Just passing through.

I picked up a Pfaff 30 from a local church organisation this week. They had a Pfaff 30 “in need of repair” that they were trying to give away.

They normally collect and distribute clothes and small household appliances to the needy. In this case, someone donated a Pfaff 30 and the folks who run the clothing distribution didn’t quite know what to do with it.

The first taker assumed it was broken and returned it, so the church group put an ad up in the eBay “Kleinanzeigen” here in Germany - kind of like Craig’s List. Does eBay run a “wanted ads” site in the US? Anyway, they tried to give it away just to be shut of it. I saw the ad and volunteered to fix the machine up and return it to them so they could in good conscience give it to a family who could make use of it.

As expected, the Pfaff 30 didn’t really need repairs. It needed some oil, and it needed to have the spider webs (and spider poop) removed from it.

I enjoy fixing up the old machines and their cabinets, but I don’t want to start a collection. This was a perfect opportunity to scratch my sewing machine itch - fix it up, play with it a bit, write some blog posts, give it back.

This Pfaff 30 turned out to be a somewhat rare (and sad) oddity, and I’m glad I had a chance to work with it.

  1. The Pfaff 30 sewing machine - A first look - A special machine that’s a product of its times.
  2. The Pfaff 30 sewing machine - Clean up - Sometimes you have to look twice to see how beautiful something is.
  3. The Pfaff 30 sewing machine - Taking it for a spin - Doing things people say you can’t do.
  4. The Pfaff 30 sewing machine - Threading the Pfaff 30 - Another change in plans.