Monday, January 27, 2014

New to Me



 After months of scanning the internet, I finally found a vintage, portable, electric sewing machine with both a straight and zig zag stitch.


She´s a 1960´s Alfa model 103 and came with the original instruction book and a whole bunch of accessories and gizmos.


I figure she´s been put away somewhere for a while, so I should probably disassemble the relevant parts and make sure she´s clean and oiled, but when I tried her out before taking her home the stitching was solid and quiet.


She will do a whole bunch of embroidery stitches, which seem more applicable to baby clothes than anything to me, BUT you can also drop the feed dogs, the little teethed plates that push the fabric under the pressure foot, so there is an option for free-form sewing used in machine embroidery and quilting that´s all the rage.



V has already started rearranging the second bedroom so I can have a space to work.  So woot for me!!

9 comments:

  1. We'll expect great things and lots of pics ;-)

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  2. It may take me a while to get back up to speed. ;)

    If anyone knows what some of those pieces are for, don´t be shy.

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  3. I will photograph the attachment page from my new machine when I get a moment this should help you identify the pieces, I know you have a zipper foot there and an attachment for bias binding, I will be in touch.

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  4. Thank you! The black thing in the upper right is the cam that controls the decorative stitches. There´s a rolled hem foot in there too, I think. And that long piece at the bottom is a stitch guide, as far as I can tell.

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  5. Hi Coco, I've looked at my manual and have realized that I have very few attachments, it does thing automatically, however!!! Using google put in Alfa sewing machine 103 you will find online catalogs of the parts. One site, Sewing Parts.co.uk seems particularly good. Hope this helps..

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  6. HI Coco,

    I've stumbled across your blog while attempting to research what I think is the same model sewing machine that you speak of (Alpha 103-3). I have the one that my parents purchased in Seville in the mid to late 1960's (my father was stationed at San Pablo AFB, as a member of the USAF).

    This machine was passed on to me over 20 years ago; I doubt there's ever been more than a spool or two of thread ran through it...as Mom wasn't much of a seamstress (as I recall). As a 58 year old man, I'm not much of a seamstress either:-)

    The one that I have is in a lovely wooden cabinet, with 4 legs...not easily portable.

    Do you have any knowledge of the history of this model sewing machine?

    Thanks,

    Billy Dean
    Fayetteville, NC
    USA

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  7. Hi Billy Dean,

    I can start you off with a bit about the company (scroll about half way down the page):
    http://www.hampshiresewingmachines.com/page/Manufacturer%20History

    You´ll have better google results if you read Spanish.

    Hope that helps!

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  8. Hi greetings from Manchester England, I have just bought one of these with an ENGLISH language manual!! it needs a really good cleaning and oiling, it seems to have all the feet - are they all high shank feet? like for an industrial machine? - there is a spare feed dog, not sure if there is a spare throat plate like yours, there are lots of feet, and there are TWO of the black bakelite cam stacks, it seems that these must go somewhere on the top of the machine as there is not an opening on the back? can you mail me and I can send you pics? thanks amateursewing@gmail.com

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  9. Merhaba böyle bir dikiş makinası yengem de var şuan ben kullanmayı düşünüyorum

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