A Closer Look at the Singer 215G

Yesterday, I posted about the sewing machine that a friend gave me. if you haven't read about that story check it out here. I thought today we might look closer at the Singer 215G.
The Singer 215, 216 and 218 G models were made in Germany in the 1950's. After World War II Singer had taken over what was once Haid und Neu in Karlsruhe, Germany. Singer operated there from 1954 until 1982. These were some of the first machines they produced under the Singer name. I've seen pics of very early 215 models with treadle bases.
Mine is electric and has it's original motor. What I like about this machine is it's almost industrial style. The light is rather cool being sort of out there at the front and it can be adjusted around a bit. It is a straight stitch only machine but you can drop the feed dogs. Mine is in a two tone brown color scheme of mocha and chocolate brown but I believe it, also, came in black or beige.
Mine was in it's original suitcase style case. It has a heavy wooden base that had these little slots which I soon realized allowed the accessories box to attach to the machine to extend the bed. The wooden box was just a basic box with no dividers so I asked my dad if you could make dividers and a lift out tray. I hate it when things just sort of rattle around.
This machine is heavy. It would not the first one I would ever choose to take to a sewing class. All in all it's a good machine. Fantastic heavy feel to it with nice industrial styling to it. I haven't really tested it with bulky and thick fabrics yet but it seems like it could be a real workhorse.

That time I went grocery shopping

Picture it an average weekend day. I had just been telling my mom that I wish I could luck into a free vintage sewing machine something that would need a bit of work. I belong to a vintage sewing machine group online and people often post about their free finds. To be honest I had a few pass through my hands a few years ago but I hadn't been interested in learning about actual repair until recently. I let those go because having a basket case machine overwhelmed me at the time. Anyway, I was going about my errands when I ran into a friend at Safeway.
We were chatting and the subject of vintage sewing machines came up and she says "I have an old singer that I got at an estate sale but it's too much work for me do you want it? I have it in the car!" The answer to that is of course yes and lets go get it. Luckily the grocery store provided carts because I needed a cart to haul what I lovingly called the "boat anchor" to my car.
It was in a grubby suitcase style case. The first time I had seen this type of case. I open the case up to find a frozen, dirty Singer 215-G. The 215-G was made in Germany in the 1950's. This one came in what was once a snappy looking suitcase style case. It came with a wooden accessories box filled with a light bulb, a dirty pincushion with rusty pins, bobbins with vintage thread, some wooden spools of thread, several sewing machine feet, and a seam guide.
I spent several hours working on getting the old oil off the moving metal parts since old sewing machine oil is like shellac. I added new sewing machine oil and then plugged the machine in. I hadn't plugged it in at all. I like to move vintage machines by hand at first until I know they are suitably workable. Plugging in the machine there is always that moment where the question is will the motor work or not. As luck would have it the motor purred.
I've done some general cleaning on the machine but nothing really detailed as of yet and I have done some sewing with it. It's a great machine. The bobbin winder is still frozen though.