Singer Featherweight 221, 221K and 222K: threading, oiling and timing

Is this your machine?

The Featherweight is Singer's small portable straight-stitch machine: a rotary hook, a lock stitch, reverse feed, a motor at the back of the bed driving the machine by a belt, and a bed extension on the left that folds up for the case. ISMACS dates the 221 to United States production between 1933 and 1964, the white 221K to Britain from 1963 to 1968, and the 222K to Singer's Kilbowie factory in Scotland from roughly 1954 to 1961. The K suffix marks the British-built machines.

Singer stamped the serial number on the underside of the machine: two letters followed by six digits. The 222K is the free-arm version. Loosen screw E and the cloth plate and extension slide off to the left, leaving a tubular bed 2 inches across with 3/4 inch of clearance under it for sleeves and cuffs. Otherwise its booklet repeats the 221 instructions for the bobbin case, bulb and operation.

Needles and the Featherweight bobbin

The Featherweight takes 15x1 needles, the ordinary household system, in sizes 9 to 18. Singer's chart, paraphrased:

• Size 9: sheers, chiffon, lawn, batiste, with 100 to 150 cotton.
• Size 11: lightweight summer fabrics and children's clothes, with 80 to 100 cotton.
• Size 14: light woolens, firm cottons, general household sewing and fine quilting, with 60 to 80 cotton.
• Size 16: heavy muslin, damask, quilts and work shirts, with 40 to 60 cotton.
• Size 18: heavy coating, canvas and ticking, with 30 to 40 cotton.

1. Turn the balance wheel toward you until the needle bar is at its highest.
2. Loosen thumb screw A in the needle clamp.
3. Put the needle in with the flat side of the shank to the left and push it up into the clamp as far as it will go. This is the opposite of most modern machines.
4. Tighten the thumb screw. A needle that is not fully up is the first cause of skipped stitches in Singer's own list.

The bobbin is the Featherweight's own small steel bobbin, sold under Singer number 45785. Sewing Parts Online and Vintage Singer Parts both list 45785 for the 221, 221-1, 222 and 301. The Singer instruction book does not print a bobbin part number, and neither Class 15 nor Class 66 bobbins are listed as fitting, so do not substitute them.

The original Singer bobbin case is part 45750. An aftermarket case is sold as 45751; Vintage Singer Parts notes these machines can be finicky with aftermarket cases and prefers an original.

Threading the top thread

1. Turn the balance wheel toward you until the take-up lever is at its highest point.
2. Put the spool on the spool pin on top of the machine and take the thread through the thread guide at the left.
3. Bring it down, under, and from right to left between the tension discs.
4. Holding the spool tight, pull the thread up under the take-up spring until it slips into the retaining fork.
5. Take it up and back through the wire thread guide.
6. Pass it from right to left through the hole in the end of the take-up lever.
7. Bring it down into the eyelet at the side of the face plate, into the lower wire thread guide, and into the guide on the needle clamp.
8. Thread the needle from right to left and pull about 2 inches through.

Winding and loading the bobbin

1. Hold the balance wheel and turn the stop motion screw toward you to release the stitching mechanism, so the needle stays still.
2. Push the bobbin fully onto the winder spindle. Take the thread from the spool through the guide, then under and between the bobbin winder tension discs at the front of the bed, and through a hole in the left side of the bobbin from the inside.
3. Press the winder pulley down against the belt and run the foot controller. Hold the end until a few coils wind, then break it off.
4. When the bobbin is full, pull the winder pulley away from the belt and take the bobbin off. Tighten the stop motion screw again.

If the bobbin winds unevenly, loosen the screw holding the winder tension bracket on the bed and slide the bracket right or left, then retighten.

Loading the bobbin case

1. Raise the bed extension on the left. Open the latch on the bobbin case and lift the case out.
2. Hold the bobbin in your right hand with the thread on top drawing off from right to left, and put it into the case, held in your left hand with the slot in its edge at the top.
3. Pull the thread into the slot, then back under the tension spring and into the slot at the end of the spring.
4. Hold the case by its latch and put it on the center stud with the thread drawing from the top. Release the latch and press the case back until the latch catches the groove near the end of the stud. Leave about 3 inches of thread hanging and close the bed extension.
5. To bring up the bobbin thread, hold the needle thread, turn the balance wheel toward you one full turn, and pull the needle thread up. Lay both threads back under the foot.

If you have had the throat plate off, the position finger of the bobbin case base must go back into the notch in the position plate under the throat plate.

Top and bobbin tension

The needle tension dial runs from 0 to 9. The numbers are not thread sizes. Turn the thumb nut to the right for more tension and to the left for less, and only adjust it with the presser foot down. Singer's advice is to note the number that suits your usual sewing so you can return to it.

The bobbin tension screw is the one nearest the center of the tension spring on the outside of the bobbin case: right to increase, left to decrease. Singer says that once it is set it seldom needs changing.

Resetting the tension from scratch

1. Thread No. 50 thread on top and in the bobbin.
2. Set the needle tension thumb nut to 3.
3. Sew through two layers of thin material.
4. Adjust the bobbin tension screw until the stitch locks in the middle of the layers, with neither thread lying on the surface.

Oiling the Featherweight

Singer's instruction book asks for one drop of SINGER Sewing Machine Oil at each point, every day if the machine is used continuously and occasionally with moderate use. The points are marked by arrows in the book's figures; in words:

1. Top and back of the arm. The oil holes along the top and rear of the arm.
2. Inside the arm. Open the hinged cover on the back of the arm and oil the moving parts inside. Occasionally put a small amount of SINGER Motor Lubricant (a grease, not oil) on the gear teeth there.
3. Face plate end. Take out the face plate thumb screw, remove the face plate, and put a drop on each oil hole and joint behind it.
4. Hook. Occasionally a drop at the hook bearing, reached under the bed extension.
5. Underside. Turn the machine onto its back, remove the thumb nut at the center of the bottom cover plate and lift the plate off. Oil the holes and bearings, and occasionally grease the gear teeth with SINGER Motor Lubricant. Refit the plate without overtightening the nut.

The motor gets grease, never oil. The book's instruction is to use only SINGER Motor Lubricant in the motor's two grease tubes, filling them at least once every six months. The adjusters manual is blunter: never use oil in the grease cups or on any part of the motor. If you are not sure what is in the tubes on an old machine, leave the motor to a technician.

Wipe off excess oil and sew on a scrap before you put good fabric under the foot. The belt should be just tight enough not to slip: loosen the motor screw about one turn, let the motor drop until the tension is right, and retighten.

Troubleshooting by symptom

Singer also warns not to run the machine with the presser foot down on the feed dogs and no cloth, or threaded with no cloth under the foot.

Checking hook timing and needle bar height

A Featherweight rarely goes out of time from ordinary sewing; specialist dealer singer-featherweight.com says it happens after disassembly or adjustment, not everyday use. If it skips after a new needle, fresh threading and a cleaned hook, these are the checks in Singer's adjusters manual for the 221-1 (Form 18753, 1935). The 221 uses two marks on the needle bar instead of a measured rise.

Hook timing

1. Remove the face plate, presser foot, throat plate and feed dog. Fit a new needle pushed fully up.
2. Turn the balance wheel toward you until, with the needle bar on its upward stroke, the lower timing mark is centered with the lower end of the needle bar bushing.
3. The point of the hook should now be at the center of the needle.
4. If it is not, turn the machine onto its back and remove the bottom cover plate. Loosen the two set screws in the gear on the right-hand end of the hook shaft, turn the hook until its point is at the center of the needle, and tighten both screws. Keep the gear pushed against its bushing, and the collar against its bushing, so the shaft has no end play.

Needle bar height

1. With the hook timed, turn the balance wheel toward you until the needle bar is at its lowest point.
2. The upper timing mark should be centered with the lower end of the needle bar bushing.
3. If not, loosen screw D on the needle bar connecting stud, reached through the face plate opening, move the needle bar until the upper mark is centered, and tighten screw D.

If the needle bar bushing itself has been moved, the reference changes: with the hook point at the center of the needle it should sit about 1/16 inch above the top of the needle's eye. Resetting the bushing, the hook's side clearance and the feed are adjuster's work; if you got this far without curing the skip, it is a reasonable point to take the machine to a technician.

Leave these to a technician

Rewiring the power cord, the lead-covered Singerlight cable, the motor or the foot controller. The motor's brushes and commutator. Any machine whose wiring is cracked or crumbling. Singer's booklet asks you always to pull the plug when you finish sewing; pull it before you oil or open the machine too.

Manuals and parts lookup

Singer has no current support page for the Featherweight. Scans of the Singer booklets are kept by specialist dealer singer-featherweight.com.

• Singer 221-1 instruction book (PDF scan)
• Singer adjusters manual for the 221-1, Form 18753 (PDF scan)
• Singer 222K instruction book (PDF scan)
• Index of Featherweight manuals at singer-featherweight.com
• Featherweight parts at Vintage Singer Parts