Originally Posted by
Annlil
I was so lucky to get my hands on this little beauty. Now I am just curious about the dating and I hope somebody can help me. I have been searching on the web but without luck.
The number is EV974825
Hopefully I will get some time tomorrow to test it out.
Thanks for helping.
Anne
I know this is a very old thread, and you may have had your answer by now - but I just wanted to let you know that the birthdate of your WHITE featherweight (not light green
) is 1964, which I found out by looking up your serial number on ISMACS. You can also call Singer directly, give them your serial number, and they will tell you the birthday of your machine.
There were 2,000 of these machines made in 1964, in blue, white, and green, as well as thousands more in black. Your particular 221 (more popularly known as a Featherweight) is the
221K7 model - they were made with the
Model CAK8 motor (which means nothing really, only the 221K4 had a motor that was in any way different - it had RF suppression with grounded wiring so that it wouldn't interfere with TV or radio frequencies - not a problem in our cable era!), and were belt driven to bobbin. Your particular machine was made in Killbowie, Scotland and were the very last featherweights manufactured.
The K7 variants had several major changes from earlier models. They were painted white without any decorative decals, the hinged extension table was shorter, they used a clamshell style foot controller that was permanently wired into the machine, and the original cam and rocker assembly for transferring motion to the bobbin and feed dogs was replaced with a toothed belt system.
The
221K models (no number following the "K") were made in the UK, and that slight difference is why any 221K with or without a number following the K are so often mistakenly said to have been made in the UK, but only the "K"s with no number were actually made there.
Another way to identify your machine is that distinctive red "S" - which was only found on the 221K7 models.
I hope that if you haven't found this information by now, that this will be helpful to you.
I have a similar model (also white, and manufactured in Elizabeth, New Jersey) that was born on May 13, 1964. Her name is "Daisy".
The US models could be precisely dated at that time, but the UK models could only be precisely dated after 1971.