My Singer Sewing Machines – Travel and Tech

This page is a summary of our chorus of Singer sewing machines, in build year sequence

28K F1880493 1911 Rococo Decals

Owned this one for over 40 years, previously owned by my wife’s mother, and her mother, and her mother too. Four generations of owners in the same family. Treadle machine converted to electric, well used and in need of restore – eventually.

Sewtric motor and controller.

99K13 EE168179 1947

Recently completed the restore, mechanically stripped down and all wearing surfaces cleaned. Runs like a dream, smooth and quiet. A beautiful little machine with almost perfect Filigree decals and knee control.

Singer BRK 2-12 motor with grease wicks. Knee controller in machines base. 3 flat pin plug.

201K3 EF725774 1950 Paper Clip decals

Just finished the restore, lovely condition, good paint and decals, knee controller. Like all 201Ks, runs like a dream but a bit finnicky to set up.

Singer BRK 12-S motor with grease wicks. Knee controller in machines base. 3 flat pin plug

306K EJ645804 1954 Triangles decals

Bought Jan 2025 for $40. Still to be restored, but excellent condition and I am looking forward to working on it. My first zigzag machine. Oiled and turning over fine, but lots of adjustments needed!

No motor or cabinet at this stage

201K23 EK674233 1955 Paperclip decals

I wasn’t going to add this machine to the list, the idea was to get rid of it asap. We only bought it because it came in a cabinet we really wanted. The cabinet was a “Senior Cabinet”, the same as the “Cadet Cabinet” we put our 99K31 in (see below) but with a table top cut for a full size machine such as a 201, a 66 or a 15. We had a 15K110 in a nasty white suitcase which we wanted to re-home.

So we did the swap, more on the 15K below. The 201K is one of the modern design version 2 shapes, that look like a 50s spaceship design. It has reasonable graphics and paint, but needed a really good service, a lot of fluff removal and polishing, adjustment of the end float on the main shaft, and some reshaping of the spring in the upper thread tensioner.

It seems to look better in the 1950s suitcase than the 15 did, and even the Elna foot control seems to look good with it. The motor is a bit noisy (the next job).

It took a bit of fettling to get stitching correctly, I had to retime it, make sure it had a good needle (Singer or Schmetz), good thread (Guttenburg) and a proper type 66 bobbin, not a cheap and nasty Birch one. These 201K machines seem really finicky, great when they are working though.

The bobbin winder was not aligned correctly, the arm which holds the bobbin on to the winder, and detects when the winder is full was offset. It was offset to the left which was pulling the bobbin off the pin. As there is no way of adjusting this I assumed it was bent, and bent it back to centre.

It looks really good, sews a lovely stitch, and is the lightest machine I own, making it more portable than my 185K of my 99K13. The Elna foot control makes it easy to control too. It was also made in 1955, which is my birth year too! It might be a keeper, maybe I will get rid of the 185K.

Singer BAK 4-12 motor with grease wicks. Elna foot controller wired to Singer 3 flat pin plug.

Update – this machine now lives with Victoria and Jared, and is being worked quite hard making lots of clothes.

15K110 EN744350 1958 RAF decals

Restored and cleaned. A portable with foot control, cloth covered plywood carry case with varnished wood base. “RAF” decals and paintwork in immaculate condition. Had some troubles when I reinstalled the needle bar incorrectly, but works well now.

Oct 4 2024 we finally managed to find a Senior Cabinet, also known as an Ardmore or a type 72. It needs a full restore, but it is in basically good condition. I repaired the leaf support bar so that the leaf is held level and the bar pops out when the lid is lifted. The 15K110 has been installed in it, and has pride of place in our “library”.

Singer BAK 4-12 motor, foot controller, 3 round pin plug.

185K EP585122 1959 Logo only, Modern Style

Tan and beige modern shape, but 99K mechanicals, in clean condition. Squared off bentwood case and foot controller.Presser foot spring was taped to the base plate in 3 parts when I got it, and a new spring was ordered from the USA. The machine had a lot of congealed oil, and some surface rust on some of the bright parts, so it was stripped and cleaned, reassembled and adjusted correctly.

The Bentwood top was damaged, someone had dropped something heavy and pointed onto the lid, putting a small hole though it. I glued and clamped the laminates back together, and filled the hole, and stained the filler to match the laminate. The whole lid was sanded, oiled and polished, and the base was also sanded carefully, oiled and polished.

Singer BAK 4-12, foot controller, 4 round pin plug.

99K31S ER139103 1960, no decals, but was Eye

My first restore. A rusty piece of junk totally seized. Cleaned down to bare metal, repainted and polished the brightwork and internals, and it works and looks fine. Came in a small wooden base with no lid, similar to a Spartan, with which it shares some other features. Have sourced a Type 72 (or possibly a Type 354 Ardmore , or a Cadet Cabinet depending on where you look) cabinet to suit the 99K31 and moved the machine over.

While rebuilding and restoring the cabinet I decided to finally add some decals to give this machine a bit more personality. As I used a variation on the TRAJAN font for the roman numerals, I decided this machine finally had a name, TRAJAN – after the roman emperor, who was incredibly popular and was deified after his death. He was buried under a huge monument, a needle like column, engraved in his honour. The lettering on the column is the basis of the TRAJAN font. It also uses a clever trick, the lettering at the top of the column is larger than that at the bottom, making it more readable from ground level. I used this idea when applying the name to the machine’s needle column!

BAK 4-12, foot controller, 3 flat pin plug. Foot controller mounted in Cadet Cabinet with knee control operating foot controller.