Vintage Sewing Machines

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One of the most iconic symbols of the industrial revolution is the vintage sewing machines. These heavy, steel, mechanical machines made sewing-once a laborously long job-get done much faster. This opened the doors for ready-made clothing, draperies, slipovers, etc.

When speaking of vintage sewing machines, one usually is thinking about the ones that appeared in the late 19th century and very early 20th century-right in line with our industrial revolution.

These machines are still fairly popular today. One of the reasons for this is their quality. Could you imagine that fancy, super-light, plastic, electronic sewing machine working 100 years from now? Probably not, something will have broken or had to have been replaced. But these machines, made sturdily out of steel and completely mechanical, are extremely simple machines, making them easy to care for and fix. Because of this, many of these machines which exist today still work!

Throughout the 19th century there were many inventions which claimed to be sewing machines. They were, but they were nothing like the machines that we see today, or even like the vintage sewing machines we think of. They were first made to sew in the fashion of handsewing. With one thread going down through the fabric and then coming back up, down, up, etc. Sewing machines are now made to sew with two threads. On the basic modern sewing machine, one thread does go up and down through the fabric and a second one, on the bobbin, comes up through the bottom and hooks into the first thread, making a stronger stitch. When these machines first came out they were sometimes called lockstitch machines.
The most common vintage sewing machine, as well as the most recognizable, is the Singer Featherweight. Out of the most common vintage sewing machine brands- Bradbury, Singer, Jones, Frister, and Rossman, Singer is the only one which has lasted this entire time and still makes quality sewing machines. The Singer Featherweight model was extremely popular and was manufactured for over 30 years.
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German Vintage Sewing Machines

When the sewing machine first became widely available in the 1850’s, hundreds of smaller manufacturers began making them. Most of these manufacturers were either in the United States or Great Britain. These two countries were dominating the industry. However, Germany began producing their own sewing machines not too long after. In 1855, Clems Muller established one of the first sewing machine manufacturing companies in Dresden.
It didn’t take long before Germany had a flourishing sewing machine industry. Most of these companies began by copying the early American sewing machines such as Singer, but as the industry grew and gained strength, the variety and creativity of the machines increased. Many of the German companies made extremely similar machines, making many believe that they were copying off of each other. Another theory is that the demand was so high for the larger manufacturers that they were subcontracting to smaller firms.
Once a German designed machine worked, the design was not changed for a long time. A great example of this is the cast base machine which was still being made 60 years later during the first World War. German machines were often put down as if they were lower quality. This was mainly done by the British. The machines were actually of very good quality, many times they were actually better than the British machines. Even better, they were much more affordable than British machines. These German machines became so popular that they were imported into Britain in huge quantities. The main German manufacturers opened up offices in London to facilitate the massive orders.

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