# Does Anyone Mend Clothing With a Treadle Machine?



## Olpoop (Jul 8, 2012)

I havenât posted for a long time (Nov 2012), although I have been stopping by HT 1-4 times a week through the years to read. My interest is in people-powered sewing machines, and I got to wondering how many Homesteaders are using their treadle sewing machines for mending clothing, besides using them for quilting or crafting. 

I converted a Singer 319W zigzag machine for treadle operation, and have used it enough times to mend jeans now that Iâd rather use it than an electric machine. It replaced a Singer 306W zigzag machine that I had converted to treadle earlier, but with that one, I had to keep up with the cams for it that I use (multi-zigzag for darning, regular zigzag for replacing bar-tacks), so it wasnât quite as handy. The 319 has those cams built-in.

Anyone mending clothing on a treadle sewing machine?

CD in Oklahoma


----------



## Macybaby (Jun 16, 2006)

CD - I did not know you hung around here occasionally!


----------



## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Yes but nothing as fancy as that. A 1908 New Home that didn't even have a reverse. The item had to be turned around simply to back stitch. Did have a bucket full of attachments, one for doing cordwork.
Your's is awesome.


----------



## Olpoop (Jul 8, 2012)

Macybaby said:


> CD - I did not know you hung around here occasionally!


Oh yes. I&#8217;ve been around here regularly for a few years. I don&#8217;t say much, but I have enjoyed reading posts here at HT. With the recent &#8220;activity&#8221; at HT, and since I have been a bonafide &#8220;lurker&#8221; for a while, I thought that I should contribute something before I got flushed as a non-participant. I spend a lot of time reading about homesteading in a lot of the categories.

My wife and I had a couple of little places when the kids were growing up, and went through many of the homesteading things that I read about here in various threads. It brings back fond memories. Back in Colorado during the late 70s and early 80s, we had a 12-acre place with all kinds of critters including horses for everyone (5), a pack mule, a milk cow (hand-milked by me, and we raised beef from her), chickens, un-clipped mallard ducks that thought they were chickens that could fly (we never told them any different), a couple of pigs (couldn&#8217;t get enough buyers for my surplus milk), and plenty of &#8220;barn cats&#8221; that you couldn&#8217;t handle (like wild cats). Then we moved the whole operation (minus the milk cow, pigs, and mallards) to a 5-acre place nearby, and acquired a milk goat, a few turkeys, and a couple of white ducks. The poor ducks thought that they were chickens too, and even though we had a pond, they were afraid of water....

Back in those days, everyone called little outfits like ours &#8220;Ranchettes&#8221;, at least in our neighborhood. We about went broke, even with my good full-time job, but we enjoyed watching the kids learn about animals and food storage. They&#8217;re all grown up now, but they remember lessons that they learned back then, especially about food storage and preparation. And of course, they remember me bringing the milk goat (her name was Crystal) into the doorway of the livingroom in front of the stereo cabinet to milk her during bad thunderstorms, but none of them have acquired a milk goat yet. I keep hoping. Crystal used to go runner-sledding with us on the frozen roads by our place, but had a bad habit of crowding us into a snowbank to win the race back to the house. She knew that we wouldn&#8217;t run our sled into her hind legs, so she would cut in front of us to take advantage of that. Danged cheating goat.....

Our daughter raised sheep during Highschool back in the late 90s, and it&#8217;s been that long since I&#8217;ve enjoyed a good lamb chop or a leg-of-lamb. Boy that was good eating! She never sold her show lambs, but had them butchered instead. For her last year of FFA, she raised several lambs on different feed rations, and had the butcher label all of the meat with the name of the lamb, so that she could see if there was any difference in taste between the group. She would ask her Mother &#8220;who are we eating tonight?&#8221; when lamb was on the menu. That&#8217;s pretty &#8220;grown-up&#8221; for a young girl. She knew about raising and harvesting animals for food.

Ok, I guess that&#8217;s enough off-topic history for a while. We don&#8217;t have any critters now except for &#8220;Rex, the treadle dog&#8221;. (He seems to like putting his front paws up on my leg when I&#8217;m trying to treadle my sewing machine, and giving him a little ride too).

CD in Oklahoma


----------



## Olpoop (Jul 8, 2012)

where I want to said:


> Yes...A 1908 New Home that didn't even have a reverse.....Your's is awesome.


 Thank you for the compliment! So, do you do clothing mending and alterations on your New Home treadle?

CD in Oklahoma


----------



## fffarmergirl (Oct 9, 2008)

I'm going to be following this. I don't do a lot of sewing but I made a dress form so I can alter clothes I buy at second hand stores. It's a pain, running the extension cord out to the sewing machine.

Can you convert any machine?


----------



## Olpoop (Jul 8, 2012)

fffarmergirl said:


> Can you convert any machine?


 Not easily. There are many that I wouldnât even want to try converting to treadle, but Iâm cautious not to say that it canât be done. Someone may have done it. Many machines can be converted to treadle easily, and new Janome treadle machines are available. Macybaby showed some good examples of convertible vintage machines, and how to select one, on another thread here titled *Janome 712T treadle*. 

Darning clothing was done for years on old straight-stitch non-reverse machines before zigzag was widely available. I just prefer to use the multi-zigzag to do my darning when mending holes in clothes. I tend to set my presser foot to a light tension to do it, so that I can over-power the feed dogs when I want to, but let them move the work most of the time. It allows me to even reverse the stitching direction without needing to move the feed lever (or button on some machines) to the reverse position for short runs backward when needed. Most of my mending is on stiffer fabrics like denim or duck that let me get away with opposing the feed without getting puckers or stretching. It doesnât work as well on thin or stretchy fabrics.

CD in Oklahoma


----------



## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Olpoop said:


> Thank you for the compliment! So, do you do clothing mending and alterations on your New Home treadle?
> 
> CD in Oklahoma


I used to mend clothes but I never altered anything. It has been a few years. The lack of bobbins for the machine always made things a bit more work but for long straight lines like making curtains, I could go faster than an electric. I could feel the burn.......


----------



## Macybaby (Jun 16, 2006)

I did alterations for many years - worked in a shop for a while too - but never done any on a treadle machine.


----------



## Olpoop (Jul 8, 2012)

I guess that I should have started out by just asking if anyone mends clothing with any type of machine anymore. LOL

I have seen several mentions (on this board and others) of obtaining a treadle sewing machine as a prep tool to mend clothing and other fabrics in case of a SHTF event. I was wondering if mending clothing was one of the skills being practiced to get acquainted with the treadle. Are the people who are using their treadles mainly just doing quilting and crafts on them?

CD in Oklahoma


----------

