Whenever anyone asks me for an expensive machine to actually use for sewing, I point them toward a 1960s Japanese machine. They certainly offer the best value - thrift shops and local auctions sell perfectly good japanese machines from $5 to $35. Next to Necchis, I feel that post WWII Japanese machines offer the highest quality machine to the sewist. This might be a good niche for a collector on a limited budget РІР‚вЂњ they could collect all pink machines or one machine of each color. They can be found at many thrift shops for $10-$20 and at local auctions for under $5. The Japanese machines have not caught on with collectors (even the ones made in Occupied Japan) and as a result retain very little value. If it says 'Singer' on the machine, it probably is. Examples have been found in metallic blue, green, pink, yellow, and I have a Fire Engine Red one! In terms of collectability, don't be fooled by a claim of 'an extremely rare' Mitsubishi, Ford, Saxon, Stitch Queen etc., the same machine could have dozens of different names. The post war machines are generally well made, often quieter and smoother running than the Singers they were copied from! Japan also gave us many of our colored sewing machines. I've tracked Department Stores, Machines with Automobile names, female names, patriotic names etc. Any retailer so inclined could have Sewing Machines made just for him or her (Sears Kenmore, Wards Signature). To further complicate matters, large retailers would purchase machines and have the company name on them: RH Macy, Gimbals, etc. Generally speaking, a machine will, somewhere, state 'made in Japan' or have 'JA- ' stamped into the bottom of the machine.

Unfortunately, records from these manufactures don't exist, so it is impossible to identify them further. Over 5000 different 'brands' have been identified, manufactured by 15 or so companies. Often they were given American sounding names to appeal to the overseas market. Indeed many of these machines are practically indistinguishable from a Singer and use parts that are interchangeable. The most common of these were based on the Singer Model 15 but there are also Singer 99 clones. Shortly after W.W.II, Japan, with money from the United States, manufactured a large number of sewing machines.

Manual stitch era universal