
What to do with old sewing machines is a question that many longtime sewists eventually encounter.
Maybe over the years youβve inherited one too many sewing machines, or youβre downsizing and canβt take them all with you.
Whatever your situation, in this article youβll get ideas on how to:
- Recycle old sewing machines
- Find a new home for an old, pre-loved sewing machine
- Dispose of a non-working sewing machine correctly
RELATED: Why is My Sewing Machine Skipping Stitches?
Recycle Old Sewing Machines by Giving Them Away
Personally, I think the very best thing you can do with an old sewing machine is to give it away. That way, someone else, at the very least, has a new tool in their toolbox. And, you get Warm Fuzziesβ’οΈ.
With hope, though (and maybe this is just me being Pollyanna-ish), they gain a tool AND a passion for sewing, just like you and I.
Consider the following places, people, and organizations, in no particular order, when re-homing a sewing machine:
- Thrift store: Goodwill, St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army, etc.
- Makerspace: A facility with tools β for example, bandsaws, casting furnaces, and 3-D printers β that any member can use. My local makerspace, the Milwaukee Makerspace, has sewing machines.
- Public and private schools: Maybe thereβs a club or class that needs a machine. Related: If thereβs a uni/tech school in your βhood with a fashion department, they might be interested.
- Theater: Theater productions need costumes, and costumes are made on sewing machines. Donβt forget about school theater and park and recreation theater programs.
- Camp: Is there a day camp or sleepaway camp nearby? Sewing is a fun programming opportunity.
- Scouts: Sewing is a life skill for girls AND boys.
- 4-H: See above, RE: Scouts!
- House of worship: I donβt know about you, but I feel like thereβs a lot of fabric at houses of worship. Iβm Catholic, and every church Iβve ever visited always has banners, robes, and table runners EVERYWHERE. What Iβm saying is that there are lots of opportunities for sewing machine use in a house of worship. Lots of hemming.
- Library: Iβve heard of libraries that have sewing machines available for checkout.
- Creative reuse center: Basically a thrift store for crafting items.
- Shelter: For people experiencing homeless, escaping violence, working on recovery, and more. Sewing is a great way to keep your mind off tough stuff, as least for a little while.
- Refugees: A woman I met at Camp Workroom Social collected sewing machines for refugees from Afghanistan!
- Ronald McDonald House: Ronald McDonald House provides low-or-no-cost accommodations for families of seriously ill children who have long stays at hospitals. Again, sewing is a wonderful diversion in trying times.
- College dorm or Greek house: I could see a sewing machine in a common area being a lot of fun. Or, maybe a machine could be checked out by students.
- Buy Nothing Project/freegan/freecycle/gift economy/stooping: These are people actively on the hunt for free stuff. For example, you could post in a Buy Nothing group that youβre giving away a sewing machine. A neighbor takes it off your hands, and you get to know your neighbor better. Itβs part community building, part sustainable living, part garbage picking, part rejection of capitalism. But loosely organized.
- Habitat for Humanity Restore: They sell appliances, too.
- YMCA: The Y doesnβt need FEWER activities.
- Park and recreation department: Some park and rec departments offer sewing classes.
- Easter Seals or other organizations that support people with disabilities: For activity programming.
- Military veterans support organizations: More activity programming.
- Hospital/hospice: Sometimes health-related stays are boring. Sewing is not boring.
- Senior center: Still more activity programming.
- Prison/correctional facility: Incarceration is (probably) often boring. Sewing is not boring. Plus, itβs a legit employable skill one could use after prison.
- The Sewing Machine Project: This nonprofit collects donated sewing machines and places them in the hands of people whose lives can be changed by these creative tools.
- Local sewing guild: Maybe the best place to go for donation suggestions.
Also: Many of these organizations might not *need* a sewing machine for stitching per se, but they could be interested in selling a sewing machine to raise funds. For example, many churches have an annual rummage sale.
Finally, before you recycle your sewing machine by giving it away, please clean it and collect all its accessories (see next section).
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How to Sell an Old Sewing Machine
Letβs say your old sewing machine is in working order. If you donβt want to give it up without getting back a bit of green, hereβs how you might go about selling it.
1.) Clean it up.
Remove fabric fuzz and oil/grease appropriately. Donβt pass along a dirty machine.
2.) Gather all the parts.
Feet, tools, bobbins, etc. Reference the manual to make sure everything is accounted for. (If you donβt have all the accessories, be a nice human and say so in the listing).) Speaking of manualsβ¦
3.) Find the manual.
The original manual is best, natch, but you can find many manuals on the internet as PDFs. (I printed off the PDF of my vintage Singer manual and got it spiral bound at a print shop.) I guess you could leave it to the buyer to find the manual, but I think having it as part of the package makes it more attractive to shoppers. I say, go the extra mile and print the PDF manual.
4.) Take photos.
Please, for the love of your higher power, DO NOT post blurry photos of something youβre trying to entice someone to buy. Retake the photo with your phone; it will take two seconds.
Take photos of the machine, its accessories, and the manual. If you can share a vid of the sewing machine with your ad, show it stitching.
5.) Research pricing and shipping.
Check other listings for comparable machines and price accordingly. Donβt guess, and if your machine is overpriced, it will be ignored.
Also, when youβre pricing, think about the cost of shipping. Sewing machines are heavy = expensive to ship. (Or, maybe youβre a pickup only seller; thatβs cool, too.)
6.) List your machine and wait.
Online marketplace for used sewing machines include:
- eBay (My first sewing machine was from eBay.) [affiliate link]
- Facebook Marketplace (I bought coverstitch and sewing machines off FB Marketplace.)
- Kijiji (if youβre in Canada)
Now, if you want to sell your sewing machine in a more analog way, you could try handing it off to a consignment store (the store will take a cut of the sale), placing it in a rummage sale, or taking it to a pawn shop.
And, if the sewing machine doesnβt work, but you want to sell it for parts, you can post it to an online marketplace in the same way, but obviously label it as βFor Parts Only.β Also, you might be able to sell it to a sewing machine repair show for parts. (Thereβs more spare parts talk in the final section of this article. Keep going.)
How to Correctly Dispose of a Sewing Machine
Iβm coming at this part of the article assuming that weβre talking about a sewing machine that no longer works.
Most modern domestic home sewing machines, when you get down to it, are a collection of plastic, metal, and electronic components (circuit board, wires, etc.).
Now, I am not an expert on sewing machine manufacturing or sewing machine service. Iβm a longtime home sewist with a passion for research. So, Iβm trying not to speak out of school.
IMHO, the best thing you can do with a sewing machine that no longer works is to sell it or give it away for spare parts. That way, the machine is recycled by going into other machines.
You also could investigate turning over a non-working machine to an e-waste/e-cycling facility or pickup. For example, I did a limited Google search and found that sewing machines in the District of Columbia (U.S.A.) can be dropped off at an electronic waste collection site.
BTW, I checked and Best Buy DOES NOT accept sewing machines in its electronics, appliances, and fitness equipment recycling program. Bummer.
So, to recap:
1.) Spare parts donor
2.) E-waste recycling
Wild Idea: Selling Your Sewing Machine for Scrap
If, for some reason, the spare-parts-donor route does not appeal to you, or e-waste recycling isnβt available in your community, I suggest researching how to disassemble your machine to sell its parts, particularly metal components, for scrap.
Thereβs been a time or two where Iβve taken apart a lot of my machine with just a screwdriver. (Iβm sure Iβm not the only sewist here whoβs done some sewing machine surgery.)
My strategy, if I were taking the scrap-for-money tact, would be to:
0.) Call a scrap place and ask about my plan to disassemble and scrap sewing machine parts. If theyβll take my scrap, continue!
1.) Take the machine apart as best I could.
2.) Separate metal components from nonmetal components (because itβs pretty easy to tell these materials apart).
3.) Take photos of the non-metal components.
4.) Use a magnet to separate the ferrous metal (magnetic) from the non-ferrous metal.
5.) Take the metal to a scrap metal recycling center and see what they give me. I say start with metal (vs. non-metal elements) because almost all metals are recyclable.
6.) Show the recycling folks photos of the non-metal components and ask if they take that stuff, too, or if they know who does accept it.
7.) Attempt to recycle/scrap non-metal components until thereβs nothing left of the machine.
I think this is better than yeeting your sewing machine into the trash, because you may make a little cash and the parts will be recycled.
But, please make turning your non-working sewing machine into a parts donor your first choice of disposal. Then e-waste recycling. Then scrapping individual components.
Then, if everything else fails, get in touch with your local waste management authority to see if there are rules about or fees for disposing of sewing machines.
In researching the disposal section of this article, I came across these cool pieces of media that I thought were too interesting to not share.
You can watch these videos to get a feel for the components that go into a sewing machine:
There is also this answer, from a certified sewing machine service tech, on Quora.com. It might help you better understand materials/components in a machine.
Last-Minute Ideas for What to Do with Old Sewing Machines
I have two final ideas about what to do with old sewing machines.
1.) Keep your old sewing machine.
If you have space for it, think about hanging on to the machine. Itβs not hurting anyone. And, if you need a backup machine because your go-to machine is in the shop, youβll be happy you kept it.
2.) Offer it to family and friends.
This could be the very first thing you do when you want to offload an extra sewing machine. Throw it out there for your people to consider.
Who knows β maybe you have a friend whoβs been envious of your me-made FASHUNS and wants to get in on the action. Or, maybe your nephew is getting into cosplay and would like to stitch his own creations.
Over to you: What have you done with old sewing machines? What else can I add to the list? And, have you ever taken apart a sewing machine for parts or scrap? How did it go? Please share in the comments. Thanks for reading.
The other thing I have seen is non-working machines that are display props for theater groups or store displays, and some people with room for extra things in their house will decorate with the machines that are an interesting color or style, the way some people decorate with old cameras, typewriters and such. Our Catholic parish has people who sew baptismal bibs for the new babies, too – there’s always someone looking for a sewing machine! This was a great comprehensive article with a lot of ideas – thank you!
Hi, Mary Jean! Thanks for reading.
Yes, cool-looking vintage machines definitely can be decor items. There are some very Space Age looking ones out there that are extremely cool!
I think you’re right – there’s always someone looking for a machine. You just gotta put it out there.
My dad converted an old non-working sewing machine into a lamp for my mom’s sewing room. He’s gone now and I never got the chance to ask him how he did it but it was a beautiful piece of unique artsy and useful decor.
Wow, Elizabeth! That sounds so cool!
I bet you could partially take apart the sewing machine exterior/housing to get a look at its guts. You can buy lamp kits at most hardware/DIY stores. It might not be as hard at you think. I have a feeling that your dad likely took out the motor to make room for wiring stuff.
Does your mom still have the lamp in her sewing room?
Sharmanka Kinetic Theater in Glasgow, Scotland (sharmanka.com) uses lots of vintage machines in its installations. If you are ever in Glasgow, you can go to the show and see some wild uses for old sewing machines.
I watched the trailer on the site, and it looks amazing, Alice! Thanks for the tip. My sons and hubs would love it. I love mechanical things.
Reminds me of a couple of attractions in my home state of Wisconsin – the House on the Rock (https://www.thehouseontherock.com/) and Dr. Evermor’s sculpture garden (https://www.worldofdrevermor.com/).
I donated a small basic sewing machine I won at a quilting retreat to my daughter’s best friend’s preteen daughter who wanted to learn to sew. It gave her the chance to see if she really liked sewing without a big outlay of cash beforehand. They moved out of state not long afterwards but her mother sent a photo of the daughter and one of the projects she made on that little machine so we could see she was really using it.
When my mom passed away she had several sewing machines. Her Featherweight 221 went to my daughter and the rest of her machines were donated to a group of 4-H girls and boys who wanted to learn to sew.
Aw, thanks for sharing your stories, Anne! So sweet.