Behold! My mother’s Singer Slant-O-Matic 401—the 1958 model. I inherited this dear old machine a few years ago when my mother passed away, and with it, wonderful memories. (Not to mention an assortment of machine attachments that look like tiny instruments of torture—more on that later.)
Mother had it set up in her “sewing closet,” a hall closet that my Dad outfitted for her with shelves and a piece of plywood on top of an old desk. The tabletop fitted the entire perimeter of the little square closet, and the machine was set down into it to create one big extension of the machine bed. Mother had an old wrought-iron pinup wall lamp shaped like a chicken, with a flowered shade, and it bathed the closet in cozy light while she sat and stitched.
On that Singer machine, in the closet, she sewed pretty much everything my sister and I wore—skirts, dresses, blouses, nightgowns, bath robes. Some garments, like my gold brocade Senior Prom dress and my beige wool Jackie Kennedy-style spring suit, I adored. Others—not so much. Some of those flannel nightgowns were a little, shall we say, clunky. But through the good, the bad, and the ugly, the old Slant-O-Matic never seemed to fail her; it just chugged along miles and miles of seams without flagging.
What a machine! I’ll quote from the copy inside the manual cover:
“The greatest sewing machine ever built . . . From the moment you see the new SLANT-O-MATIC, you’ll know it’s excitingly different. You’ll marvel at its automatic sewing. You’ll delight in its sure, beautiful stitching. The only automatic zigzag machine for home use made entirely in America, it out-sews all other machines in both straight and fancy stitching.” And so on . . .
This little honey has more attachments and weird-looking feet than I can describe, let alone actually use. It has: a satin stitching foot, a button sewing foot, a zipper foot (of course), a hemming foot, a multi-slotted binder, a ruffler (quite a contraption), a darning/free-motion foot (yay!), a gathering foot, an edge stitcher, a tucker, and other stuff I can’t even identify.
The automatic buttonhole attachment comes in this cool pink pod-shaped plastic box, which it itself is a delight.
This machine can produce fancy decorative stitches galore, although I have to confess I’ve never experimented with these. You can create a lot of designs just by setting the dial in various positions on the machine front.
Those little black discs in the photo are “Fashion Discs,” which you insert into the top of the machine to produce even more designs, like monograms and dainty sprigs of flowers and snowflakes. Amazing!
The Slant-O-Matic was built to last. Even though it’s more than 50 years old, it keeps on stitching through quilt fabric and batting, as well as through an assortment of materials that it’s never even heard of— fusibles and odd fibers like Lutradur. This machine can sew anything! It sounds like a junior version of a freight train, but I don’t mind; in fact I kind of like that mechanical clunking noise and the feel of the vibration under my fingers.
Besides, sometimes as I sit there guiding fabric under the needle and the Singer chugs along, it’s my mother I see, not myself, bending over the machine under the light from that old chicken lamp, stitching, stitching away.
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10 Comments
You do have a gem. I owned one. It was my Grandmother’s and she left it for me. We wore it out. They are a great find at auctions and on eBay. The only bad thing about them is if the foot controller goes out or a motor. There are replacement websites for parts now. Treasure it and get some use out of the old girl. Chris
My husband and I have a small business and I love to collect these old machines. We two 401′s, two 403′s, and a 500. We also have other machines that are computerized and non-computerized. The old Singers are the ones we use the most. My husband is an embroiderer, and when he needs to sew something, he has a 403 sitting beside the embroidery machine.
We could not agree with you more. They are t he greatest.
Lucky you to have this! I just lucked out too and picked up an old Singer 185J also made in the 50′s here in Canada. I only paid $5 for it at a yard sale and really didn’t hold out much hope that it would actually work. It sews perfectly!
Amazing that the capability for all those stitches and designs has been available for so many years! A beautiful heirloom to treasure.
It is amazing what the older machines could do and still do, they were built to last.
Debbie
Thanks for the great post Cynthia.
A lovely post that makes me want to go home and sew to feel the roots of the women in my family.
My mother has one of those sewing machines. I learned to sew on it. She finally wore it out. What a great sewing machine.
I have one of these, too. I bought it when I wanted to start sewing again and couldn’t afford one of the new fangled machines. I got this one because it’s similar to my mother’s machine which is the machine I learned to use. I have since acquired a new fangled machine, but still have this Singer. My mother uses it when she comes to visit and I use it when I have my fancy machine all set up for a project and I want to do something else for a bit. It’s a great machine and just keeps running.
I never took classes in school to sew.When this desk was past on to me by my G.Mother,it was simple to use,easy to tread,and the desk is still beautiful,and the machine still runs. I made every thing!!!!!!!kr