Singer Featherweight 221 & 222 Sewing Machine

Among the most popular collectible sewing machines in the world, are the Singer Featherweight 221 & 222.
The 221 has a flatbed, with a fold up extension table, that makes a wonderful surface to support your sewing while you are sewing. The 222 has a freearm, possibly the smallest freearm available, which is particularly helpful when sewing baby clothes & doll clothes, or anything with small circular openings that need sewn.

The link below will take you to a 21 minute video where I show a large number of the Singer Fashion Aids, also known as attachments, accessories & feet, that I had when I had my 2 Featherweights. Unfortunately, due to medical bills from my NF2, brain tumors, spinal & nerve tumors, surgeries, MRIs, etc., I had to sell my machines to pay bills (still owe more!), but I want to share what I learned from them with anyone who wants to learn!

Singer Featherweight 221 Attachments & Accessories Video!

Photo- Singer Featherweight 222k sewing machine with case, buttonholer, & accessories

222k note the freearm has a wide, yet short length needle plate, compared to the 221. The front & back edges of the needle plate are where the freearm begins & ends. The extension bed slides off to the left, taking the front & rear portions of the flatbed with it. 

Photo- Here, the Singer Pinking attachment is hooked up. It allows you to pink the edges of your seams for decorative effect, or to "finish" seams.  Both a straight pinking blade, as well as the zigzag blades are available. Singer also sold a hand crank pinking attachment, but the one attached to the 222k here, trims edges much faster, with better control.

Singer Featherweight 221 & 222 Sewing Machines are lightweight portable all metal sewing machines, from the biggest name in sewing, Singer. These miniature looking, miracle machines weigh in the 11 to 13 lb. weight range, depending on if they are in their case, & how many feet & accessories are included. They are straight stitch only machines, but zigzaggers, blind hemmers, buttonhole attachments & embroidery attachments are available, which can help them sew almost anything, as long as you use the correct needle & thread, for your fabric & project.

Unless they grew up in a sewing family, most people are unaware that vintage sewing machines had all kinds of special feet & attachments to make sewing faster & easier, particularly things like pintucks, ruffles, tucks, binding, braiding, shirring, rolled hems, flat feld seams, fagoting, embroidery, circular stitching, blind hemming, edgestitching, & many more special sewing tasks. Until I had my first vintage sewing machine, which was a Singer Featherweight 221, I had no idea these accessories & feet existed, let alone how to use them.

The Featherweights are ideal beginner sewing machines, as well as being highly treasured & collected by experts. The simplicity of the mechanics make them ideal, because there is very little to learn, before being able to use them. Here are a few of their fabulous features

*straight stitch only

*reverse lever is also stitch length control

*small in size

*lightweight 12#

*come with carry case all items fit in!

*slow speed to medium speed

*no extra stitches or settings required

To help show what kinds of specialty feet, attachments, accessories are available, I have made some videos & taken photos of some of my machines, which I am trying to share with anyone who wants this information, so I have begun writing reviews & guides on Ebay, as Uptite1, & sharing Youtube videos, including this one on the rolled hemmer foot, on my Singer Featherweight 221.


Singer Featherweight rolled hemmer tutorial VIDEO LINK

Blackside attachments with Featherweight 221

Blackside attachments were manufactured during World War II, when chrome & most metals were in demand for the war effort, & rationed or unavailable in manufacturing & domestic uses. Singer used the black finish to protect the base metals from rust & damage, as well as to prevent the feet from marking up the fabric when you sew. Blackside attachments function just as well as the chrome finished items, but have the rarity & cachet, of being a World War II memento.

I am not finished with this blog post, I will add more information about both the 221 & 222 as I am able to. My brain tumors make me forget a lot, but if I am able I will add more photos & information. Please feel free to leave comments & questions. If I don't respond here, you can reach me as Uptite1 on Ebay messages.

One of my favorite websites to share with other Singer Sewing machine fanatics, was formerly known as April 1930's website, but after buying Grant Forsdyke Singer Featherweight website, they are now The Singer Featherweight Shop, an excellent source of history, instructions, attachments, accessories, & Singer Fashion Aids, manuals & much, much more! No, I am not connected to them in any way, other than referring them business, and occasionally letting them know about a rare Singer Fashion Aid for sale, to help support their wonderful educational site, which just happens to also be how they make a living! Here is the link-

https://singer-featherweight.com/collections/shop

If you specifically want to find educational material about the Singer Featherweight 221 or 222k, try their schoolhouse page here-

https://singer-featherweight.com/blogs/schoolhouse

https://www.novamontgomery.com/


Other people have researched Singer's slow demise, as the top sewing machine manufacturer in the world, and if it will paste properly, I will include a link to one here-

Singer 221 The Perfect Portable and it's stitches across history by Nancy Johnson Srebo


This next section is information from another site, online, which may explain part of why the Singer 222k was never made inthe USA. The writer cites Dec. 20, 1958 Business Week issue, which touches on the decline in market share  of Singer's sewing machine sales.

"Subject: History

        I finally found an article that tells why the FW and its big
sisters were given the pink slip by Singer. The Dec. 20, 1958 issue of
Business Week has an article entitled *More push overseas for Singer
sewing*. Apparently the "Old Guard" at Singer believed they knew just
what consumers wanted in a sewing machine and were whammied by Necchi and
Pfaff importing zig-zag machines. Then they were double whammied by the
Japanese with low priced machines. When Singer finally figured out what
hit them, Singer was only selling 1/3 of the household machines on the
market, compared to 2/3 prewar. "Still... Singer continued to rest
chiefly on its old reliables-heavy, black(with gold lettering),
straight-stitch models dating from pre-war days."
        Singer's answer was to finally install a new president along with
less conservative executives whose marketing stategies included heavy
advertising, pushing models with prices under $69 instead of over $300,
and for the first time selling through 70 department stores and dime
stores. I remember reading that much earlier Singer had sold through
Wannamaker's but that was different in that all Singer salespeople there
were factory trained and it actually operated more like a Singer outlet.
        Foreign markets became more important to Singer as foreign
sales climbed to 60% of total income. Singer decided to produce locally
whenever possible. Previously the St. Johns, Canadian plant had exported
as much as 80% of its production to Latin America and the Clydebank,
Scotland plant was supplying both Great Britain and the U.S. About this
time they opened plants in Brazil, Mexico and Australia to supply local
areas. This article also mentions that the plant at Clydebank had 13,000
employees, and I read somwhere that that factory was so important to
Glascow that a Singer sewing machine was put on the city's coat of arms.
        I guess we should be glad that the Singer people didn't catch on
sooner to the change in the consumer wants, or it would be even harder to
find a Featherweight.
----------------------------
Subject: S.M History & Minnesota adverts
From: dawn@pandoras.gen.nz (Dawn Scotti"