Saturday, August 12, 2017

Thrift Score: 1950s Toy Sewing Machine


Question of the week: what do you do when husband banishes you from the house?

No, not a fight. Just some work that was going to create some dust so he suggested I find something to do. Hmmm....that's never really a quandary for me. 

I spent an hour in the library reading Kurt Vonnegut and then another hour at my favorite antique store in town, Treasure Hunt, owned by Carol Reeder.

I bought the little Brown Betty salt and paper shakers while I was in there but snapped pics of a few 1950s to 1970s finds to share. Some of these were like things I grew up with. I had a Wonderhorse rocking horse and I definitely remember these tissue tins in the bedrooms.







The Bisquick tin would be great for homemade baking mix!

Later in the day, we drove to Pittsburg, Kansas to return a rented tool and found some lovely exposed history. 



The tile was exposed on a building site on the main street of town. I hope the rest is recovered and restored.

The wall was found by a couple who bought an old building for an old-fashioned grocery store they want to create. When they bought the building, it came with all the contents stored there so they were selling them off and I found this 1950s Singer Sewhandy 20 toy sewing machine.


The needle is broken and it's missing a couple of (not completely essential) pieces. The sewing machine should work, once I clean it up and buy the needles it uses. There is no bobbin. There's a "looper" under the plate that creates a chain stitch to sew fabric together.

I did some research and though this was a children's toy made from the 1910s to the 1970s, I read many young women would take this off to college to make simple repairs. It's only about 5" tall!


It's a hand crank sewing machine. It looks like the thread spool pin was replaced ages ago with an old screw whose point was clipped off. The little depression in the front of the base was meant for a C-clamp that would hold it to a table.

I learned to sew on a Singer cast iron machine that had once been a treadle but electrified for factory work. My grandfather owned a vest factory and put it in a beautiful cabinet and gave it to my mother. Leave a comment below: what kind of machine did you learn to sew on?

No comments:

Post a Comment