What's It Got In Its Pocketses?

Every sewing machine table comes equipped with a drawer, and it's always a surprise to see what lurks inside. The table for my Singer 251 is no different, so let's have a look at what goodies await!

At first glance, this looks like the usual treasure trove. I'm not sure I'll be able to make use of that lipstick, but it does look like the original set of Singer screwdrivers is included. Let's empty things out and have a closer look.

A little history of the machine, it was clearly owned by a professional seamstress in its past life.

And it's not hard to guess what part of the world she likely had ties to.

A lucky find in this drawer was two spare needle plates. Both had obviously been used, but one of the spares was in much better shape than the one which was installed on the machine.

The black one was a little worn under the presser foot area, and didn't have any stitching guides, so I passed on that one. The one with the red markings was the one that came installed on the machine, and the needle hole...

Well, I suspect there was more than a few broken needles in its past. I didn't really trust it to not snag and tear the thread, so I swapped it out for the other spare one with the white markings.

Moving right along, the drawer also contained... a tire gauge, for some reason.

I suppose that's handy to have, in some situations. Not sure what you'd use that for in a sewing context.

The rest of the drawer's contents are much more sewing related.

There's the aforementioned screwdrivers, some T-guides, oddly a quilting guide with no way to actually attach it to the machine, a tape measure, some chopsticks for turning out corners, some hooks and eyes, a scattering of safety pins, some tailor's chalk, some lead coat weights, some random mystery hardware, and of course a pile of buttons.

But we have ways of dealing with buttons.

Oh, and naturally, an obligatory googly eye.

I also got quite a number of bobbins with no spools of matching thread. I'll likely use these for basting and sewing toiles, as most of it is probably fairly old.

The original manual is of course a treat to find, along with the original oil can. How do I know it's the original oil can?

Let's just say that it's a solid hunch.

But of course, no oil can is complete without oil, and we've got that too.

I'm expecting that it's probably not good anymore, but it is kinda cool that it made it all this way.