Welcome

Domestic sewing machines produced before the 1970s are true works of art.

This website includes information, pictures and free pdf manuals of machines in my collection. These are grouped into Pinnock, European machines, Singer machines, Japanese 1950s & 1960s machines and recently I have added an Overlocker section on Japanese overlockers from the 1960s to 1990s.

Many of the machines on these pages have gone through, one, two, three or even more generations of families. Many of these well made, all metal machines, will still be going strong, when I am no longer here. This is part of the beauty of these machines, to cherish them as others have done before. Call me what you will, collector, custodian or even curator.

Pinnock Australian sewing machines.

European vintage and antique sewing machines.

Singer vintage and antique sewing machines.

Japanese 1950s & 1960s machines.

Japanese Domestic Overlockers Sergers.

As my collection grows, so too has this website. It now includes information not only on Pinnock, but on other Vintage sewing machines as well. Most are found in and around Melbourne Australia in recent years.

FREE SEWING MACHINE MANUALS….Any instruction manual or interesting documents that I find, I scan and upload to my google drive. Feel free to use any of the documents here for your own use. Please DO NOT on-sell this information or booklets, this information should be FREE for all to use.

This page started as a way to document the Japanese made, Australian branded Pinnock Fridor Sewing machine of the mid 1900s. Including information on the Toyota models, the Trendsetter Toyota models, the later CFM Japanese models and the Dutch Fridor, which was marketed as a Pinnock. The Pinnock , Vintage sewing machine (VSM). It has since evolved into a broader record of the broad range of VSMs found out in the market today.

From my limited knowledge the Pinnock Sewing Machine was manufactured in Australia at the Lithgow Small Arms Factory from 1949 to 1954, only 6000 were made. It is an iconic Australian sewing machine. You can find more information about the factory here Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum (lithgowsafmuseum.org.au). You can see one of these machines also in Melbourne at Anne Bonny’s locker, 392 Burwood rd, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Australia. My page is not about this earlier Pinnock. This page is about the Pinnock machines that came after, the ones imported from Japan (and Holland) in the 1950s and 1960s.

The Pinnock information here may or may not be accurate, or up to date, it is based on my collection of machines and the information I have managed to glean from archives such as Trove Home – Trove (nla.gov.au), other websites, social media pages and from the information from other collectors. In particular, Timothy Briggs from WA, who has been kind enough to allow me to use images of his Pinnock machines on this page. If you would like to learn more about these machines, please check out my Links page for more sources of online information and resources.

If you have more information to provide, I would love to hear from you. If you have beautiful pictures of your machines that you would like to add to this site, please also contact me and I will be more than happy to display your pictures on this site. If you own a Pinnock manual that I don’t already have on my Instruction book page and you are willing to share with other Pinnock collectors, please contact me.

My “go to machine” when I have actual sewing projects. I love working with this machine, not only does it sew beautifully, it “feels” good when I sew with it. Pinnock Sewmatic.

Recent updates

06 March 2023: Lemair Helvetia Valiant 930, a Brother sewing machine.

01 March 2023: Husqvarna Automatica CI 21, work in progress.

28 February 2023: Anker Phoenix Gloria another rescue machine with an unhappy result.

27 February 2023: Pinnock Royal cams identified. Page updated and cams shown.

10 February 2023: Bernina vintage booklets page added, free PDF download available for these beautiful 1960s books.

06 February 2023: Bernina 730 page added.

01 February 2023: Pinnock 1 Overlocker, CFM, 3 thread Page updated and manual added.

20 January 2023: Pinnock Sewbest updated with a second machine. Bernina 700 page added.

13 January 2023: Trendsetter Royal added, finally another Pinnock in my collection.

07 January 2023: Bernina 117L page added.

03 January 2023: Tailor-bird portable hand crank.

01 January 2023: Singer 320k and Bernina 121 added.

01 December 2022: More overlockers added, see my Main Overlocker Serger page. More being added all the time.

20 November 2022: Overlockers Baby lock EA-605.

10 November 2022: Pinnock Overlocker, CFM, 4 thread.

09 November 2022: My 3rd Anker RZ, this time its green, added to the bottom of my Anker RZ page.

05 November 2022: Introducing my first Husqvarna machine, SM14 Zig Zag, another small freearm.

01 November 2022: Japanese machines from the 1950s and 1960s page added.

31 October 2022: Introducing my new Pfaff 130 treadle.

29 October 2022: Introducing my new and very hard to find Pinnock Sewbest.

29 October 2022: The Pinnock Japanese 1960s with many names.

28 October 2022: Pinnock trendsetter Star page updated with the manual now available free in PDF.

23 September 2022: Singer VSMs, my collection, starting with my Fiddlebases.

06 August 2022: Necchi Supernova page added.

01 August 2022: Cow shed find, another Anker RZ added to the bottom of my Anker RZ page.

18 July 2022: Gritzner VZ instruction book and information added to bottom of Gritzner page.

08 July 2022: Introducing my new Black 282 Phoenix and my Green 283 Phoenix automatic

20 June 2022: Introducing my new 1925 Adler Klasse 8.

14 June 2022: Introducing my new Gritzner VZ automatic.

02 June 2022: Introducing my new 1947 Elna Grasshopper.

30 May 2022: Introducing my new Anker RZ.

19 May 2022: Fridor Stitchmaster manual added.

16 May 2022: Fridor page updated with Freearm zigzag and cams images.

04 May 2022: Archive newspaper and magazine adverts added to bottom of the Fridor free arm page.

03 May 2022: Archive newspaper and magazine ads added to the bottom of all the Trendsetter pages.

01 May 2022: New home Model J page updated, other VSMs, Elna Grasshopper clone.

29 April 2022: Morse advertising posters added to the Advertising page.

26 April 2022: Pinnock Trendsetter Gem page added. Pinnock Trendsetter Modern page added. Accessories and attachments page added.

25 April 2022: Pinnock Trendsetter Star page added.

20 April 2022: Pinnock vs Morse a photographic comparison page added. Trendsetter Jewel page added.

17 April 2022: Fridor page updated.

16 April 2022: Trendsetter page updated. Sewmatic page updated with pink machine at bottom of page. Sewmaster page updated with pink machine at bottom of page.

04 April 2022: Pinnock Jewel Mark III to Trendsetter page.

27 March 2022: Pinnock Trendsetter Sapphire page added.

25 March 2022: Pages added to Other VSMs, FAVTA, HALVENA and NEW HOME.

22 March 2022: Toyota Pinnock Sewmaster page added.

20 March 2022: Instruction book added Sewqueen Pinnock.

Earlier in March 2022: Pages added under Toyota Pinnock, Seweasy, Sewmatic.