SlantZone

Been sorting through various Slant manuals in my possession recently & thought it might be good to show some of them here. Singer Manuals of the period, early 1960s, are very comprehensive & not seen nowadays. The 431 Convertible is 104 pages of real details. The 403 Special is 96 pages. The 411 is 104. Imagine that these days? No chance. The Singer 411 manual, shown bottom left, is Multi-lingual even. It is pictorial, no text, just diagrams which are clearly understandable by any nationality! Has 66 pages of easily understood info, including an index. From 1963 I believe. Printed in Western Germany... When the Berlin Wall divided Germany. Lubrication points: Just plugging it in:   Fancy stitches? Is that cool, or what? Whatever language you speak? I think that is very cool. From 60 years ago. What a shame you can't find similar now?? Online or anywhere. If you ever come across one of the 411G machines with the Switchable Treadle/Electric options you may have the particula...

If you have a vintage straight stitch machine these attachments greatly extend the range of your machine & are fascinating in their own right. IMO. I've been sorting through my little stash of Attachments & Manuals & thought they might be of interest? The Singer Buttonholer (Simanco 86718) is familiar to most I guess, but is high quality & the red plastic boxes are way better than the cardboard varieties: ) The Janome Alphabet Stitch is a little extravagant, modernish, & quite impressive. For me the Y. S. Star Automatic Zigzager is the real Star here! Closely followed by the Ruby Buttonholer. The pair of Singer Blind Stitch Attachments (Simanco 86649) are classy items too. (Not sure how the Singer flat cams edged in here: ) 1      Y. S. Star Automatic Zigzager. It's a neat little Zigzager, but also does 5 other stitch patterns with the included steel cams. Comes in a neat little box with Instruction Leaflet & cams in their own little folder. It's q...

Definitely the last of the classic, 400 series, engineered Singers in UK/Europe. You Americans got the 500 series Rocketeers, which are same/similar mechanically, but we don't see them much here in UK. This one is a basic 401G. Multiple internal, built in stitches, even more with extra cams, twin needle capable, all steel internals, no belts or plastic gears, just Singers last, proper, built to last domestic sewing machine. And very expensive at the time. Early 1960s! Nearly 60 years old now, & good ones will last another 60 without doubt:) I found this one on Ebay & won it for £28; ) With shipping £41. It is almost immaculate cosmetically & mechanically. But was sold as Spares/Repairs because of a 'Tired Motor'. Has a very nice, original case & foot controller. Arrived this morning, undamaged in transit & I'm very pleased with it. Ebay pic above. I've got several of these 400 series machines & a dud motor? No problem! Or so I thought....

The dodgy machine: ) A little slider knob missing & a corner of the plastic front plate broken in the post. Neat otherwise & stitches really well with its all steel gears, just like the 400 series machines. A couple of days ago I bought a cheap Singer 401G with a tired/slow motor, but in nice condition otherwise by the look of it. The 611G was bought 3 years ago to compare with my several 400 series Slants. Particularly the simpler throat plate pins. I wasn't too impressed by it overall & thought possibly I could use its motor to replace the tired 401s motor: ) So I got it out this morning to have a closer look at the motor. I hadn't even serviced it & it was interesting just to look close. The 611G is made/assembled in Germany. Its serial number is JE36584x. Which indicates the main frame/aluminium casting was made in Canada, St. Johns. Around 1965. Nothing unusual about that. Singer in St. Johns made certain other Slant bases & exported  them to Germany, P...

Looking for a controller for one of my Lotus machines, which is missing one, I found this machine & made a modest bid. Essentially a spares machine for me. This is very similar to the Elna Lotus machines, but without the fold down covers & no storage space in the 'lid'. Came originally with a soft cover which is likely missing on this one. (But easy to make your own on the actual machine: ) It does look to be in neat cosmetic condition, but I need to wait & see in that respect. A controller on its own would cost as much as this machine, & more, so I thought it makes sense!?  Won it for £41, including shipping. From the British Heart Foundation Charity online shop . If you are in UK I recommend them for certain interesting sewing machines. Shipping is £4.95 & always well packed with fast delivery! I do love the Swiss made Elnas: ) 15/08/2023 Arrived 8:30 this morning, Tuesday! Won it Sunday night, was posted Monday, arrives Tuesday. Safely packed & turns ...

Came across this very nice looking Elna 62C on Ebay & thought to give it a try: ) It is the top of the range in this series & will make a good partner for the rarer Elna ZZ 21C I got recently . Came with 11 cams & useful bits & pieces & it does look good to me: ) They do have 3 plastic gears inside, but they are not difficult to replace & they stitch very well.   They also have a very nice steel case, half of which provides a extension table! The above are Ebay pics & I only won it an hour ago, but I do look forward to seeing it & threading it up; ) I report back anon. 11th August 2023. It arrived yesterday in 2 days via Parcelforce in fine order. Won it on Monday night & was here on Thursday noon. Somethings do work these days! Plugged it in, threaded it up & it's stitching nicely out of the box. Getting a good service today & taking off the top cover it's clear the top has never been removed previously! Most of the cams have never b...