab-it-where-you-can. This made it seem quite heavy, but when I weighed it later it was 8.8kg while my Janome is 8.2kg – so not a lot of difference. There was also that musty smell on the carry case and looking inside it was a bit dusty and had some markings. So the case went straight outside for a few days to air out.
The sewing machine itself had that old greasy smell. There were a few spots where the paint had been chipped off but it looked pretty clean to me.
Inside the case was a manual that identified it as a Singer 315, which was also marked on the machine itself. There was also a Singer box with some accessories.
The manual looked a bit discoloured, not sure if it’s mould or something else but all the pages are legible. I did find a paid manual online at Sewing Online but as I have a physical one I’ve taken a photo of each page just in case it does deteriorate any further.
The Singer accessories box had a Lead pencil, a homemade spool pin, a bent spool pin, yellow thread, a zipper foot, Singer hand needles and a range of bobbins.
There was also an extension table stored on one of the short sides of the carry case.
Researching Singer 315 Sewing Machine
To learn more about my Singer 315 I took to Google.
I found a video by Tia Drysdale showing the Singer 315K in action. I’m not sure why it’s called a 315K with the extra K as it looks identical to mine. The video shows it sewing through 8 layers of denim and 4 layers of leather. So it really is a workhorse. Just what I wanted.
To see how old it was I took a look through the manual but there was no copyright year or any other mention of the year. I did find out that all Singers had a serial number so I went on the hunt for one. I found it on the base and it was EY119363.
There is a website called ISMACS to look up sewing machine serial numbers to get more information. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my serial number. There was EX and Y series serial numbers but no EY. So still none the wiser.
More googling.
The ISMACS website also included a list of all Singer Classes from 300 to 399. I found mention of 315K and an accompanying photograph taken by West Dunbartonshire Libraries and Museums. The photo has 315 printed on the sewing machine’s stitch bar, like mine so maybe it’s the same. It was labelled as being made during 1966-1967 and 44,365 of them were produced. I’ll take it that is when mine was created. Making it ten years older than me.
Testing out the Sewing Machine
Before going any further I wanted to see if it actually worked.
There was already a needle in the machine, so I first gave the handwheel a turn, slowly. The needle went up and down and didn’t hit the throat plate. So far so good.
Next, I plugged it into a powerboard with surge protection, just in case something happened. We also have a safety switch so I should be safe. When I pressed on the foot pedal there was a whirring sound before it soon came to life and the needle started going up and down. I think the whirring had more to do with me not knowing how much pressure I needed to put on the foot control. Rather than pressing down on the whole foot control like my Janome the Singer 315 has one movable button in the centre on one side that’s about 2.5cm x 1.5cm. The button on the right must be to rest your foot on when you’re not sewing. It will take a bit of practice to get the right speed.
In my next post, I’ll share about giving it a clean and oil, before testing it with thread and fabric.
0 Comments