Jessie Bannatyne's Singer sewing machine

A few years ago (5 or so, I don’t remember), I inherited a sewing machine from Jessie, one of my cousins. “Inherited” in both the formal and informal sense. I went to her funeral, and stayed a couple of nights. When you are travelling several hundred miles and finishing up on a Hebridean island, it is almost unavoidable. The day following the funeral, some of the women were packing things up and asked me “do you want anything?” There was the sewing machine in a store-room so I said: “I’ll have that.” Naturally, it didn’t turn, but I didn’t care that much. Actually, I really do like the idea of having a sewing machine, and this is one of those hand-cranked ones, so it was ideal and of course it was free.

Jessie Bannatyne's Singer Sewing Machine (circa 1921)

A couple of weeks ago, in the evening something prompted me have a look at it. The first thing I found was that the reason it wasn’t turning was simply a tangle of threads around the lower bobbin. A few snips and a couple of tugs with some rat-nosed pliers and everything was moving. A squirt of WD40 down the appropriate holes and it was running freely. Since then I’ve fitted in a trip down to Cork and bought it a bottle of proper Singer oil (almost certainly an unnecessary extravagance, I’m sure 3-in-1 would have been adequate, but what the heck), and a replacement rubber friction wheel for the bobbin winder. That is the only replacement part it has required. I haven’t totted up the total expenditure, but at 1 rubber wheel, 1 bottle of oil, 1 paper of 5 needles and 3 reels of thread for parts and less than a couple of hours labour, it isn’t much!

Some research on the internet shows that the serial number of the machine was allocated in December 1921. That may well mean that it was made the following year. Asking round the family we have concluded that it was probably bought new by my Grandmother (also called Jessie btw). She used it for a while and then gave it to her daughter when she married and took over the farm. She in turn gave it to my cousin Jessie (my family do it to confuse!) who was a spinster and eventually it came to me.

So there you have it. Early 20^th Century over-engineering at its best! Made in Clydebank and finishes up in the South of Ireland via the Hebrides. 94 or 95 years old, three generations of women using it for dress-making, making curtains and all those other things and it’s still going strong and the only part it needed was a replacement rubber wheel! They don’t make them like that anymore!

I can see from the picture that this is before I fitted the replacement wheel. And in case you are wondering, the tatty towel in the background was issued to me when I was working shifts at British Steel’s Lackenby Steel Plant in 1979/80. I used it to test the machine, by joining it Ends-to-middle. I still use the towel to wipe my hands when I go to the gym!