Posted 11 months ago
Leftyb21
(2 items)
Hello, this is my Vintage 1956 Singer 401A sewing machine that was left to me by my mother when she passed away; thanks to this site (and specifically, “keramikos”, thank you for the information!), I was able to find out that the desk is a Hampden Court Style 353 desk with mahogany finish) . The machine works great and was/has been taken care of throughout it’s lifetime; serial number: NA662334. The collection includes (but is not limited to: the equipment and original manuals for the Buttonholer, Automatic Zigzagger, Slant-o-Matic 401, as well as The “Students’s Manual of Machine Sewing” by Singer. Please take a look at the pictures as I hope to share with you a little bit of my mothers collection as I hope to continue to pass along this collection to my children and theirs. Thank you for taking the time to check out my sewing machine and the accessories that were left to me. Enjoy!
Welcome to CW!! I believe you will get answer's soon!! Keep checking in.
Stuff
Hi, Leftyb21. :-)
My apologies for not noticing your post earlier. In just idly scrolling through Collectors Weekly posts, I failed to notice that your 'desk' had all kinds of Singer sewing accessories strewn across the top. D'oh!
So, yes, you're right that your mother's Singer model 401A came out of Singer's Anderson, NC factory, although is sounds like perhaps the Anderson factory might have mostly just assembled pieces that there made at the Elizabethport factory:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/anderson
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/elizabethport
Per the Singer 301 site, the model 401A with serial number NA662334 was allotted in 1956:
401A NA500000 to NA700000 1956 Anderson, SC (Start of 401A)
https://www.singer301.com/dating/default.html
That's pretty bankable information, because the OP of that site is a careful researcher.
In fact, just about everything you ever wanted to know about Singer's family of slant needle sewing machines but were afraid to ask is on that 301 site:
https://www.singer301.com/index.html
However, I'll separately link a few more things.
Your cabinet is the model 353, known as the Hampton Court (scroll down):
https://www.singer301.com/cabinet/default.html
About the Singer model 401 (plus links for soft copies of the user and service manuals):
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer-class-401-sewing-machine.html
Here is a gallery of Singer sewing machine accessories/attachments:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/gallery_accessories
A listing by SIMANCO number:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/simanco_accessories
The Zig Zag attachment:
https://singer-featherweight.com/products/zigzag-attachment-slant-singer-automatic-vintage-original#productExtendedDetails
In case I forgot something, here is my collection of vintage sewing machine links (a work in progress that is perennially in need of update):
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/285089-help-for-vintage-sewing-machines
However, if you don't have the time or the inclination to plow through all of that, and still have questions, just ask them here in a comment on your post.
If I don't know the answer, I'll either go back out into the wilds of the Internet and try to find them, or perhaps refer to to one of the dedicated VSM forums/other websites where there are some serious sewing machine wonks with hands-on experience.
Thank you very much at keramikos,(https://www.collectorsweekly.com/user/keramikos) I greatly appreciate all of the information you’ve shared with me! Cheers!!!
Hi again, Leftyb21. :-)
I see you've checked in, and edited/updated your description of this post. You're very welcome. :-)
I sure wish CW S&T allowed editing of comments, because I made a number of mistakes/poor choices in my earlier comment.
I'll try to address the ones that aren't blindingly obvious (like NC [North Carolina] instead of SC [South Carolina]).
First of all, your accessories and attachments aren't strewn across the desktop, they're neatly arrayed. That was simply a poor choice of words on my part that turns out to be rude. I'm sorry. :-(
It's possible that the zigzag and buttonhole attachments aren't for your mother's model 401A. I say that, because one of manuals on the desktop is for a different family of Singer machines:
https://www.sewingpartsonline.com/instruction-manual-singer-ims-7015.aspx
Your mother may have accumulated a number of different manuals and sewing machine attachments over her lifetime, and not all of them were for the same machine. It happens.
That "Students Manual of Machine Sewing" looks like it might be a lot older than her Singer model 401A (Singer put out many editions of that manual over the years, and the cover on hers looks like the 1941 edition):
https://singer-featherweight.com/products/book-singer-students-manual-of-machine-sewing-1941-vintage-original
You'll want to look at the SIMANCO part numbers on those zigzag and buttonhole attachments, and try to find them in the SIMANCO gallery I linked earlier to be sure they're the right ones for the slant-needle/shank family of machines.
For example, here is a buttonhole attachment advertised as being for a slant shank Singer:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1449328349/singer-160743-slant-shank-buttonhole
I don't know if you're planning to do any kind of maintanance on your mother's Singer 401A, but here are a few things to note:
The non-metal, Textolite gear:
http://www.oldsewingear.com/blog/category/singer
This person also addresses the Textolite gear at length:
https://pungolivinghome.com/2019/03/26/textolite-fiber-not-metal-in-a-vintage-all-metal-machine-should-you-be-concerned/
The Textolite trademarks:
https://trademarks.corporationwiki.com/marks/textolite/71372357/
https://trademarks.corporationwiki.com/marks/textolite/71372358/
This one caveat is very important if you're planning on performing an overhaul:
https://pungolivinghome.com/2022/02/02/a-tutorial-one-very-important-disassembly-tip-for-your-sewing-machine-restoration/
Finally, I myself am definitely not an expert. I'm just an old Internet surfer who's developed a slight (*cough*) obsession with vintage sewing machines.
If you really need in-depth, hands-on advice, in addition to the pungoliving website, there are a couple of VSM forums I'd recommend in particular:
https://www.victoriansweatshop.com/
https://leatherworker.net/forum/
What the regulars at those forums don't know about vintage sewing machines probably isn't worth knowing. };-)