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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