1961 – A Singer Summer

I confess. If given the choice between a hot sandy beach and an air-conditioned sewing room, I’d take the sewing room. That is true now, and it was true when I was an awkward adolescent discovering the joys of fashion. Yes. It made me that weird girl who spent the summer sewing her own clothes, but now it makes me a cool grandma who loves to upcycle.

In honor of my Singer summer childhood memory, I am featuring 2 ads today. The one above is advertising Singer’s zigzag Style-o-Matic machine for under $150. It is from the June 1961 edition of Woman’s Day magazine. This machine featured the latest sewing machine technology which included decorative stitches.

This one is from May 1959. It shows the top-of-the-line Style-o-matic in addition to 2 less-expensive models with fewer features. It was the top one on the right that we had in my household. It always seemed to be humming between myself, my sister, and my mom. I made an assortment of truly awful outfits thanks to that machine and fabric I bought with baby sitting money.

The fancy one is the kind my husband’s mom had. His sister, who is a fellow sewing enthusiast still has the machine today. I never got to meet my mother-in-law who died at a much-too-young age. However, I am told that she was an amazing talent who would design clothing and draft patterns on paper bags and make stunning clothing that was the envy of everyone. Although she couldn’t afford the expensive model, she set out to save money to buy it by finding household work anyway she could. That sewing machine is one of my sister-in-law’s most prized possessions.