Singer Featherweight Sewing Machines – the Workhorse

Singer Featherweight sewing machines are frequently called “workhorses.” These little gems have been passed down from mother... to daughter... to granddaughter. With a bit of loving care from you -regular cleaning and oiling - it will surely last for many years to come.

You can find lots of vintage Singer sewing machines at eBay. The listings below are currently available. If you haven’t shopped at eBay before, I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised .

You can sort by highest or lowest price. To find more choices, click on any image. You're sure to find many more listings at eBay...

A Quilters Dream Machine

Quilters love these machines. True, they are often function as a second (or third...) machine. Yet these treasures from the past are prized for several reasons.

First, they produce a beautiful straight stitch. Next, is the portability factor. Small and relatively lightweight, they are the perfect option for toting to a workshop or weekend retreat.

Be aware, however, these antiques are heavier than the name "Featherweight" would imply. Yet, mine still requires less muscle to lug around than my Bernina!

Finally, there is the emotional connection to like minded women of the past. It's almost impossible not to envision someone loving using the same tool to transform a piece of cloth into a useful item for her family.

Where Were the Factories?

The Singer Company is almost 160 years old. It was founded in 1850 by Isaac Merritt Singe. The first machines were manufactured in New York. The interesting piece of history below comes from a book published in 1914:

“The first Singer factory in New York was a room 25 x 50 feet on Centre Street, over the old New Haven depot. It is apparent that the greater part of the sewing machine construction at that time was produced by hand work at the bench, so that no two machines or the parts composing them were precisely alike, either in shape or fitting.

Special tools for making each part exactly like its fellow, the "assembling" system, and the "Singer Gauge" system had not been developed at that time.

Business soon outgrew the facilities at Centre Street and, in 1858, new factories, with more modern equipment, were operated at Mott, Spring, Delancey and Broome streets, until, in 1872, all these were combined on the location of the present factory at Elizabethport, N. J.

In 1882 this site covered 32 acres of land and had 3,000 employees. It now covers 72 acres and has more than 9,000 employees.

The factory at Bridgeport, Conn., has a ground area of about 13 acres and a floor area of 517,000 square feet. Other immense Singer factories, employing many thousands of workmen, are located in Canada, Scotland, Germany, Austria and Russia. Singer woodworking factories, the largest in the world, are operated in Arkansas, Illinois and Indiana.”

Excerpt from:

Mechanics of the Sewing Machine
By Singer Sewing Machine Company
Published by Singer Sewing Machine Co., 1914

Company headquarters moved to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City in 1961. After almost two decades, in 1979, Singer made the move to its current home in Stamford, Connecticut.