How to Select, Service, Repair & Maintain Your Vintage Sewing Machine: Second Edition

I bought the Kindle edition, and the images are small and pixelated. Three pages are missing altogether (pp. 23-26). I included an image of the text captions for a couple of the illustrations--the text is an image itself, and it is cut off at the end. I cannot tell from the Amazon listing who the publisher is--is this self-published? Ugh.The content of the book is also disappointing. It basically amounts to, "make sure you know what you're buying" (duh), "search for parts on the internet" (double duh), and "clean and rewire the thing" (well of course). At some point, the author says that she decided not to explain how to refurbish a vintage machine because there are plenty of videos on the internet on how to do it. I kid you not.And it's mostly about Singers.

Disappointing. I expect a book to be a source of self-contained well organized information. It shouldn't tell me to Google it or that there's lots of information online. I already know that a treadle machine doesn't need to be plugged in and is good for people off grid. I'm off grid and already have a treadle. I have limited internet access and have to burn gas for it in the winter. Other advice from this book? Look in the manual for your sewing machine. Oil the places where metal parts contact. Not helpful for me. I've returned it.

The book is expensive for what you get. The chapters are short and sometimes the information is minimal. the author is truthful that the book is written for the novice, there is little in depth. I did like the chapter on threading different sewing machine models. It would have been nice if she had included some less well documented machines and some of the later (but still all metal) machines.

I bought this because I recently bought a 1929 Minnesota C treadle sewing machine and this was suppose to help me with the break down, clean and repair. I could only read a couple pages without buying and said it was for treadles, very very little to do with treadle machines, mostly electric machines, wasted my money. :(

This is a fantastic guide for the novice vintage sewing machine hunter! It will teach you how to select a good machine, and then take it home to clean and maintain. You can save a fortune in repair shop fees, as this book will help you repair most common issues on your own.There's a little something in this book for everyone. Give this book a look--you won't regret it!

I got this book for my mom. She is a sewing machine repair technician working everything from the old Wilcox Gibbs and singers to the new Bernini embroidery machines. She loves it!

Good book with lots of useful information.

not a total take down of the machines

I really enjoyed reading through this, lots of very good advice on looking after a number of different machines, many of the steps are the same for different machines models, so use in conjunction with your user/service manuals. The author explains things very clearly and gives clear warnings on what to do yourself and, depending on your experience, what to consider handing over to an electrician. The author is American but it's dead easy to use a search engine to find British/ European equivalents. If you love old sewing machine and want to take that step to being able to do easy maintenance right up to complete overhauls then this is a great guide.

A self published book with some good photos and advice but limited to the machines which the author happens to have access to. It's good for my Singer 221 but less so for my Singer 201.The book is American with American spellings and American expressions - "real nice" rather than "really nice" and "clothes pins" rather than "clothes pegs" etc. The proof reading could have been better; there are several instances where a space was missed, and two instances of "your" when it should have been "you're".Overall a useful publication despite its limitations and irritations.

When I pay for a book I expect the layout to be professional. This book was clearly written as a word document without a professional editing it afterwards. There are a lot of pictures, which also look like they're made by an amateur.The information contained in the book is quite extensive but rather basic. If you have worked with machines before and know some basics about mechanics, then this is not the book for you.

As a VSM collector this book is not half bad. I will take it to have a spiral binder put on and have the covers laminated. Then it will be a great book. Right now the book itself is too fragile to pull it to the work bench without ruining it. Some really good info on VSM motor repair. :)

love this book...showed me what i need to see. the pics are a little bit blurred but were still helpful and didn't pose a problem...thanks