Thread: Be careful of new Singer needles for your vintage Singers

Very pleased you posted this! Singer products have gone downhill over the last few years. Even the Singer bobbins sizes are off and can cause problems. Better off avoiding Both Singer needles and bobbins unless it's in the old packages. Superior needles which are made by Boye are great too to use.

Originally Posted by caroloto

Very pleased you posted this! Singer products have gone downhill over the last few years. Even the Singer bobbins sizes are off and can cause problems. Better off avoiding Both Singer needles and bobbins unless it's in the old packages. Superior needles which are made by Boye are great too to use.

A lot of the problem with the "Singer" bobbins is that they aren't. Even the Singer stores and other sewing machine shops are selling the cheaper bobbins that they can get from their non-Singer suppliers and they're all the same poor quality as the ones you find in Joanns, Walmart etc. There are (at least) 2 grades of non-Singer bobbins nowadays, and of course the cheaper ones make companies more money. I have bought new bobbins that work just fine in the vintage machines, but they're never the cheap ones. SM shops won't always tell you the difference, if they even carry both. I can only guess that the theory is that no one returns bobbins. I hope it's not that if the bobbins don't work, maybe they'll get a service out of it.

For quilting I like Superior's titanium top stitch needles.

I like Organ needles as well. I've never been disappointed or had a problem.

Originally Posted by BellaBoo

I use Organ Titanium coated topstitch needles for all my machines. I order them when on sale from Superior Thread and Connecting Threads.

Originally Posted by indymta

Thank you ArchaicArcane for the information. Have only used my 301 a little (recent purchase). Have lots of Schmetz needles for my Janome and didn't want to mess up the 301 by using a wrong needle.

My pleasure! Just grab your regular needles (make sure they say 15x1 - which I'm sure they do, I don't think Janomes use a special needle of any sort) and go for it!! It's a great machine.

Thanks for the warning..I just bought some of the new needles..

FYI, the "singer" name on notions doesn't belong to the singer sewing machine company anymore. that part of the company was splintered off a while ago. VSM - a big company - now makes machines for singer, viking, pfaff & white, but they sell singer-compatible needles, etc. under the brand name "inspira". I'd recommend schmetz, organ or klasse needles anyway. they fit nearly all domestic sewing machines, new & old singers included.