We are now an official club, and listed in a Featherweight Community directory. The Grand Valley Featherweight FABRICators Club is the brain child of Karen Boston Murray. Karen is our resident Featherweight guru. The amount of information about the Featherweight machines that Karen knows is astounding. She knows the history as well as the mechanics of the machines. She is also an avid collector.
Karen started the club prior to COVID. But when we reopened, we had a difficult time gaining the momentum we had prior to the shutdowns. We are just now gaining speed and enthusiasm. and our Featherweight community is growing. And now, we are an official club!
If you are interested in vintage sewing machines, please join our community. We meet once a month on the first Wednesday of the month. Karen often has small projects that people can work on together, but you are also encouraged to bring your own projects that you want to work on in the company of other Featherweight enthusiasts. Karen also has Schoolhouse sessions at each meeting where she demonstrates something new about the machine. In December, for example, she is teaching about machine tension and how to dial it in.
We also have Featherweight items available at the shop or as special orders. From cleaning to maintaining to sewing, we can get you what you need to get your Featherweight from out of the closet and into your sewing room.
It is fun to see the Featherweight machines along side our big mama Luminaire machines. In 100+ years, it is amazing to see the advancements made in the home sewing industry. Without these sweet little machines, though, we probably wouldn't have the big mamas we have now. Thank you, inventors (then and now), for your contributions to our addictions!
P.S. Singer was not the only company that was in the race to invent the first sewing machine. Brother was also hot and heavy in the fight. I have a 100-year-old Brother machine on display at the shop. Brother is one of the premier sewing machine companies now and has put all of its office product technology in its sewing machines. Our great grandmothers would faint if they knew what our machines can do now!
Nevertheless, it is great fun to forego the bells and whistles for awhile and just enjoy sewing as our grandmothers and great grandmothers once did.