HAND CRANK SEWING MACHINE - no electricity needed!

 Jones Family C.S. Hand Crank serial #357221

Do you like to sew and not be plugged to the grid?

I'm impressed with this workhorse! She was born in 1924 and built like a tank! Cast Iron, well-designed and sews like a champion.

It didn't take long to pick up speed running the hand crank with one hand, and guiding the stitches with the other. A nice soft clickety-click-click rhythm that is strangely comforting and rewarding.

Even though this machine comes with a wooden box top for storage, she's too pretty to stash away, so I don't.

Fortunately she came with a lot of supplies - spare bobbins, needles, and some accessories.  When I originally begain shopping for one of these machines, I was looking at models on Ebay and Etsy. There were plenty to choose from, but I didn't want to risk damage through shipping.  Thankfully, I found a local woman selling hers, and she patted the machine fondly to say goodbye while I gladly handed her the money.

 Handy built-in slide box for storage. 

Room for storage underneath and the owners manual! The book is almost 100 years old, so you can imagine how it is barely holding together.  I'll post copies of this for preservation. 

I am very impressed on how smooth this machine sews leather! Once the wheel is spinning, it is like clickety-click, click, clicking over butter.  Now don't get me wrong, I love my electric machines, I own 6 of them, and I can honestly say if I had to get rid of them all but two... the hand crank would be one of the keepers. 

This particular model has the ability to go into reverse, which is perfect for reinforcing stitches. The only thing she can't do is sew in zigzag. 

If you're thinking about buying an antique hand crank sewing machine, especially a Jones, here's a wonderful website that goes over the history. I'll try to get a video out soon on how well she runs, or I should say, how easy it is for us to run, as we're the manpower ;)

                       More info/history on the Jones machine  HERE

Photocopies of the owners manual HERE