VINTAGE SEWING MACHINE MANUALS & HOW TO FIND THEM
Finding a manual for your vintage sewing machine, is easier now, than at any other time in history! For example, Singer offers free downloads of many of their manuals at their web page, including a copy of "A Family of Singer Sewing Machines", which covers these Singer models of sewing machines - 15k 66k 201k 99k 185k 327k 328k 329k 404k . Here is the link to this manual-
http://www.singerco.com/uploads/download/55dc9c90390ea8ad32a3a1c51afbce7d9fb8c05e.pdf
Many business & eBay sellers are making money off selling scanned manuals, either by charging for a download, or by charging for a hard copy, or a CD with the manual copied to it. I understand why people who did the scanning themselves (takes a LOT of time!), get angry when someone else copies their scan, & sells it as their own, but in reality, unless the manual is out of copyright time limits, the company which wrote the original manual, actually retains the copyright, but I am not aware of any of those copyrights being legally contested.
For free manuals, the original company is one good source for manuals, but for vintage machines, sometimes the best sources are online sewing groups, & sewing machine groups, on Yahoo, Facebook, & elsewhere. If you can't find a group that shares information on your favorite brand of sewing machine, you can always start your own, & popular web sites like Facebook, are a great place to do this, because more people use these sites, than almost anywhere else.
For example, I am a member of 2 different Facebook groups, one is "Vintage Sewing Machines", the other is "Vintage Sewing Machines (Non-Singer). On Yahoo, I love BerninaThirtySomethings, Wefixit, OldKenmoreSewingMachines, Singer, & several other sewing machine related groups. Join your favorite group, or a group for your favorite machine brand, make friends, & share information about your sewing machines, feet, attachments, sewing problems, & more!
ISMACS, the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society, puts out a quarterly magazine, & has an excellent site for researching vintage sewing machine information. Another great site is the NeedleBar Museum Archive, are each a group of international sewing machine collectors & history buffs, offer photos & information about a broad range of sewing machines, where & when they were invented, manufactured, the history of the companies, the accessories, attachments, manuals, & other news information about sewing machines, & the industry they are such a vital part of, are great sources of information. Find these at these addresses-
NeedleBar.org
http://ismacs.net/ismacs_news_magazine.html#
I will try to remember to add more information to this particular subject, but check out these groups & sites, you never know, some of them may have free downloads of your vintage sewing machine manuals that you need!
http://www.singerco.com/uploads/download/55dc9c90390ea8ad32a3a1c51afbce7d9fb8c05e.pdf
Having the instruction manual, & in some cases, the service manual, is essential to keeping these fabulous vintage machines functional, & I admit, I consider that anyone who owns the machine, has a moral right to a copy of the manuals, since the manuals were created specifically as part of owning the machines, but I am grateful that the manuals are available online at all, because in most cases, the internet is the ONLY way to actually find a manual, for machines which have spread across the world, even in countries where they never were originally sold.
This Pfaff manual includes important information on how to use the exclusive automatic embroidery attachment built onto the back of some 130 models, but under the top of 230, 260, 332, 360 & many other early Pfaff models, & shows the all important "dial a stitch" which tells owners how to set the automatic embroidery attachment to sew the hundreds of variations of stitches these heavy duty, high speed machines can sew.
This Pfaff manual includes important information on how to use the exclusive automatic embroidery attachment built onto the back of some 130 models, but under the top of 230, 260, 332, 360 & many other early Pfaff models, & shows the all important "dial a stitch" which tells owners how to set the automatic embroidery attachment to sew the hundreds of variations of stitches these heavy duty, high speed machines can sew.
Some Sewing Machine companies, including Baby Lock, Singer, Bernina, & some other companies, do offer free online downloads of their manuals, or charge for a hard copy, which does make sense, since printing does cost money, for paper, ink, & for the printer, as well as for someone to actually run the copies, package & ship them, so if you do have to pay for a copy of a manual, please keep these in mind, when you consider the financial cost of purchasing one.
The Sears Kenmore
The Sears Kenmore
Many business & eBay sellers are making money off selling scanned manuals, either by charging for a download, or by charging for a hard copy, or a CD with the manual copied to it. I understand why people who did the scanning themselves (takes a LOT of time!), get angry when someone else copies their scan, & sells it as their own, but in reality, unless the manual is out of copyright time limits, the company which wrote the original manual, actually retains the copyright, but I am not aware of any of those copyrights being legally contested.
For free manuals, the original company is one good source for manuals, but for vintage machines, sometimes the best sources are online sewing groups, & sewing machine groups, on Yahoo, Facebook, & elsewhere. If you can't find a group that shares information on your favorite brand of sewing machine, you can always start your own, & popular web sites like Facebook, are a great place to do this, because more people use these sites, than almost anywhere else.
For example, I am a member of 2 different Facebook groups, one is "Vintage Sewing Machines", the other is "Vintage Sewing Machines (Non-Singer). On Yahoo, I love BerninaThirtySomethings, Wefixit, OldKenmoreSewingMachines, Singer, & several other sewing machine related groups. Join your favorite group, or a group for your favorite machine brand, make friends, & share information about your sewing machines, feet, attachments, sewing problems, & more!
ISMACS, the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society, puts out a quarterly magazine, & has an excellent site for researching vintage sewing machine information. Another great site is the NeedleBar Museum Archive, are each a group of international sewing machine collectors & history buffs, offer photos & information about a broad range of sewing machines, where & when they were invented, manufactured, the history of the companies, the accessories, attachments, manuals, & other news information about sewing machines, & the industry they are such a vital part of, are great sources of information. Find these at these addresses-
NeedleBar.org
http://ismacs.net/ismacs_news_magazine.html#
I will try to remember to add more information to this particular subject, but check out these groups & sites, you never know, some of them may have free downloads of your vintage sewing machine manuals that you need!
