Kenmore ‘Kennie’ 1050 Sewing Machine

I was looking for a nice ottoman, not a sewing machine, but I swear, it found me!

I almost peed my pants when I saw it and realized what it was! I had already been past the shelves of electric devices once, and was making my second round. You have to do that, or you might miss a treasure. It was hiding on the bottom shelf, laying on it’s back, and it blended into the shelf, as the shelf was the same color. I love the Rose embossed case.

The case opens out at the bottom, and you lift the lid up to expose the machine.

This machine is a very sought after machine. It was built in the early to mid 70’s. There are earlier versions of this machine. The 1030, 1040, and later version, 1060. The 1030 started out with the least stitches, the 1040 has a few more stitches, the 1050 has the most stitches, and the 1060 is actually a little bit bigger machine. The 1030, and 1040 have the tension dial on the outside of the machine, and the 1050 has the tension on the inside, under the lid. I knew about them, but had only seen one other one, which at the time, I was not sure of. It was in a cabinet, and of course, wasn’t there later. I’m much happier to find the portable version.

I brought it home and started working on it. I plugged it in, and it was very sluggish and I could tell the motor was working hard. I joined a vintage Kenmore sewing machine group for some information, since this  machine did not have a manual with it. I usually can figure out most everything myself, but I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to get the top off, except to pry it off, which I did not want to do. Guess what the manual says? ‘Lift the top off’. Ok, pry it off. That’s how you lift it off. I learned this information from a free manual of an earlier version of this machine, which was available on the Kenmore group site.

I took off the bottom cover, top cover, and right hand side cover, and flipped the left end door open and started oiling. I tried it again, and it took off running. It is a fairly quiet machine. I had not tried sewing with it yet, at this point. I put my paper towel, which I sew on to save from wasting fabric, and the fabric would not advance. The feed dogs just went up and down, but would not move the fabric. I pushed the reverse lever, and it would go backwards, but not forward. Another problem it had, was the lever to drop the feed dogs was STUCK. This is very common with Kenmores, I have found, as the two other Kenmore machines I found had the same problem.

Louie and I started working on fixing the stuck feed dog drop problem, and got that taken care of quickly, (punch, hammer, wd-40 and oil) but we were still trying to figure out why the feed dogs were not moving forward. We loosened screws, and tightened them back up. We moved things manually and tried to figure out how everything worked. After about 4 hours of working on this machine myself, I finally saw it. The stitch dial on the top was set on a button hole stitch. Well DUH.

 

I turned the dial to the straight stitch setting and a wonder of all wonders happened! It worked!

Louie had already painted the bottom plate. It is aluminum, and I think the machine had probably been stored somewhere damp, so some of the paint was bubbled and was gone. It needed a bath, so I did that, then I started working on testing stitches. I had a few glitches with figuring out how to thread the machine, but once I got past that, it sewed like a dream. The longer I sewed, the looser things became and the faster the machine moved. I even wound a bobbin. (Oh, what would we do without oil?)

‘Kennie’ (that’s what the Kenmore group calls this little machine) is a 3/4 size machine, and would be perfect as a traveling/retreat/quilt guild machine. It has a cute little ‘flip up’ extension on the left side.

The accessory case is hidden under a little flip up lid.

The accessory case then ‘rolls’ forward….

…and the top lifts to expose your accessories.

Then you just drop the lid, and you have a nice little extension area for your sewing.

I certainly did not NEED another machine, but I am ‘SEW HAPPY’ ‘Kennie’ found ME!

Hope your weekend is wonderful. It is supposed to be chilly today. Can you believe it? Only mid 60’s for a high. Hmmm…wonder what we will do? Happy Labor Day everyone!

Be blessed!

Michelle