Originally Posted by
Steelsewing
I have a couple of pictures of Kenmore machines.
I believe this is the one of which you speak.
Manufactured by Maruzen/Jaguar of Japan.
Should be an E-cam machine, and I'm not 100% positive but it
might be a super-high shank foot. Might want to measure it to find out.
I have a 158.1774 that my sister got as a gift in mid 70s. Has all attachments and manual. Definitely not rare! It does do chain stitch, and has low shank, not high or super high shank presser feet. The cams are C cams, the most common kenmore cams that I have seen and interchange with many other kenmore models, including some that are super high shank models.
The picture you show is similar, but not identical to the 1774. Mine has a white and a green dot on the right side of the lever for special stitch selection where your picture shows an exclamation mark. The cam cover is also different, larger with a parallelogram shape.
This used to be my go to machine until I bonded with my Bernina 830. It sews thru multiple layers and has the largest selection of decorative stitches (thanks to my large collection of cams). It's not perfect, sometimes it balks at crossing heavy seams. It also spits out the bobbin case when I have to change the bobbin! Very frustrating because I can't find any combination of steps to prevent it. There have been mention of this habit in other machine on other threads (I think I remember Miriam and maybe MacyBaby having some machines with that problem), so it's not just me. I think that is why my sister was getting rid of it. Also, I must remember to hold both threads to the rear when starting a seam or thread nests will result.