How do I restart a long-stored machine?

Do not simply plug it in and press the pedal. A machine that has stood for years has hardened oil, perished rubber and possibly perished wiring, and the first thing you should do is look at it.

Inspect the electrics first. Examine the whole mains lead and the pedal cable for cracking, brittleness or exposed conductors. Old cloth-covered flex on a vintage machine is frequently unsafe and should be replaced before the machine is powered at all. If in doubt, have it checked — this is the one part of the job that is not worth improvising.

Clean before moving anything. Remove the needle plate, brush out decades of compacted lint, and look for corrosion, rodent damage and dried-out grease.

Turn the handwheel by hand. It should move freely. Stiffness means hardened oil, not a seized machine — a drop of sewing machine oil at the points the manual specifies, worked in gently by hand over several minutes, frees most of them.

Fit a new needle and a fresh bobbin, and use new thread. Old thread goes brittle, particularly cotton, and it will break and make you doubt the machine.

Check the rubber parts. The bobbin winder tyre and the drive belt perish with age even unused. Both are cheap and both are common failures on a revived machine.

Then run it slowly with no thread, listening. Then thread it and test on a doubled scrap.

Then judge whether it wants a service. Metal-framed machines almost always repay one at this point.