Essex Miniature Sewing Machine

Hello

 I was at an Auction a little while ago and came across this little beauty and thought it would do for a dinky machine to take away in our motorhome when we go on holiday, I had visions of doing small patchwork projects.  It doesn't take up much room and more importantly, it doesn't weigh very much.  My Singer Featherweight is small but needs to travel in its box to protect the lovely paintwork from chips which means that there is no-where in the motorhome to store it so I thought that this little beauty was the answer so put a bid on it and won it.  Yippee I thought, not knowing anything about these machines, thought it was ideal.

Here it is alongside the Featherweight. Its slightly smaller but now I have them both together there isn't much in it.  This Featherweight was made in 1957 but the design is much older than that.  This is Essex is the Mark II version which went into production the same year so they are the same age but miles apart in design.

I had to search the internet to find the instructions on how to thread and use it.  This is when I found the technical hitch in my plan.  It's a chain stitch machine, which means that if you don't finish the end stitch properly, all your stitching can pull out very easily which also means, that you can't cut over the stitching when you square up your blocks like you can with stitching sewn by a conventional lockstitch machine like the Featherweight so it is useless for quilting.  So its it now decorating my sewing room looking pretty.  I really must do more research before bidding!

If you would like information and instructions on this machine, here is the link http://www.sewalot.com/essex_sewing_machine.htm

For those who don't know what a Singer Featherweight looks like, here's mine

Cheers
Sharon