White, Mason, Jones

I have three machines of the White vibrating shuttle design. One is made by White (model VS2-b), one is by Jones (Medium CS) and one by A.G. Mason (Defender). They were all made some time between 1889 and 1911, they all have a long arm vibrating shuttle design, but other details vary. So how do…

Updates to Jones TS post

I received a manual for Jones transverse shuttle machines,  and it is full of insights! I revised my Jones TS post in view of this new information, some of which is rather amusing. 😀

Jones transverse shuttle machine

As I reported before, I got myself a Jones Family TS machine dating to 1883. Yes, I know I first said it was from 1882 based on the serial number 26569 according to sewingdownmemorylane.com. However, fiddlebase.com found a document allowing to date the machine based on the Jones logo engraved on the slide plate. According…

The transverse shuttle bug

Never mind the coronavirus - this is much more serious! Being stuck in lockdown causes serious spending. The Cyclops How can anyone resist a cyclops? Impossible! This is a late 1880s Varley & Co. transverse shuttle machine known as "The Cyclops" - their trade mark. It is based on Singer 12 but has double-sided feed…

My secret weapon

I have four long bobbin machines, five if you count the little one too. Three are vibrating shuttle machines, one is a cylindrical transverse shuttle - all four "medium" tailors' machines. The fifth one is a Wittler hybrid - a transverse vibrating shuttle. These five machines between them not only can sew any fabric under…

The D9 and its incarnations

Wheeler & Wilson' D9 was a very successful rotary machine - and was reproduced and modified by many manufacturers. Wheeler & Wilson themselves produced many versions of this machine and kept improving various aspects of it as time went on. In 1905 Singer took over Wheeler & Wilson and in turn produced some D9-based machines…