The 13th of June is National Sewing Machine Day.

The humble sewing machine! Invented during Europe's Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. With the first truly functional machine being created by Barthelemy Thimonnier in 1830.

Back then, sewing machines were heavy, bulky, hard-to-use, easy-to-break-down and unreliable. And then came Singer…taking its place in almost every household since the 1860’s, Singer became the leading actor of many stories.

Singer’s sewing machines were lighter and easier to use and carry than their competitors at the time. Their machines were robust and came with a big technical support team behind them. So, in no time at all, Singer became a globally trusted brand.

In the 1860’s, 400 Singer machines were able to do the same amount of work that two thousand workers could do! 

An interesting little fact for you - Singer became one of the first companies which used a "jingle" in their marketing. The song “MERRY SINGER”, composed solely for Singer, made great contributions to their reputation in 1891. Here’s the sheet music if you feel intrigued to hear how it sounds!

The 201K machine

The Singer 201 was very much built to last a lifetime. I’m lucky to own and work on a 1952 201K model, as many sewers seek out this elusive machine as not much else can come close to this beauty for reliability and stitch quality. Legend has it, that even Rolls Royce used modified Singer 201K machines to sew some of their finer car upholstery and dashboards as it made a small, neat hole compared to the larger machines. 

Here’s some interesting history about Singer machines:

You can look up their 'birthdays' HERE. My machine left the factory on the 1st April 1952 (co-incidentally my business birthday is also the 1st of April)

Singers came with a different letters after the model number representing where the machine was made. Mine is a 201K meaning that it was made in in Kilbowie, Scotland.

Pre-war you would have to let them know you wanted an electric machine and pay extra. However, by the 1950's electric machines were sold as standard.

My machine probably cost around £28 new, equivalent to more than £1200 today. So, a major investment which is why Singer were one of the first companies to offer payment plans so you could have your machine and pay in instalments.

If you'd like to learn more about the history of Singer, here's a wonderful documentary "The Singer Story" you can watch made by BBC Scotland. It's an hour long and I wasn't sure I had time to watch it all but it was absolutely fascinating and surprisingly emotional so do give it a watch if you have a chance.

It turns out I was very lucky to have been gifted the 201K model by my Grandad after he found it at his local tip. It just happened to allow me to drop the feed dogs by undoing a specific screw underneath. It was this that made freehand embroidery possible and I've since discovered that most other popular Singer models don't have the same function. 

This punchy machine is still used to make all my designs to this day. I absolutely love my Singer machine and may it live on for many more generations to come!

2004

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