Well, my mom bought a Pfaff 130 and made a skirt for me on it in 1950, so I can speak to that year. It was both zig and straight, fwd and reverse. I think what people like about them was the engineering: it was all metal inside, no plastics, and the manual showed you how to
oil it, the process was easy. So were the "dialing in" of
learning to thread it and adjust tensions. Parts availability, well, I found a spare bobbin case tension screw for it, and
sold it with the machine, having
lost one to the
bilge along the way.
It did not like going through many thicknesses of Sunbrella, and over 4, I had to help it feed through to keep the stitch length equal. I used a #18 needle for
acrylic canvas (110), and it didn't like to reverse back over that thickness either, actually had to go by hand, and help the
fabric through.
On a large grassy area, in a foreign country, I once restitched the cover on a friend's
genoa, with Jim turning the hand crank for me, and it did okay on that. It did all our canvas for years, and other odd bits and pieces, and, as well, innumerable wrap around skirts for gifts, and my own use. If you're going out into the Pacific, they are convenient "decency makers" for places that prefer women's thighs covered.
I had the machine from 1960 until 2 yrs. ago, when I bought a used SailRite. The SR's walking foot works well through many thicknesses, but its throat is not much bigger than the Pfaff's, with consequent similar difficulties with big rolls of fabric. It is really clunky for adjusting stitch length. It is very noisy compared to the Pfaff. It is difficult to
oil properly. So far, it has done all that I have asked of it.
We have some friends who bought a
cheap Chinese copy of it, and who are satisfied with that, but he's an
engineer, and would have been careful about which copy he bought, and I don't know the brand.
Franziska, I would think if used 130's are easily available, as long as you stay with an all metal one, anything from the 50's on till they got renumbered or turned plastic would do most of what you need, plus it is quiet, and you can do
clothing. Although, Sapient Sue on this forum, told me she made a pair of silk slacks on her SailRite, so I guess you could do clothing with it, too. This said, I do not think they are suitable for sail repair, and we used sticky-backed sail cloth to repair holes, and replaced
sails rather than trying to eke each last mile out of them.
Ann
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