They offer a listserv where you can describe what you've got, and the knowledgeable members will offer their best guess as to what it is. ISMACs - International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society
There is also a woman collecting White serial numbers to document some of the holes in the company's manufacturing record.īut how do you research a machine from a company that went out of business in 1957 (like National did)? Try some of the following sources : Even White offers this service (to some degree). Singer also has a website for checking serial numbers. You can call their 1-800-number, provide a serial number, and they can tell you the model, when and where it was made. Singer has a good program to identify and age their old machines. I'm looking forward to identifying and possibly collecting a few more treadles, restoring them and using them. The research is also fun, interesting and challenging-kind of like a treasure hunt. This has opened up a whole new world to me. There are treadle machines that allow for free-motion stitching-and here I thought this was a new innovation! You can see her wonderful studio with the various machines and learn more about treadles here. Her clientele want an authentic antique look to their quilts.
One woman, Damascus Annie, has a business machine-quilting on exclusively treadle machines. I am discovering that there is a whole world out there of treadlers who prefer the antique sewing machines to modern day sewing machines. I had originally thought I would NOT try using this vintage machine for any actual sewing projects, but with the encouragement of several ISMACs enthusiasts, I am planning to clean it up, get a few missing parts, and treadle away on some real projects (yet to be determined). That's why so many machines tend to look alike, but have different names across the top. National made these "badge" machines as generics that other companies branded as their own (like Sears, Montgomery Ward, local hardware stores, etc.).
Serial Number 1287755.Īpparently, it's a "knock-off" of a Singer Vibrating Shuttle 2 (later Model 27). Thanks to the great people at The International Sewing Machine Collectors Society (ISMACs) who helped me to identify my "new" purchase as a "National VB 2." It was probably made between 18.