BerninaBEN

Hi Everyone -- thank you for a ton of valuable information about Berninas. I have a family friend who I am going to be renting a house from (his mother's, who passed away a few years ago) and he has asked me to help him sell some stuff to clear space. My first job was to identify items that he should not put out at his Garage Sale and I could clearly tell his Bernina 117L was exactly that. I have a very solid 300+ eBay rating (mostly from selling old Star Wars toys, records and other collectibles) but I haven't posted much recently. I will post my eBay id later when I get ready to post the item.

I am using various boards to do my research and he would love to find a good home for this item. I will be taking some video clips and tons of photos very soon. One question I have is what the L signifies? I think another poster said they have a 117M or 117K?

I believe this model is from 1939 but I read about the way to figure out the year, so I will have the serial number written down soon to try and figure that out. I know for a fact it works well, as his mother was using it right up to the last few years of her life (there's currently a thread in the needle). It is green and quite clean. It's a beautiful machine and I don't even sew.

This was definitely made in Switzerland. I am also going to have to figure out a way to remove this (and the pump/motor) from the wood box it is placed in. I am fairly certain the box is not related to the Bernina and that they did not come together or anything.

Thanks in advance for the help with the 117L question! All the best. Quilt on

PS - As a non-quilter, I have to mention that I found the documentary "The Quiltmakers of Gee's Bend" quite fascinating. Beautiful work!