We repair and restore vintage electric and people-powered sewing machines from a time when things we See the website for a glimpse of the life at Leisureland.
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We're independent sewing machine technicians who are hopelessly in love with the incredibly beautiful styling and quality of these fine all-steel-drive machines. Collectively we've been repairing and restoring vintage sewing machines for over 35 years. I've been a gas company crew leader, an electronic cash register technician, and an antiques dealer (among other things). I'm also eccentric, slightly cranky at times, and probably too sentimental. TR has worked for Singer and had the benefit of training from the Old Guys who've Been There for a Long Time. She's a musician (actually a locally famous bass goddess), technician, seamstress, artist, genius and all-around wise woman. Her cats and chickens follow her around with love and devotion. As a sewing machine technicians, we have hundreds of happy customers, and have restored hundreds of fine, vintage sewing machines. Find our website at StagecoachRoadSewing.com to see more beautifully restored Japanese, American, and European sewing machines, and to read about our amazing Lifetime Guarantee. We live off the beaten path, in the Coast Range of Oregon, alongside a pristine river, with a group of scientists, musicians, artists, and all-around geniuses.
03/15/2026
When we restore a machine for a client, or when we sell one of our restored machines, we make a video for the recipient; first, to show that everything is working perfectly, and also to present to the insurer in the rare instance of damage during transit. The main reason, though, is for the sake of the new user.
Learning an unfamiliar sewing machine can be daunting, most especially for a new sewer. So many little things to trip up the uninitiated, like, for instance, threading the needle backwards, or missing the check spring when threading, or a dozen other little things that can leave the sewn sample snarled and stitch-skipped, and cause a person to throw their hands in the air and cry out in frustration, "I can't sew!".
So with your new machine you get a video that shows you how to wind the bobbin, how to thread the machine, and how to set all of the various controls, so that you can sit down and sew without pulling any hair.
This is the tutorial for Jason and his son, made on their own new Florence Rotary treadle machine. The'll provide their own treadle stand.
We also post the video on YouTube to help other owners of the same machine get started.
in this video, see how to thread her up, how to wind the bobbin, and how to use all her settings.We are Stagecoach Road Vintage Sewing Machine Restoration, a...
03/14/2026
Here's the soldering station in the shop. A fan above vents to the outdoors.
It's often necessary to rewire a motor or even a whole system, and of course, there are foot controls and power cords to make or adapt.
03/13/2026
In the shop at Stagecoach Road this morning
03/13/2026
Here's the final test and tutorial for Summer's Singer 404 sewing machine. See how to thread the machine, how to wind the bobbin, and how to use all the various controls.
We are Stagecoach Road Vintage Sewing Machine Restoration and we've been restoring worthy sewing machines since the 1990s. We're very good at it and we can restore yours.
So much more than just a pretty sewing machine, this Aldens De Luxe is another beauty from mid-century Japan.
I've been waiting for a break in the queue to slip her back in, and while the paint was drying on one and before I was mentally prepared for the delicate job of rebuilding a broken shade for a Pfaff gooseneck light (daunting, but I've done it before), I found a couple of hours to finish this one.
She was mostly done, but was pushed aside for the beloved machine (a memento of a loved one, gone on) sent to us from far away, for restoration.
It took a while to track down the cause of breaking needles (about 1/16" below optimum needle bar height) but once that adjustment was made, she sews like nobody's business.
She has a cam door on the top but the likelihood of having exactly the right stitch pattern cam set in the warehouse was not good. Fortunately, I'd recently gone through the bins of accessory sets, and separated out all of the cam sets to one bin, so not as daunting a task as it could have been.
I found several sets that looked close, roughly 1/2" center hole with a close-in guide pin hole, and took them back to the shop but no luck. A little more digging turned up treasure, a full set of 20 lovely maroon stitch pattern cams that perfectly fit, and that create some nice mid-century decorative stitching.
So all of this blab was just to say that she's ready for you, and you can see her here:
Stagecoachroadsewing.com
We'll make a tutorial video for you on your new Aldens De Luxe.
03/11/2026
Today in the shop at Stagecoach Road
03/04/2026
Part 3
(Continued from below)
Another nice machine is this Wheeler and Wilson cabinet model, awaiting processing.
The lye soap making and treadle sewing demonstrations will take place on Saturday, March 21, Noon to 4:00.
The presenters of the treadle sewing machine demonstration will be TR Kelly and Aradia Farmer, the delightful personalities of the Used2Sew podcast, about everything Vintage Sewing Machine.
They'll be recording the demonstration, too, for a future podcast.
You may also have heard TR's wonderful Sewing Machine Song, a song about a treadle sewing machine that will bring tears to your eyes, and there's a rumor that she may bring a guitar.
The event will take place at the Siuslaw Pioneer Museum in Florence Oregon's Old Town. There are lots of nice places to eat and shop, and a nice waterfront walk along the river.
If you haven't yet listened to the podcast, check out www.used2sew.com. I've been restoring sewing machines since the 20th Century, and I alway learn new things from them. They're smart, funny, and informed.
03/04/2026
Part 2
(Continued from below)
At the museum, after a quick browse of all the lovely sewing machines, I went to their Information Library to get information about the history of Stagecoach Road and the surrounding area.
Not long into my conversation with the curator, sewing machines came up, and I learned that there was an upcoming event, a demonstration of how to make lye soap, and how to sew on a treadle sewing machine.
It turned out, however, that they hadn't had any luck getting any of the machines to sew.
Well.....
I asked which one she wanted to use, and she said that any of them would do.
The prettiest one there, a donation from one of the prominent families of early Florence, was a White Rotary.
I'd just listened to a few Used2Sew podcasts and in one, TR Kelley had waxed almost rhapsodic about the White Rorary and it's history. It's a machine that was so good that they sold that machine, virtually unchanged, for decades.
This particular one needed some love, so I replaced the leather treadle belt and the broken needle, straightened a bent part, and unjanmmed a serious thread jam in the hook area, and then gave her a full service.
Now she's ready for the demonstration, but that's a story for the next post...
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We're independent sewing machine technicians who are hopelessly in love with the incredibly beautiful styling and quality of these fine all-steel-drive machines. Collectively we've been repairing and restoring vintage sewing machines for over 45 years.
I've been a gas company crew leader, an electronic cash register technician, and an antiques dealer (among other things). I'm also eccentric, slightly cranky at times, and probably too sentimental.
As best I can figure, I’ve restored around a thousand worthy vintage sewing machines since I got hooked by them. Of course, every day I learn new things and better ways to bring back these fine machines.
TR has worked for Singer and had the benefit of training from the Old Guys who've Been There for a Long Time. She's a musician (actually a locally famous bass goddess), technician, seamstress, artist, genius and all-around wise woman. Her cats and chickens follow her around with love and devotion.
TR was my inspiration for learning to restore sewing machines, a long, long time ago. She performs our quality control final check, stars in our videos, repairs machines, listens with a sympathetic ear, and always gets excited when we bring home a cool, vintage machine.
New to our crew is Linda, a very focused individual when she’s detailing your machine. She came to us four years ago, cleaning and polishing the exterior of the restored machines. With her tiny tools and brushes she searches out the tiny accumulations of grime that hide in the corners, the screw slots, between planes of the machine, and in the knurling of the thumb-screws and brings each machine back to the best appearance possible.
For the past couple of years, Linda has been assisting with repairs and just recently she’s been applying her considerable mechanical talents to learn how to restore the machines.
She’s a lover of horses, kitties, and chickens, and besides the fine work she does with your sewing machine, she does horse-sitting (and other animals, too).
Even more recently, Joey has joined our crew as a detailer. She’s one of those people who just seems to be naturally good at everything she does, from making pies to brewing beer, to growing things, and detailing sewing machines. When Joey details your machine, she does it right.
When she’s not detailing machines or making something delicious, or just residing and being Leisurely, she returns to Portland Oregon, where she maintains her circle of friends and family, and is in demand as a model for artists and photographers.
Another personality at Stagecoach Road Vintage Sewing Machine has to be the bus. She’s our vintage sewing machine restoration shop, here at Leisureland Community. She’s set up with work benches, swinging stools, built-in vacuum system, sink, and more, but best of all is the light. With all her windows there’s finally enough light.
Our 1949 Diamond T school bus doesn’t travel any more, but she used to be a mobile dental clinic. The dental chair, swinging dentist and assistant stools, vintage X-Ray machine, suction, etc. all came out of the San Fransisco office of Dr. Painless Parker, a colorful side-show-type dentist from the turn of the last Century.
Dr. James Webb owned the bus and traveled the hip communities scattered throughout the mountains, valleys, and towns of the Northwest and Northern California bringing dental care to the rural-living folks there. More than once, a customer has brought a machine to be restored and looking up reminisced about staring up through our skylight as Doc Webb fixed them up.
If you’ve looked at the house bus book, “Some Turtles Have Nice Shells” you may have seen a little black and white picture of the bus, back when Doc Webb was set up in downtown Eugene.
Out here at Leisureland Community, we live off the beaten path, in the Coast Range of Oregon, alongside a pristine river, with a group of scientists, musicians, artists, and all-around geniuses. See the website for a glimpse of the life at Leisureland.
