Sears Kenmore Sewing Machines
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| Kenmore 92 with 30 cams in lower green/cream box, all metal buttonholer in top green & cream box |
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| Kenmore 92 stitch samples of some of the gorgeous modern style stitches from the 30 cams |
Sears Kenmore Sewing Machine home sewing made easy!
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January 2, 2016
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| Kenmore 1755 I sewed twin needle embroidery on, see stitch sample in photo, I put together this set of accessories for it, and since it is identical to the 1753 (except a few tiny parts inside), I gave the lady who bought this one, my extra 1753 manual. |
 158.1703 same basic machine as 1803, does all the same functions, if you have all the cams & accessories. I like to have one of every type of cam, that fits each machine.  |
| 158.1703 I have the lid popped up, I just oiled it, normally, it snaps down completely. |
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| Sears Kenmore Maruzen built 158.950 came with a set of 15 cams, but all type C style cams fit this model, and work well. The stacks of green boxes, behind my Kenmore, are full of Super High Shank Kenmore feet, cams, buttonholers, for my various machines. The sets of cams & feet, & buttonholers & monogrammers, also come in gray plastic booklike cases. |
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| Sears Kenmore stitch samples sewn with my Kenmore 158.950 (model 95), and the 45 stitch cams I bought to go with it. It only came with a set of 15, but an additional 30 cams are available, especially easily found online! Because I enjoy fixing up old sewing machines, & often have 60+ at a time, I do have other sets, for other machines. Not everyone uses the decorative stitches, but I love them, especially for my square neck muumuu dresses. |
I do not have a complete list of manufacturers, some of the information is harder to track down.
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| Model 95 & 1650 (& many other models) are nearly identical, except for the decorative accents on the exterior of the machine, the nose plate, the paint colors, & face plate & knobs. Their manuals are the same, except a few specific pages, as the other models they were so similar to. |
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| Buttonhole instructions were printed on the lid of the plastic case the buttonholer & cams came in. These are one of the sturdier buttonholers, once they switched to plastic cams, they get chewed up. The metal bobbin cover plates, with the gear mechanism, come in at least 3 different sizes, so make sure when you purchase one, that the plate is the correct size for your machine. Remember measurements are in metric, not standard measurements. |
Sears Kenmore attachments for 158.18022
Goodrich
National
Free
Davis
Davis
Domestic
C877 (?)
117- White Sewing Machines (most USA, some models made in W. Germany- take ordinary high shank presser feet)
C877 (?)
117- White Sewing Machines (most USA, some models made in W. Germany- take ordinary high shank presser feet)
119- currently unknown
120-New Process Gear (USA, a div. of Chrysler)
516-Gritzner Kaiser (West Germany)
158-Jaguar/Maruzen (mostly Japan, some Taiwan)
148-Soryu (Japan)
340-Necchi (Italy)
385-Janome (Taiwan) (Currently)
"Sears Roebuck and their Sewing Machines" history can be found here-
While all of the Sears Kenmores that I have used have been incredibly good quality machines, my favorites are the ones made by Jaguar/Maruzen. Not surprisingly, really, when you consider that my very first sewing machine was a Sears Kenmore 158. 1560, with a freearm, & 10 or 12 built in stitches, including my favorite, the scallop embroidery stitch! My sister refused to sell me her half when I married, so I was forced to accept $35 for my half of the machine we had purchased brand new for $178 in 1978, if I remember correctly.
(158.1803 above, 148.1560 below)
(158.1803 above, 148.1560 below)
For the first 9 years of my married life, my hubby purchased many brands of sewing machines for me at garage sales, hoping to find one that would work properly. All of them had tension problems that seemed impossible to keep fixed. Finally, my grandma learned of my desperation for a working sewing machine, & on one of her trips to visit, she brought me her avocado green, straight stitch zig zag Kenmore sewing machine that she had bought new, but only used for mending. I was ECSTATIC! I was finally able to sew again, a big deal to me, since I prefer to sew nearly all of my own clothing, as well as making quilts & curtains for my home, as well as clothing for my husband and children. I missed the special stitches of my 148.1560, but at least I had a good quality, FUNCTIONAL sewing machine!
While I have acquired many other brands & types of sewing machines, I will never intentionally be without a Sears Kenmore sewing machine, if I have anything to say about it at all! Nearly all of the pre 1988 or so of the 158 Kenmores, tend to be all metal inner workings, very straight forward mechanics that are easy to maintain & repair (if they ever break!). If you keep them cleaned & oiled, & use them periodically, and keep them in your home instead of a shed, they should outlast you & your grandchildren! Currently, my favorite Sears Kenmore is my 158.175, because I bought one for my mom at a garage sale for $3.50, & she has used it for the last 20 years to make ALL of her clothing, & she LOVES it!
Mom's machine worked so well that I finally bought a 158.175 for myself! While these machines only came with 15 different stitch cams, once I discovered that there were 44 or 45 of the same type of stitch cams, & that my machine could use ALL of the "C" type Sears Kenmore stitch cams, I purchased a couple of sets off Ebay, & now my mom & I both have complete sets of all of the stitch cams that were the difference between the cheap machines, & the "top of the line" Kenmores. (I discovered that several of the Kenmore sewing machines are nearly identical to each other, they just have different decor designs, or in some cases, 1 piece was shaped slightly different, to distinguish it from the previous year's model. the 158.175, 158.950 & 158.960 158.1650 are nearly identical, for example. On one model a dial would be plastic, the next year, it would have metal trim around the dial, or a paint or metal circular sticker applied to a flat knob. Sometimes the cam door opening would be reshaped, just to make it seem like you needed the newest model.) I paid $40 at a garage sale, for my Kenmore 175 in the sewing desk, with the box that had 15 cams, the feet, & a buttonholer in it's own little plastic box with a lid.
I prefer the low shank Kenmores, because it is a more common presser foot, & they seem to be sturdier presser feet than the super high shank presser feet that came with the "top of the line" Kenmores. For some reason, Sears allowed a lot of those super high shank presser feet to have thin metal shanks, & plastic feet that break easily. They do work pretty well, I just prefer the low shank machines. The other thing that apparently set the cheap Kenmores apart from the expensive ones, was how many presser feet came with them, whether or not they had a monogrammer attachment, & a select few actually had a chain stitch attachment!
Most Kenmore flatbed luxury models came chainstitch capable, and many Kenmore collectors kept saying that no Kenmore freearm models came chainstitch capable, but at least 2 freearm models DID! 1913 and 1914! Here are the parts diagrams from Sears parts online, showing the chainstitch adapter came with 19130, 19131, and 19140.
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| 1803 (flatbed model) chainstitch adapter in their original gold box. The needleplate chainstitch adapters for freearm machines, had a shorter, wider chainstitch adapter needleplate |
Why is a chain stitch attachment important? When you are making clothing, you need to fit it to your body shape, and most of us aren't shaped like the patterns! In order to fit clothes properly, you need to be able to sew the seams like the pattern calls for, then figure out what doesn't work, undo the stitches & re do them until they do fit you!
The chain stitch is much easier to remove than the longest "basting" stitches! I had a wonderful Bernina 930, but I had to sell it & any other expensive sewing machines, in order to pay down our medical debts. But the Bernina 930 has an incredible super long basting stitch which I just discovered is fantastic for fitting clothes! That is when I decided that if I have to sell my Bernina, I have to have a Kenmore that has the chain stitch attachment!
You can tell if a vintage Kenmore machine is supposed to sew the chain stitch, by checking the bobbin hook- in the photo, I am holding 2 Kenmore class 15 bobbin hooks, the upper one has a hole above the center post, while the lower one does not. The upper hook, with the hole, is a chain stitch bobbin hook, the hole is for a tiny pin to lock into, on the end of the bobbin insert (it is facing you, in the photo, the insert is the lowest piece, note the tiny dot, located at 10 o'clock, on the thick center post of the insert). Without the pin being able to lock into that hole, the insert will spin, not properly forming the chain stitches. It may, or may not work, if you don't have the hole in the bobbin hook. Considering that this insert is supposed to basically act like a crochet hook, in forming the chain stitch. You will need to turn the hand wheel backwards halfway or so, on the last stitch, to disengage the last stitch, to avoid unraveling the entire chain of stitches, then pull the thread through the last loop, to lock it, & pull it tight, just like you would secure a crochet stitch. The manual gives specific directions.
Sears Kenmore Sew By Color attachment accessory feet set comes with large instruction cards, which illustrate how to use the feet & accessories. All of the Sew by Color sets I have seen, or had, are for low shank Kenmores.
Kenmore attachments will say Greist on them, not Kenmore. You will find that most low shank sewing machine feet, will fit your low shank Kenmore, including Singer & Simanco (the accessory manufacturing arm of Singer) presser feet & attachments. If you are buying presser feet off Ebay, look closely before you bid, & make sure that the presser feet are for the low shank sewing machines, because there are many older sets that are horizontal back attaching presser feet, and they will not fit the newer Kenmores.
The chain stitch is much easier to remove than the longest "basting" stitches! I had a wonderful Bernina 930, but I had to sell it & any other expensive sewing machines, in order to pay down our medical debts. But the Bernina 930 has an incredible super long basting stitch which I just discovered is fantastic for fitting clothes! That is when I decided that if I have to sell my Bernina, I have to have a Kenmore that has the chain stitch attachment!
You can tell if a vintage Kenmore machine is supposed to sew the chain stitch, by checking the bobbin hook- in the photo, I am holding 2 Kenmore class 15 bobbin hooks, the upper one has a hole above the center post, while the lower one does not. The upper hook, with the hole, is a chain stitch bobbin hook, the hole is for a tiny pin to lock into, on the end of the bobbin insert (it is facing you, in the photo, the insert is the lowest piece, note the tiny dot, located at 10 o'clock, on the thick center post of the insert). Without the pin being able to lock into that hole, the insert will spin, not properly forming the chain stitches. It may, or may not work, if you don't have the hole in the bobbin hook. Considering that this insert is supposed to basically act like a crochet hook, in forming the chain stitch. You will need to turn the hand wheel backwards halfway or so, on the last stitch, to disengage the last stitch, to avoid unraveling the entire chain of stitches, then pull the thread through the last loop, to lock it, & pull it tight, just like you would secure a crochet stitch. The manual gives specific directions.
Sears Kenmore Sew By Color attachment accessory feet set comes with large instruction cards, which illustrate how to use the feet & accessories. All of the Sew by Color sets I have seen, or had, are for low shank Kenmores.
Kenmore attachments will say Greist on them, not Kenmore. You will find that most low shank sewing machine feet, will fit your low shank Kenmore, including Singer & Simanco (the accessory manufacturing arm of Singer) presser feet & attachments. If you are buying presser feet off Ebay, look closely before you bid, & make sure that the presser feet are for the low shank sewing machines, because there are many older sets that are horizontal back attaching presser feet, and they will not fit the newer Kenmores.
Luxury Sears Kenmore sewing machines came with exclusive Super High Shank feet, which were only made for these machines, by the factory, & were only sold through Sears. There are a couple of Ebay sellers offering a Super High Shank adapter foot, which turns any low shank presser foot, into a usable Super High Shank foot, as shown in the photos, above. The SHS feet are easier to find online, but almost impossible to find anywhere offline.
(Sears Kenmore 158.18024 set of accessories)
The idea of the "quick change" SHS presser foot system, was a variation inspired by the Bernina exclusive presser foot system, which feet can literally be changed in about 3 to 5 seconds, with one hand, but admittedly, the Kenmore feet are nowhere near the quality of the Bernina feet, nor are there as many types of Kenmore Super High Shank presser feet, available.
The Kenmore feet are more basic, the metal Super High Shank feet only come in
zigzag
straight stitch
buttonholer
button
shirring foot
adjustable zipper
blind hemmer of metal & white plastic.
SHS adapter shank for interchangeable feet
interchangeable edgestitcher foot
interchangeable bias tape foot
Interchangeable rolled hemmer feet
All of the other specialty feet had a metal shank, with the foot made of fragile, clear acrylic, with tiny metal screws & straps, like the clear embroidery foot single narrow cord cording foot, which came in the gray vinyl "book" sets, usually with the freearms, while the flatbed Kenmore's came with the hard sage green cases for the feet, cams, presser feet, monogrammer, buttonholers.
All Kenmore machines came with the typical Griest set of a shirring foot, an adapter foot, with 4 sizes of rolled hemmers, a binder, an edge stitch foot adapter, a large & small screwdriver, while a stilleto was part of some high end machine accessory packages, & some of the "Color By Number" metal Griest feet & attachment sets.
As sewing became less common, many of the fancier attachments & accessories became more rare, with only the basic zigzag, straight stitch, embroidery (tunnel for satin stitches under foot), adjustable zipper foot, & buttonhole feet being the only ones sold with every machine. Here are a couple of photos of the top & bottom of the 158.1803 (hopefully I labeled these correctly!), with the covers removed, to show how they are built.
(Sears Kenmore 158.18024 set of accessories)
The idea of the "quick change" SHS presser foot system, was a variation inspired by the Bernina exclusive presser foot system, which feet can literally be changed in about 3 to 5 seconds, with one hand, but admittedly, the Kenmore feet are nowhere near the quality of the Bernina feet, nor are there as many types of Kenmore Super High Shank presser feet, available.
The Kenmore feet are more basic, the metal Super High Shank feet only come in
zigzag
straight stitch
buttonholer
button
shirring foot
adjustable zipper
blind hemmer of metal & white plastic.
SHS adapter shank for interchangeable feet
interchangeable edgestitcher foot
interchangeable bias tape foot
Interchangeable rolled hemmer feet
All of the other specialty feet had a metal shank, with the foot made of fragile, clear acrylic, with tiny metal screws & straps, like the clear embroidery foot single narrow cord cording foot, which came in the gray vinyl "book" sets, usually with the freearms, while the flatbed Kenmore's came with the hard sage green cases for the feet, cams, presser feet, monogrammer, buttonholers.
All Kenmore machines came with the typical Griest set of a shirring foot, an adapter foot, with 4 sizes of rolled hemmers, a binder, an edge stitch foot adapter, a large & small screwdriver, while a stilleto was part of some high end machine accessory packages, & some of the "Color By Number" metal Griest feet & attachment sets.
As sewing became less common, many of the fancier attachments & accessories became more rare, with only the basic zigzag, straight stitch, embroidery (tunnel for satin stitches under foot), adjustable zipper foot, & buttonhole feet being the only ones sold with every machine. Here are a couple of photos of the top & bottom of the 158.1803 (hopefully I labeled these correctly!), with the covers removed, to show how they are built.
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| Kenmore 1753 |
You will find that most big Brand Name sewing technicians & repairmen, as well as anyone who ever worked in a sewing machine factory, hate the Sears Kenmore sewing machines. Many of them even say that Kenmores are only good for boat anchors! There is only one reason for that, and it is because those repair techs can't make any money off Kenmores, because they are nearly all metal, and they almost never break! As you can see from looking under this 1803, they are pretty well built. (Some Kenmores have metal parts, made with weak pot metal, which does break relatively easily, including some of the bobbin winding mechanisms, these appear to be from the 1970's or newer machines, and some 1960 Kenmore's do have one plastic gear, installed over a steel bushing, where the plastic gear splits, and falls off, but the replacement part for them, has a brass, or metal gear.)
If you love sewing, go ahead & watch for sets of presser feet, stitch cams & monogrammers that will fit your Sears Kenmore sewing machine. I used to think sewing was so difficult, but I have discovered that it was because I didn't have the right equipment for the right job! There are a wide variety of presser feet for doing different stitches, and different applications. Having the right feet can be the difference between loving sewing & hating it! If you mess up your sewing project because you didn't have the right presser foot to do the job right, of course you will hate sewing! Today, there are so many fantastic presser feet to make all of your sewing easy, seek them out, practice, & use them! Here are a few to look for-
Blind hemmer
ruffler/pleater
tucker
multi-slotted binder
shirring foot
rolled hemmer- Greist made 5 sizes of these
edgestitcher
bias tape guage- to make your own bias tape, attach it to your scissors
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| Kenmore Super High Shank Adapter to low shank |
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Super High Shank Kenmore adapter to low shank, snap on shanks, red button shank has to have the screw for the quilting seam guide, removed, or it won't screw onto the super high shank Kenmore adapter foot.  
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