Is there such a thing as a vintage sewing machine?

What does vintage really mean? Well if you are a smarty pants, you have probably figured out by now, I have been misusing the word vintage all week.

According to Richarde13 on Ebay, "The correct usage of the word vintage must be used with a year: ie. my car is vintage 2001... , this WWII item is vintage 1943... " In fact, vintage in the purest sense of the word refers to wine. When I write vintage sewing machine I am using the adjective form, meaning it is of or relating to a vintage: like it is the best of that group.

Is it wrong then to call a machine from the early to mid 20th century vintage? You tell me. I think it is not the correct use of the word, but it has become part of the vernacular. Ah, semantics... what will we mess up next!

Hope you enjoy the collage of 20th century beauties. Next week I am going to attempt to feature (brooding music cue) Men who Sew. I have some good stuff lined up, so stay tuned!

Links to the Machine Photos:
Orange Brother
White and Orange Singer
Blue Morse
Green Zundapp
Green Brother Overloque

Does Your Sewing Machine have a Name?

Does your sewing machine have a name? Common now, you can tell me! As I have been researching machines this week, I have run across this notion (sewing pun!) more times than not. Come to think of it, when I brought the Babylock Ellure home I think my daughter named it something, but I can't remember what. I may have been Sewey or Stitchey, but I will have to ask her. I also recall the Elna at Oregon Ballet Theater's costume shop having a name, but I can't remember that one either. Maybe I'm just bad with names!

I love that there is a machine called a Minerva, which is the brand name, not the name of the machine itself. So what does it say about our collective sewing personalities that we name our machines and talk about them like they are human? In literature that is called personification -- or maybe it is pathetic fallacy -- I can't quite remember which is which -- but I still find it interesting that we think of our machines as our friends (or in some cases, enemies...)

It seems for many people, the choice of a name is derived from the brand name -- such as Bernie (for Bernina) or Vicky for a Viking. I have also read about lots of machines which (or is it who?) possess a name that conjures up a reliable farm animal or wise elder: think along the lines of 'Ol Betty or Aunt Bertha.

Here are a few links I found that discuss the habit of naming machines. Julia over at Serious Sewing calls her Singer 168 machine Matilda. There are seven pages of comments on naming machines on the quilters' message board. And it was one of the questions for the Sew Mama Sew Sewing Machine Meme: they asked if 'she' had a name - I wonder if there are any machines out there who are male...?

My dad had a car named Sad Bird. He had a little silver plaque engraved with the name on it that was set into the dashboard. Could be a business idea for someone, no? Maybe take over a corner of a trophy shop and market it to us nutty sewers? Let me know if you start it up!

Swingin' Sewing Graphics

I just love the graphics on these vintage owner's manuals! The colors are great and the illustrations are fab! You can barely even see the machine on the Kenmore booklet - just a bunch of happy gals! I love the artwork on vintage patterns too. I had a great internship once where I helped archive an entire library of home sewing patterns - there were over 10,000 patterns dating from the 1860s though 1959! One of my tasks was to try to date them. Betty Williams, the woman who had the collection, donated them to The University of Rhode Island when she died. The entire collection is open for research.
Don't you wish there were some groovy machines to go along with these funky owners manuals? Well, I will have to search for those. I know there were some cute colorful toy machines, and I've certainly seen some groovy Bernina's. I will go exploring tomorrow -- I have to run over to the repair shop. Who knows, maybe I'll find a treasure to write about!

PS - there are great images of sewing manuals (which are for sale) over at Manuals on CD.

Vintage Machine Week

So Far I have been reviewing a mixture of new and vintage machines, so I have decided to dedicate this week to vintage machines only. Not antique machines - that will happen, I promise, but vintage, as in 20th Century; 1940s-1970s (maybe 80s if it comes up.) I would love to make it a more specific challenge and limit it to American manufacturers, but that is tricky, because many machines in the 70s were made overseas. I'll see what I can muster.

I learned to sew on a converted Singer treadle machine, meaning it had been converted in the 1920s or 30s from a foot pedal to a knee pedal. I loved sewing on that machine, but it was far from modern. Then sometime in 1977 I went shopping with my mother. We brought this fancy Kenmore 158 16250 home and embarked on a world filled with zig-zag stitches and blind hems! I still have this machine and have used it with my students. It is a solid, mechanical machine (remember this means all pullys and levers and gears and such) and my only complaint is that the tension knob seems to be useless.

I plan to scour the web for interesting vintage machines with stories attached. If you have one, send me an email! I hope to find some great stories about machines and their humans to blog about. I am looking forward to what else comes up in my quest.

Singer Touch and Sew: Mystery Solved!

I found it! I am so glad I took pictures of this machine when my student brought it to class last year! The Singer Touch and Sew was introduced in 1965. You can look at a 1970 version of the Golden Touch and Sew Delux Zig Sag Sewing Machine Model 750 sewing manual here (love the internet for finding things like this!) The graphics are super cool and it clearly shows the bobbin winding feature on page 7.

While researching this I discovered the google timeline and found several classified adds from the 1960s and 70s showing that this machine originally retailed for around $300. Not much has changed in fourty years!