Necchi Mira BU

 

Mira was manufactured in Italy in 1954 and is my first sewing machine purchase of 2011!  She was delivered to my door complete with manuals, accessories, wonder wheel, cams, extra needles, bobbins, two spare light bulbs and an automatic needle threader.  After a good cleaning and oiling, Mira sews absolutely gorgeous, precise stitches.

 

Look how pretty Mira is.  The stitches under her presser foot were made using the marvelous wonder wheel with cams.  The top thread is red and bobbin thread is lime green.  I'm very impressed with the excellent stitch quality with very little tension adjusting. This machine is super easy and fun to sew with.

She has six cams to make 12 designs.  The two steel rods connect the wonder wheel device to the needle position lever and the stitch width lever.  The wonder wheel is powered exactly like a bobbin winder and gets pushed up against the hand wheel.  As the wheel turns the steel rods move the needle position and stitch width levers back and forth to sew the pattern.  I'm impressed with how well this works.

 

Not shown in the photos but included in the accessory box are a straight stitch needle plate and a needle plate that covers the feed dogs.  

The green lever  is pushed down to drop the feed dogs for darning or free motion quilting.  The feed dog mechanism works the same way as my Necchi Lelia.

 

The automatic needle threader works as well or better than any of the modern ones that are attached to the sewing machine.  Mira wears high shank feet, uses standard steel class 15 bobbins and standard needles.

The straight stitching, zig-zag and satin stitches around the outside were sewn with the wonder wheel disengaged.  I'm very impressed with the satin stitching as I was adjusting the stitch width while sewing the seam.  The picture below shows the wonder wheel without a cam and disengaged from the hand wheel.

 

This manual was printed in June 1954.  It is complete, well written and easy to follow.

This little package contains a piece of nylon thread that looks like fishing line with knots tied in it about every inch and instructions for cleaning the upper thread tension disc with it.  In the past, I used dental floss for this purpose.

Has anyone ever sewn with this scary looking foot?  It is used to make ruffles.

I'm so delighted with my Necchi Mira that perhaps I'll sew my man's shirt with it in Peter's sew along next month.  This is a sneak peak of Shannon's wedding gown!  ~dancing around the room with glee~

For more vintage treasures please visit Colorado Lady's blog.