About 6 years ago my husband bought me a Singer Genie at a garage sale. It has been my backup machine and on occasion, my traveling machine. This is the machine I’ve been teaching Sydney to sew on. In December we won one on e-bay and did a local pickup. The machine was in great shape, but the bobbin winder wasn’t working perfectly. None the less, we gave it to Sydney for Christmas thinking we’d get the winder fixed eventually.
I also have a Singer Red Eye 66 Treadle which was my great-grandmother’s. I got it working last April and even wound a bobbin on it but the treadle winder is not reliable — yet. Sydney & I have been winding bobbins on my Genie until I get our respective winders fixed.
So, last night I was piecing my Scrappy Trips with the intention of finishing it before I went to bed. About 11 o’clock I ran out of bobbin thread for the treadle. I went to wind a bobbin on my Genie and it wouldn’t work. I attempted to get the cover off the machine and failed. Looked on line to see if I could get a SideWinder Bobbin Winder at Walmart – I could, but I would ultimately need 2 – one for me and one for Sydney and the winder at WM doesn’t wind bobbins for my big machine. I threw my hands up and went to bed.
This morning, I found the three screws which were preventing me from removing the case. I decided the rubber ring was my problem. Called the local repair place. They have them in stock and it’s same ring for the treadle. I’ll take 3.
Came home, put the ring on my machine and it didn’t work. Lots of muttering going on. Got on line searched several vintage machine lists. Finally found where I could buy and download the Singer Service Manual for the Genie. It didn’t help. Finally decided to add more oil. Eureka! The spindle spins.
So, we pulled out the second Genie. Pulled the case, swapped the ring and adjusted the bobbin stop and it’s working now.
I’m not ready to tackle the treadle winder, but I’ve got a bobbin full of thread so I should be able to get the quilt top finished!
