Considered essential domestic appliances for making clothes at home in the early 20th centurye century, sewing machines gradually lost ground with the rise of ready-to-wear. Today’s modern, lightweight and versatile sewing machines make it easy to complete sewing projects. But collectors will tell you that nothing beats a good old sewing machine. vintageboth for its beauty and for its power and durability.
Caroline Fraser was hooked on sewing machines vintage when, in 2021, she was offered a portable Singer dating back to 1948. Over the months, she acquired other vintage machines, including an Imperial and a White 761 dating from the 1950s. she has six sewing machines at home, only one of which is of recent manufacture. “I fell in love with old machines,” she says. “I don’t buy them to watch them. I use them for sewing projects. But I find that these machines have a soul. What attracts me is their robustness, their beauty, the design, the genius of their design and the differences between the models. And unlike their modern counterparts, the old, all-metal machines “purr,” she says.
Kate Ray, she plunged without restraint in her passion for old sewing machines. Having started sewing eight years ago — “I didn’t know how to thread a needle at the time,” she says — she was given an old Singer. Skeptical, she tested it with eight layers of jeans fabric, then with six layers of leather. The machine having taken up the challenge without complaining, Kate Ray went in search of old models by trying to get their hands on the rarest. “I sometimes bought two or three a week. During the pandemic, I went into a madness, ”she admits.
“I realized that it’s not sewing that interests me, it’s more about knowing how the machine works and what it can do. I like to take the devices apart and see how they work,” explains this Drummondville resident who, in real life, is an electrician with Hydro-Québec.
Through successive purchases, she now has a collection of 70 old sewing machines and some 200 miniature machines. “ I was taken in by my ambition and my passion until I had no more room,” she admits. In 2020, she also created a group on Facebook “Addicted to sewing machines vintage “. However, it has been more reasonable for a year. Dealers, who drive up the prices of used sewing machines, have dampened her interest somewhat, she says.
famous brands
Kate Ray explains that, in the world of sewing machines, there are two major brands, the Singer and the White. Many other machines are effectively clones.
Founded in 1851 by Isaac Merritt Singer and Edward C. Clark, the Singer company began manufacturing household sewing machines. Singer then targeted women’s customers by promising them that making clothes would be made easier. First established in the United States, Singer has conquered the world. She also set up a sewing machine manufacturing plant in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, on the South Shore in the Montreal region, in 1904.
Fierce competition from Japanese and European brands, including Pfaff and Viking, hurt Singer from the 1960s and led to its decline. The Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu factory will close its doors in 1986. Three years later, Singer will be bought by a Chinese company.
For its part, the White sewing machine company, founded by Thomas White, was born in 1858 in Massachusetts. At the end of the 19the century, the company diversified its activities and launched into the production of items such as roller skates, bicycles and kerosene lamps. In 1901, the company even built its first automobile.
White manufactures household sewing machines and becomes the supplier to Sears stores. She creates new models, including an automatic zigzag machine. But like Singer, it faces competition from European and Japanese machines. In the 1960s, White made corporate acquisitions and mergers, including with the Norwegian company Husqvarna Viking.
Susane Cousineau, she has a weakness for the Whites, renowned for their robustness. She says she regained a taste for sewing about fifteen years ago. After having tried a modern electronic machine which she did not appreciate, she turned to the old machines by setting her sights on the Whites. She now has nine. “It’s almost an addiction. But they are not killable. To break that would take a sledgehammer,” she said.
Sewing machine repairer for 39 years in Montreal North, Michel Barrette recalls that, in the 1960s and 1970s in Montreal, the department stores on Sainte-Catherine Street offered a panoply of models of sewing machines, as did the sellers itinerant.
He also evokes the Necchi brand sewing machines that Italian immigrants brought with them when they landed in Montreal. “We built Montreal with Italians. Italian ladies worked on rue Chabanel while their husbands worked in construction. »
To those who ask his advice on buying a sewing machine, he always recommends an old machine, whether it comes from a flea market or, even better, from a grandmother’s attic. “We are in a consumer society. The machines in the big box stores, it’s worth what it’s worth, ”he drops.
Renewed interest in sewing
As we know, the pandemic has led to a renewed interest in activities such as gardening and cooking. Sewing has not escaped this phenomenon, especially since several confined people have started making masks at home. But the passion for sewing was present long before the pandemic, estimates Camélia St-Cyr Robitaille, who opened her sewing school in 2012 in Montreal. Atelier Espace Fabrik offers courses for adults and young people, as well as summer day camps. Mme St-Cyr Robitaille also notes that the number of sewing schools has increased in Montreal in recent years.
Camélia St-Cyr Robitaille recognizes that couture is an art that has been somewhat lost with the rise of ready-to-wear. As a child, she had asked her mother to take a knitting class. Failing to find any, her mother had enrolled her in a sewing class, an activity she took a liking to and which became her job. “I was the only one in my group of friends to sew. I changed school uniforms, I shortened my friends’ skirts,” she says.
If she has any advice for parents who would like to introduce their children to sewing, it’s to get a “real” sewing machine rather than a toy device that may malfunction. “If you don’t have a good tool to work with, you won’t have fun. Your machine will ‘bug’ all the time and you won’t have any interest in continuing to sew,” she says.
Director of the sewing school La Fabrique éthique, Sonia Paradis also observes that sewing has gained in popularity in recent years. “Our students already have trades, but they feel the need to make something with their hands, to finally take the time to realize a childhood dream, sometimes also to reclaim a know-how that disappeared with their grandfather. mother,” she explains. “It’s often also a desire to break free from the world of disposable fashion in order to protect the ethical and environmental values that bring them to us. »