Meet my new to me 1963 Singer Touch and Sew 603E. She makes my little sewing heart happy! She came to me through a set of fortunate events!
My friend Billie messaged me a few weeks ago and asked if I was interested in “an old Singer sewing machine”. Well, of course I’m interested! Who wouldn’t be? She said that her neighbor had this old machine just taking up space and just wanted it gone…and the price? Free! Oh, yeah! I immediately set up a time for pick up.
We went over the next Saturday morning and scooped up the machine, which is still in it’s cabinet, although it needed a little TLC because the original legs were coming off the cabinet. After gently placing the machine in our SUV, we thanked the giver, Jane, who said that the machine had belonged to another neighbor who moved up north. Jane had owned the machine for 10 years and her neighbor was 80 when she gifted the machine to Jane. The original owner purchased the machine new.
Since Jane doesn’t sew, that machine sat in her home for 10 years, untouched. What a find!
Once we got the machine home, I started cleaning. It wasn’t really in bad shape, just a bit dusty from sitting and the plastic bobbin was so brittle that it broke when I removed it from the machine. That also might have been a little bit of user error, but don’t tell anyone!
When I looked inside the cabinet, I was overcome with joy! The original owner must have purchased every accessory that was ever made for this machine. There’s a tucker, a ruffler foot, all of the cams for various stitches, BOTH of the books with bonus notes made by the owner as she used the machine. The machine was even still threaded!
We had to order bobbins for Miss Jane, as I dubbed the machine, because she’s one of the few machines ever made that have a self-winding bobbin. She uses a special bobbin with a wider top than bottom. After oiling Miss Jane, I finally sat down to wind some thread and try things out. My research into this model shows that Singer originally made a 603 with a self-winding bobbin, but that people had issues with remembering to switch the machine from bobbin-winding mode back to sewing mode. They adapted the machine to the 603E, Enclosing the switch under the bobbin plate so that closing the plate puts the machine back into sewing mode. That switch works perfectly.
I haven’t played with switching out the cams yet, but I have tested both the straight and the zig-zag stitch on the machine. Since I normally use modern machines, I had to think about how to get to reverse mode, and threading this machine is a little more involved than newer machines. This one reminds me of my Granny’s machine, with two sets of tension disks to slide into, and more levers to move around that one typically sees. The cams snap in and out just underneath the thread spool area and the outer case is all metal.
She sews like a dream! She’s not quite purring, but I think that’s because she needs some grease. Singer recommended oil in some places and grease in others because this model has metal gears. Only true sewing machine geeks will understand how wonderful metal gears are in this machine! In any machine, really!
So, grease has been ordered after quite a bit of research and Miss Jane has new bobbins. I have the correct thread for her, and I’m planning to test her out for purse-making once I grease her up.
I’m sending out a HUGE thank you to the original owner, to my friend’s neighbor, Jane, and to Singer for making a machine that is still going strong at 55 years old! 
