Meet my new baby- she's 104 years old!

Last year at the Dickens Fair in Riverside, CA, a shiny object caught my eye: hand cranked sewing machines! I’ve often watched others at reenactments using them, and envying the use of such a wonderful machine. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough cash with me at the time, and had to walk away.
I’d forgotten about them until recently when my friend, Cindy, got one for Christmas, and I remembered the Dickens Fair was coming up soon. Armed with a cash gift from my Mom, when I arrived at the Fair this past weekend and before it opened to the public, I headed over to the Marketplace in hopes the vendor would be there again. And he was! I saw a lineup of about 15 machines, all gorgeously restored and in working condition. And the price was still the same from last year!

                                                                        Photo from a friend.

The first machine I looked over was the obvious;   a Singer, a familiar name. The others were names I’d never heard of. But still all just as pretty in their gold designs and glistening black skins. The vendor gave me a tour of all of them, mostly English or German made ones. One in particular stood out to me, a Jones.  It was made in England in 1908, and had a warrant emblem that said, “Supplier to Queen Alexandra”. It was particularly beautiful with so much delicate gold decoration that it won my heart right away.

It uses these tiny narrow bobbins that don’t hold a lot of thread. There’s a storage area on the side of the machine under the wheel, and a bobbin threader in front of it.

It has the ability to have a cable attached under the hand wheel to become a treadle sewing machine if I ever decide to do that, or even find a cabinet I could do it with. But that’s not my goal.
This website tells the history of my machine. Jones history

My mother just reminded me of a miniature Singer sewing machine she gave me when I was younger that was a child’s hand crank machine. I found it, looked it up on the internet, and found out it was made in 1951 to celebrate Singer’s 100 year anniversary and they put a badge on it to commemorate it. If she hadn’t mentioned it, I might never have looked it up, and I actually forgot that I had it, although I knew I did. It’s just “up on a shelf somewhere”.  It’s missing its bobbin so I’ve never been able to sew on it.  It has a small brace that you can attach it to a table to stabilize it too.

It’s been fun having people now tell me their stories of using hand crank or treadle machines. My Mom said she used a hand crank to make all her school clothes, and that her aunt wouldn’t allow an electric one into the home because that was dangerous. My aunt said she also used a treadle to sew all her clothes. Then my next door neighbor told me about sewing all her children’s clothes on a treadle machine. It makes me think of all the exercise I’m missing with only using my foot or toes to press on a pedal now.
When I mentioned my mini one, she said one of her friends had one of them that he traveled with to do sewing repairs. What an idea!
Please tell me YOUR stories of using hand crank or treadle sewing machines. I’d love to know of others who own these, and especially what you do with them & what you've made on them. At some point I hope to use mine at a reenactment demonstration.
ETA: I contacted the owners of Sew Cranky who I bought my machine from, and they do carry extra supplies for hand crank, treadle operated, and maybe other antique machines. Check out their website here. http://sewcranky.com/
And this tells you all about my Jones sewing machine. http://www.sewalot.com/jones_sewing_machines.htm