Singer 301A LBOW & Extension Bed Cover

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to finally get this machine out and clean it up. Louie and I found this LBOW (Light Beige/Oyster White) Singer 301A several months ago while junkin’. I spotted the suitcase and rushed to rescue off the bottom shelf before someone else tried to save it. I was so pleased when I found what was inside. I have wanted a two tone 301 for a long time, but just couldn’t make myself pay the price. When I was willing to pay the price, I feared that it wouldn’t arrive in the same shape I bought it, so I just drooled over machines that were for sale and dreamed.

These first pictures show it all cleaned up, and but there are many more in the state that I found it. That’s half the fun for me….cleaning them up and seeing the difference.

My Singer Story dates this machine to 1956. It’s older than I am!

It sews a pretty nice stitch, but I did adjust the tension on the bobbin holder. If you enlarge the photo and look at the stitches, you will see that some stitches ‘slant’ to the right. Ok. So I thought they were supposed to do that. Some machines do sew stitches like that….but I noticed after I loosened the bobbin tension, that they became a bit straighter. You can see those stitches on the second line of stitches in from the left. Crazy, huh? Who knew? Not me!

Sew now I’ll show you ‘the dirt’.

As I was cleaning it, I removed the feed dog cover plate. Oh my!! What is this? Where are the feed dogs? Lots of lint in there!

Being a 301A, it had the typical ‘lost threads’ behind the bobbin works. It took me awhile to find all the threads and pull them out. A good oiling afterwards was in order too.

I did a little ‘dental work’. The pile of lint just to the left of the bobbin mechanism is what I ‘pushed’ out of the feed dogs. It was really packed between the dogs and really hard to get out. I didn’t take a photo of the inside of the bobbin holder either, but it had hard packed pieces of lint in the bottom of it. I scraped them off and wiped it out with oil. I also oiled behind those two holes you can see next to the bobbin spindle (or whatever the proper name is). It was making quite a racket, and as soon as I gave it some oil, it quieted right down.

Sew anyway, here’s a picture of the stitches again, so you know it sews well!

Here is a recap of it before and after it’s bath. 

I’m off to attempt to make it a little protective bed extension cover. I think I just might take it with me tomorrow to sew on when I go visit the Parkview Quilting Ministry girls!

---

I’m back! A week or so ago, I made myself a new pin cushion/thread catcher bag. When I went downstairs to see what I could use for the protective bed extension cover, I decided to use the same fabric I used for my bag. I was pleased with how it turned out. I made it to protect the flip up extension from hitting the pressure foot screw and the nose end of the machine and leaving marks when it gets folded up in storage. I decided to make it a bit longer and just cover the whole bed.

It also doubles as a little sewing pouch for your seam ripper, scissors, phone, or whatever you want to tuck in there, just by getting it under the feet of the machine.