The Mirella is a thing of beauty. Designed by Marcello Nizzoli of Italy, it is one of just two sewing machines in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (the other is the Elna Lotus). These were made in cream, pink, and a soft apple green, roughly the same time as the Supernova Julia (1960s)... but oh so different from the Julia.
The Mirella is a straight-stitch only machine, made of aluminum so it's relatively lightweight. It reminds me of Singer's model 301 in two ways. One, the tilt-up extension bed:
And second, the "finger" that holds the bobbin hook assembly:
And it reminds me of an Elna Grasshopper in having the handwheel on the bottom:
That button at the top pushes/pulls in and out to convert from electric use to handcrank. It's a simple mechanism... there are two bumps on the inside of that button...
... and those two bumps fit into recesses in the gear that drives the shaft. When engaged (i.e., button pushed in, bumps seated in the gear), the crank turns the large metal gear above, which turns the shaft, which runs the machine.
It's a very cool idea.
Another cool idea is the conversion from extended bed to freearm.
The extension bed unscrews from below and slides off, and the freearm housing slides on. Voila!
This machine came with lots of goodies, even the plastic pouch to hold the foot controller and freearm cover. It's got an original manual, six bobbins, a red anodized aluminum needle packet, seam guide, quilting guide, darning foot and coverplate, spoolpin extender, zipper foot, narrow hemmer, a needle threader, screwdriver, and of course the crank, all in a plastic accessory box.
The original case is in rough shape, but you can see what it looked like. It's a cardboardy sort of material, the hinges have pulled completely through on the end. And it's really beat up. But it's original, so I kept it.
Elegant from the back as well...
The serial number is etched into the body next to the nameplate.
The faceplate is very distinctive; the white half covers the lightbulb.
This is the view when you remove the faceplate, looking up at the two oil wicks hanging from the top. As the machine runs, those wicks rub against the metal parts, oiling them constantly. Another distinctive feature.
This machine is currently not for sale, I want to play with it for awhile.