What Can You Get For $20?

A TREADLE SEWING MACHINE!!

(You would think I would have at least DUSTED it before taking pictures, but obviously I did not, as demonstrated by my fat footprint left on the footboard!)

Yes, when I stopped at the garage sale they were trying to get rid of things.  I found ONE man’s shirt that I could use for quilt making.  I paid the man $1,  got in my car, and drove around the circle drive to leave.  WAIT A MINUTE!  What was THIS I saw out of the corner of my eye?

When I stopped and got out of my car again, the man informed me that he had been asking $45 for it, but I could have it for $20.  SOLD!

It is a small cabinet and takes up very little room in my house… good thing!  This cabinet is not actually made for this machine.  There is a gap of about 1/2” on the right side, but someone has made it fit nicely.  The cabinet itself has signs of much use.  That is OK…. I am not buying it for a museum piece… I want to SEW on it!

 

The decals are in excellent shape.

Here is what I could find out on the internet.  It is German made by Adolph Knoch.  It was probably made around the early 1900s, but that is a guess from the little bit I could locate on several different web sites.  Info was hard to come by… when you type in “Knoch treadle sewing machine” on any of the search engines it assumes you are talking about a Singer brand, since that is the most common type.

  

The inscription above the bobbin winder is something I can’t read… no experience with German.

If you can help me find any other info on this machine I would be very appreciative!

SOOOO, as soon as I order a new belt for it and spend a little time cleaning and oiling, I will get to sew on my new baby.  I have named my longarm, perhaps I need to name this machine?  I’ll have to give it some thought.

What can you get for $20?  A wonderful trip down memory lane.  I sewed on a treadle machine in Home Economics in high school back in 1970.  Yes, we had electric machines, but you had to SHARE the electric machines.  If you were willing to treadle, you could sew every day, so that is what I did.

From now on, I will slow down and take a good look around at every garage sale I go to looking for shirts.  Who knows what other treasures are there for $20?

KAT