Decline and Fall of the Australian Clothing Industry

I get sad when thinking about the loss of industries like clothing manufacture, and disagreed strongly with Paul Keating in his interview recently with Kerry O'Brien (that four part documentary that finished last week) where he said that it was something he thought was a good thing, all these people losing their jobs in manufacturing. He said they just got a better job. Not only is that certain bollocks, but consider the loss of skill with these industries? Since almost nobody manufactures clothing in Australia and those who worked in the industry are literally dying off, we now rely on third world countries and China to make our clothing. We should all know that their conditions and wages are very significantly worse than those who worked in our factories. In what way does this make our country or the world better?
Now that we don't make our clothing here, all the equipment has also gone "offshore" permanently. I feel that we have lost something important. How can we be comfortable with relying on third world countries? How can we be OK with mistreatment of the people who make our clothes just so we can pay almost nothing. I know I felt better with a "Made in Australia" label (or Britain, Ireland, USA) because the workers were not mistreated. I can't support slavery just because the slaves are in a different country. Think about that when you buy your next piece of clothing.
My affection for vintage machines is an extension of my affection for quality, locally made garments. I love my Pinnock machines (although I don't use them currently). Made in Adelaide and beautiful things for sure. There's no need to pollute the air shipping them to Australia (ships can spew out any amount of pollution, as anti pollution laws don't apply to shipping), because they were proudly made here. Go into a shop and look at a new "plastic wonder" sewing machine. Made in China, plastic, electronic. Sure it seems to do everything you want it to, but try sewing through a couple of layers of denim and it won't. Ask about its warranty - 12 months? It will break down shortly after this (it's meant to). Now ask who fixes them and how much they'd charge! Not to mention the extreme discomfort that I for one get when the machine continues after I remove my foot from the controller (the computer feels it necessary to finish a cycle). Older machines don't break down often and if maintained to a basic standard they may never break down at all. Of the fifty or so old machines I've owned, only one has ever broken. The Singer 498 Stylist, and this was because Singer started using plastic gears in the late 1960s. However, it was still easy and cheap to fix, and to give it credit the original plastic gears did last over forty years.

So if you ever wondered why anyone would ever pay $20 for a t-shirt, now you know. If you ever wondered why I rave about a fifty something year old sewing machine, now you know.

Additionally, I do value a treadle: Summer in Australia always comes with power outages. In the middle of a seam? No problem, pop the machine into a treadle cabinet and in a minute or two you're finishing your seam.

A "new" machine

On Gumtree a week ago there was an ad for a fiddle base VS2 for $150! How couldn't I buy it?
So, picked it up Saturday morning and by the afternoon it was at home:

Isn't she lovely? Came with the original coffin top too:

I love this machine. I wasn't able to use it until Wednesday but when I did, I tried out a 1940s buttonholer:

Now there's no reason the swiss zigzagger won't work on this machine. 1891, vibrating shuttle, will probably work with any attachment that works on a 66/99/201/221 or 222 so I'm keen to make something on it.

Finished a dress, made with 201s and got two more machines

Can't say 201k, because the machine I started it with was a 201p (the tan one). Used the 319k for zigzag finishing seams and putting in the hook.
Here's the dress:

 It should fit her, but she lives on the other side of the planet so it might be a while before I get feedback.

Here's the machine I used to finish it. The knee lever was really hard to get used to. I kept accidentally knocking the lever and sewing the thread into a knot.
The most important thing I discovered with this project was how to pre-finish a seam: Cut the fabric out using pinking shears! If you cut it the right size, the seam edges are pre-finished and no ZZ will be necessary.
Being unable to control my sewing machine addiction meant that since last week I bought two more machines. The first was another 319k but with a free arm. It's called a 320k but identical except for the removable bed. This feature made it horrendously expensive to produce apparently, so they didn't make that many of them.
The second was a Singer 401g (I think). It was on eBay for a while and nobody bid on it. It was re-listed at the same price so I bought it. I haven't picked it up yet but am quite excited. Here are the new ones:

Quite rare Singer 320k2

Singer 401g made in Germany

There are a few problems with these two machines, being that the first one can't go into a cabinet because of the removable bed, so I'll have to sell my beautiful 319k in its cabinet. Good news is that the 401g can be treadled, so I can swap the 319k with a treadle cabinet (and free up some shed space).

Might as well face the facts

I'm far more interested in collecting and fixing sewing machines than I am with sewing. This is not to say that I'm not interested in sewing, but the machines make my heart race.
So I was strolling lazily through ebay a few days ago and someone had a really nice looking machine from the 1920s up there. He said "Antique Singer Sewing Machine Head, Machine is seized, Electricals untested". The machine looked really nice (lotus) and the serial said it's a model 66 from 1924. No cabinet of course, and it came with a motor. Starting price was $15.
OK, what are the chances of anyone else bidding? Well, there was a chance even though it sounded pretty bad. I read the description: "Antique Singer Sewing Machine Head. Machine No. Y1657881.  Machine is seized and has some rust, globe, bobbin and bobbin cover plate is missing. Electricals untested pedal attached. The drive belt is missing too". Yes, he's really sexing it up. Even better was that it finished at 10:05pm on a Wednesday night, was in Geelong and postage was listed (cheaply, IMO - it weighs quite a bit) as $26.50. Nobody else placed a bid, surprisingly :-) Picked it up today and it looked like this:

He was right, it really was seized. I tried oil and a little persuasive rocking, no dice. Decided after taking half the mechanicals off that the Internet would be a good resource here. Hmm, yes, a good WD40 soaking followed by a good wipe and a good lot of oil. The WD40 didn't free it up! I disconnected everything the hand crank connected bit by bit until I found the culprit: The needle bar was completely rusted to its mounting. Tapped a screwdriver directly downwards on the top and it moved. Gently placed the pliers on it and moved it round (it was disconnected completely at the top). The bar was covered in orange WD40 now and it seemed no amount of wiping was going to remove it. Eventually, though it did.
Re-connected everything and plugged it in (I had disassembled and reassembled the motor too) and the motor worked. It was so pathetic (probably because I'd removed the brushes) that I decided to treadle it. Into the cabinet it went, and I even had a new belt for just such an occasion :-) She's probably not sewn a stitch in 50 years, but she did several hundred this evening. Yep, she's a beauty, and I'm just going to apply some shellac to protect the decals.

In her new home

That lovely decal