The Necchi Saga

I started this journey with the testing of my sister's Necchi. I found the Mira and later the Julia. The Julia (Supernova- the most sought after machine) turned out to be such a massive disappointment. The man I bought it from didn't accept returns so I messaged him, just to give him a heads up, that I would be selling it on Ebay so he wouldn't be shocked when he saw the listing. He was mortified that the machine was not working out for me and bought it back. That was a relief. I'll tell you, it is rare to find such a principled seller on Ebay. He is truly a peach.

The pins for Mira did not fit in the dado slots of the blond sewing machine table. I had a friend who is a woodwork come over and we managed (HE managed) to get the hinges in. We started to set the machine on the pins only to find the pins didn't line up. The original pair was offset and the Mira pair was straight. Now I had to actually hire him to cut new dados and long story short got the Mira hinges in the blonde cabinet.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, I had seen this beautiful sewing machine cabinet for sale about 30 minutes away. The sticking point is she wanted $200. for the cabinet which had a Necchi Nora set in it but the machine didn't work. It was my birthday and as a treat to myself I offered her $150. which she accepted and I bought that beautiful sewing machine cabinet. That's when I discovered the Nora that came in that gorgeous cabinet had a decomposing motor belt on it. After removing the belt and cleaning and oiling, it stitched by turning the flywheel SILENTLY. YES, like silk. OMG, this sewed just like the machine my sister had. When the new belt arrived in the mail it was instant love. I put it back in the cabinet and used it all day. You'll see the Improv piece I have been working on soon.

The next thing I discovered was my disappointment with the first two machine was probably caused by the foot pedal.

It is a button. It is on or off. There was no variable speeds. The Nora in the gorgeous cabinet had a knee rheostat like a modern machine and would start off and stay slow for sewing the oddly shaped improv pieces. I think it was THAT that was such a disappointment on the Mira. On Ebay I found a foot pedal with the appropriate Bakelite plug to fit the Mir and I bought it. I think this may be the key.

I'll report on the rheostat when it arrives and that will probably be the end of this saga. As a side note, I found a Vintage Necchi Facebook group which I joined as well as a Vintage Necchi "Market" group which I joined. I will see after the rheostat comes whether I will keep the Mira but so far I am inclined to. These are wonderful machines and way ahead of the times when they were built.