Singer Sewing machines. (1 Viewer)

[scotjimland]

As some know and as mentioned in my profile I collect and restore old Singers sewing machines, so thought I would share a few pictures of just a few of them .. they all work as good as they day they left the Kilbowie factory in Clydebank Scotland.. and will go on for the next 50 or 100 years or more.. they are so well designed and built.

In my eyes they are beautiful machines, some say works of art, and deserve not only to be preserved but used as intended.. and if your looking to buy you can't buy better than an old Singer .. they just don't make them like this any more..

Link Removed

At it's height the factory employed 14,000 people, had their own dock, railway siding, and even sourced the wood from their own forest..
Sadly it all came to an end, it was just too labour intensive and making huge losses.. eventually closed in the early 80s.. the end of an era in more ways than one.. it was all downhill after that..

The history of Singers is fascinating.. an interesting insight to Isaac Merritt Singer
http://www.sewalot.com/singer_history.htm

 

[steveclecy]

Always interesting to read someone's passion - which does show through. I suppose this is where art and engineering come together.

Does not happen now, does it?

Steve

 

[vwalan]

hi. you arent alone ,i have a singer 201k. had it for years .used it for alsorts .
my dad met my mum when he was a singer sewing machine repair man. my mum was a tailoress. sadly both passed away.
in the very early sixties she traded in her treadle machine for an all singing dancing new one .button holes ,sewing on buttons ,even embroidery. she worked it alot .still works my brother got it .mind he has 230-250g as well,that says made in germany.
wonder if that helped the demise in uk.

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[Touchwood]

We used to have a sewing machine - we called it "Pearl".......






(Pearl's a singer...........)

 

[scotjimland]

hi. you arent alone ,i have a singer 201k. had it for years .used it for alsorts .
my dad met my mum when he was a singer sewing machine repair man. my mum was a tailoress. sadly both passed away.
in the very early sixties she traded in her treadle machine for an all singing dancing new one .button holes ,sewing on buttons ,even embroidery. she worked it alot .still works my brother got it .mind he has 230-250g as well,that says made in germany.
wonder if that helped the demise in uk.

The 201k was the Rolls Royce of Singers, still sought after by those who are looking for a strong dependable machine.. will sew though six layers or denim, sail cloth, leather ..in fact just about anything you can throw at it .. wonderful machine.. smooth as silk, sews beautiful regular straight stitches, still the standard and bench mark that modern machines aspire to..
.. I have, (not shown in album) a Mk 2 in cast aluminium, same internals but a lighter body to the Mk1 which is cast iron..

 

[vwalan]

yes ,i used it for car seat repairs . sometimes needed a quick shot of silicon spray to stop the needle getting clogged.
just rang my brother to get the model of my mums old machine . he says its in the loft for safe keeping .
hers as done wonders . she did in fact work for a company that did famous stuff. but her favourite was wedding dresses . think ever body round here she made them for.
i bouight aload like mine a few years ago for 2quid each. got my dad to check them over then took them to maroc . gave or swapped them for fish or bread over there with friends . they love them over there. the sisters or daughters thought they had a gift from allah.

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[Janine]

I've got 4 Singer machines in my attic. I too love the design and craft of them.

If you know of a good home for them, they're there for the taking

 

[Hollyberry]

My mum had a treadle Singer and she tried to teach me to sew on it.
I have one somewhere in the house--inside it's own table, not sure which room it's in.
I have a lovely singer base (€5 at a vide grenier) in the laundry, keep meaning to sand it all down and restore it as a terrace table.

 

[scotjimland]

Always interesting to read someone's passion - which does show through. I suppose this is where art and engineering come together.

Does not happen now, does it?

Steve

Indeed not....
I see beauty in most mechanical things.. be it a pocket watch, steam ship or locomotive .. but I settled on sewing machines, can just see Jan's face if I bought a steam driven beam engine .. as it is she's threatening to leave if I buy any more Singers ..

There is no soul in a computer or even a camera these days.. just mass produced plastic for the disposable society .. even many modern sewing machines are only made to last 3 or 4 years... simply because there is no money in making everlasting consumer goods..
In saying that, cars have come a long way and are probably better now than they were 60 years ago.. but you won't find many still going after 50 years.

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[vwalan]

better not come down here them jim, my mate where my garage was now as 50 steam engines. some showmans some stationary.
even in this street we have vintage cars bikes buses tractors . best street in the world i,m sure. i forgot hot rods and american cars as well. in the next village is south west choppers and tewo villages away .there they build classic bsa and triumph trials bikes for use in events like the scottish 6 day trial. you would love here.
plus a short drive to the early beam engines . and trevithicks steam auto.

 

[scotjimland]

better not come down here them jim, my mate where my garage was now as 50 steam engines. some showmans some stationary.
even in this street we have vintage cars bikes buses tractors . best street in the world i,m sure. i forgot hot rods and american cars as well. in the next village is south west choppers and tewo villages away .there they build classic bsa and triumph trials bikes for use in events like the scottish 6 day trial. you would love here.
plus a short drive to the early beam engines . and trevithicks steam auto.

yes, I would love that .. the only vintage stuff you'll see in our village are old people with steam driven zimmer frames ...

 

[vwalan]

well get that caravan hitched up. sure i can find a place somewhere . bit full at moment have some friends over with a 1966 merc truck with a wooden box on the back. used to be a disater area truck .got flown all over to any disaster . your always welcome.
only two weekends ago there was a tractor run going past .80 odd tractors on a run. slows the boy racers a bit.
remember cornwall is the home of deep mining .
my family moved up near durham when the first deep coalmine was being dug. if theres a hole in the ground there as to be a cornishman involved .
lots of history here,

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[gawatt]

My gran had an old singer in a wonderful little wooden cupboard. The top folded over to make a worktop and the sewing machine folded up from inside. I vaguely remember hiding inside it as a child.

 

[vwalan]

i can still hear my mums treadle machine .i spec i shall hear it all my life. she always reckoned the treadle could be worked faster than any of the later leccy jobs .
she never had a hand machine. always said if your working fast you need both hands to look after the job.
i can see her struggling with foam backed material years ago .till she worked out if you sew through tissue paper the foam or nylon material didnt sick to the needle .
that was years before silicon spray.
lots of treadles got converted into tables etc . what a waste.lovely black cast artwork.
mind scotland was also famous for acme wringers from glasgow.
i still use one when in the truck . ideal for getting the washing dry. on its original stand .
was my grans. like living in a working museum down here. ha ha .

 

[sabconsulting]

I was working at that Singer factory in Clydebank the other week - or rather the exact location of it. Unfortunately it was knocked down and there are a set of fairly anonymous office buildings there now - such a pity they didn't even keep that fantastic clock tower.

Steve.

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[scotjimland]

I was working at that Singer factory in Clydebank the other week - or rather the exact location of it. Unfortunately it was knocked down and there are a set of fairly anonymous office buildings there now - [HI]such a pity they didn't even keep that fantastic clock tower.
[/HI]
Steve.

yeah.. nothing short of industrial vandalism ...

Singer Factory/Business Park
Isaac Singer, an American of East European extraction,
built his first sewing machine in 1850. It was patented in 1851
and was immediatelya success. Factories were set up in America
and in 1856, to satisfy the market in Europe, a factory was
established in Glasgow.
The Glasgow factory couldn’t keep up with the demand
so Singer decided to set up in Clydebank. Building started in
1882 with Robert McAlpine and Co. as the builder and was
completed in 1885.
The famous Singer clock, which was 190 feet high was installed
the following year. The clock face was later increased in diameter
to 26 feet making it the biggest in Britain and the second biggest
in the world.
By 1900 the factory was making 13,000 sewing machines a week.
t its peak in 1913 Singer employed 14,000 people.

After the Second World War, Singer steadily declined as the
competition increased and it eventually closed in 1980.
The famous Singer clock was demolished in 1963 during a
modernisation programme.
With the closure of Singer and the decline of shipbuilding,
Clydebank witnessed high unemployment. In 1980 a Task Force
was set up by the Scottish Development Agency to look at
regeneration. In August 1981, Clydebank was declared Scotland’s
first Enterprise Zone. The SDA bought the Singer site and set up Clydebank Business Park.
Radio Clyde was one of the first businesses to locate there.

 

[vwalan]

you,ll have us all in tears in a minute. ha ha .
if we knew then what we know now.
i live in steptoes yard now .
that looks usefull shame to throw it out .
oh ,yes i can look after it if you need it you know where it is
any body want some old round pin leccy plugs ./never mind they can sit here. hee hee.

 

[rainbow chasers]

I have an electrocuted one in the unit - was left to me in a will, believe it or not. Why on earth I would want a sewing macine, I have no idea!

Mind, I did restore and sell an old caravan once, so maybe she was thinking I might be stupid enough to do hat again, and would find it useful......or maybe mother had been moaning to her after sewing up the last lot for me!

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[PenelopePitstop]

I worked for Singer Sewing machines for a while in 1980 - in their shop in Altrincham, Cheshire. I used to go out and service peoples machines - usually old ladies with equally old machines that they hadn't cleaned since the day they were bought! I used to clean them out and change the needle and giving them a good oiling and they were as good as new! I didn't last long though - I was really supposed to go out and tell them their old machines were useless and sell them a new one! I couldn't do that - too honest I suppose!

 

[Chris]

My Mum has got one of the treadle ones. It was her Mums before that.

Next time I am in Wales I will take a picture of it Jim.

 

[sabconsulting]

you,ll have us all in tears in a minute. ha ha .
if we knew then what we know now...

That's what I thought - I assumed it was demolished in the '60s - then I found out they knocked it down in the 1990s oh:. By then everywhere else in the UK people were recognising the value of such buildings and redeveloping them without knocking them down. Maybe there is more to the story, but it seems short-sighted to me.

any body want some old round pin leccy plugs ./never mind they can sit here. hee hee.

Had to dig out an adaptor for one of those the other day, since I'll be in Cape Town on Sunday and they still use those old round plugs.

Steve.

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[scotjimland]

any body want some old round pin leccy plugs ./never mind they can sit here. hee hee.

believe it or not Alan, just recently I picked up a 15k-88 machine that still had a 2 pin 15amp round pin plug on it ..

machine made in 1945 , still had the same cable as it left the factory .. needless to say it was crumbling with bare copper showing .. .. but once cleaned up and rewired it ran and sewed as good as new..

 

[vwalan]

shame my dad isnt around . he used to use a motorbike and side car in the 50,s as a works vehicle and do the service work for singer .around the doncaster area. bet jim and him would have got on well. he was a magician with singers.
as a matter of interest i googled singers made in germany . think my mums newer one is a 401g... well it looked like the one that came up as being the new one in about 60. hopeing to get a model number soon from my brother .seems the first fancy stitch type machines are very collectable . mind we shant get rid of my mums .
but interesting threads jim.
also had a jones sewing machine came from my gran .never really got into that one . luckily the ex wife took it . glad she didnt take the singer.

 

[vwalan]

just had a thought jim . is it a two pin plug that used to fit into alight bulb socket adaptor?
i have a 3way fitting here ,you put it in place of a light bulb then run the bulb and two other leccy things off it .
makes the mind tick as to how much as been ran through a light wireing . i used to use it years ago for a light ,a cassette recorder and a radio .in my bedroom at home ,. parents house.
the good old days . ever plug socket had adaptor and adaptors . only had one socket in each room .
infact awhile ago i passed all my old wall sockets and round pin plugs on to a friend of a friend that runs a railway . he likes the old fittings to keep it all look right for that old period look .i remembered when i went searching this morning .
god knows what my kids will do with all my junk when i go.

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[scotjimland]

just had a thought jim . is it a two pin plug that used to fit into alight bulb socket adaptor?

no, it's a full size 15Amp two pin ..

couple of pics..

 

[vwalan]

i only asked as i remember my dad using light sockets alot . bet it had that old braided cable though.
no wonder houses caught fire ,

 

[scotjimland]

i only asked as i remember my dad using light sockets alot . bet it had that old braided cable though.
no wonder houses caught fire ,

No, it was just plain old flat twin core rubber with red and yellow cores.. which is odd, but I think it was specially made for Singer.. never saw yellow and red core flex on anything else.. later models have twin PVC flex in normal black and red....

Nor do they have an earth, despite being all metal... in fact I can sometimes feel a tingle when I'm using them.. and no, it's not old age

I figure this is because they were designed in the US for 110v .. so didn't have an earth, so when they supplied the 250v motor didn't bother either, dunno how they would ever pass a PAT test ..

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[Gromett]

What a fantastic thread. Love it

 

[Chris]

Jim - what do you do with them all?

I have a thing with watches and try to wear all of them over a year.:Blush:oh:

 

[vwalan]

hi treacle .bet you have time on your hands.
stitch in time saves nine . for jim.

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