Singer Table Runner

Last week I showed you an old Singer I bought, along with a peek at the table runner it was sitting on.

This is a Singer Red Eye, produced between 1900 and 1930.  The earliest version was run with a hand crank; that evolved into a treadle, and I have the remnants of the latest version, which was electric.  Mine doesn't work (somebody cut off the cords) but since I only cared about its looks, I don't mind. 

The table runner it's sitting on has a sewing motif, my favorite part being the sewing machine.  The fabric is Alexander Henry's "sew now! sew wow!".  I made the runner last year, and almost gave it away to a resale shop this year, but I'm glad I didn't.  It works good in my new warm color scheme and it ties together several other Singer artifacts I have.

 I don't remember what pattern I used.

The back has a central green panel, with lemon fabric on either side.

On the large white blocks, I free motioned spools of thread that looped from one to the next.  On the log cabin triangles, I did straight stitching.

I keep this ad in a plastic cover pinned to a corner of my design board.  It's an original page from a 1903 Ladies Home Journal.  It shows a variety of treadle machines, including a Singer, sold by Sears.   Sears and Singer were the two most important suppliers of sewing machines in North America from the 1890s through 1950s.

The Singer cost $26.50, which in today's dollars is $713.  The median income in 1903 was $703, so this machine cost more than a year's wages.

As expensive as that seems, Sears was able to keep the prices relatively low because they were a mail order business and had low overhead.  Equivalent sewing machines in retail stores sold for three times as much.

A magnet I put on a white bucket.

I do have a family heirloom Singer treadle machine, but haven't managed to lug the heavy thing into a photo-worthy spot.  So this mini one will have to do.  It's sitting on the back of the table runner.