Singer 15-91

A friend recently called me to ask if I was interested in having his mother’s old sewing machine. Him and his wife are downsizing/de-cluttering just like me. I hesitated for a moment (I already have three sewing machines in my house, one an antique) but finally told him that I wanted it.

Am I ever glad that I did. I took it with me when I visited another friend in Ajax this past long weekend because she has several vintage machines herself and I knew she could help me assess and refurbish it. It is a Singer machine, model 15-91. It took a bit of online research to figure that out because we could not find the model number anywhere on the machine. By the serial number we could date it to 1948 which makes it 78 years old!

It was manufactured at the Singer St. John's factory, located in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, a plant that operated from 1906 to 1986. The factory produced millions of renowned sewing machines (including iconic models like the Featherweight) and employed up to 3,000 workers at its peak.

We were able to find a pdf copy of the original manual online which is a bonus. After we cleaned the machine up a bit (it was very dusty) and oiled all the moving parts, we plugged it in to test it out. It sews like a dream even after laying dormant in storage for many years! I am very happy and can see myself using it a lot.