Rose_P

This Dressmaker Model 800, marked "Made in Japan", was given to me by my DIL. It belonged to her mother, who is in assisted living and sadly will never be able to sew again. I have thoroughly googled for a manual and any information about this machine, and nothing has turned up so far, though there are lots of Dressmakers. I'm just interested in getting it into good working order to pass it on to my daughter. She just uses her more recent low end plastic machine for occasional clothing repairs, but maybe if she had this nifty workhorse with the drop feed and cams I could get her interested in more creative sewing (pipe dream, probably!). If appearance was everything, this machine seems to be in exceptionally good condition, but I suspect it hasn't been used much and not at all for about 20 years. It may never have been oiled. The hand wheel barely turns but loosened up slightly after I oiled all the obvious places. I opened up the access panel on the right end and found that the motor seems to be brand new and the belt still flexes and looks okay. I have seen much worse that ran better than this. The electrical wires are pliable and the light and pedal work. I'm guessing the machine is about 50 years old. Do you all think it would be worth taking to a repair shop? It's really solid, heavy metal and has built in cams that I don't understand how to use. There's a "shift" knob next to the needle position. The needle moves right and left, but I can't get the knob to go to the shift side. I assume the dial has to be in a certain position for that to happen, and I wouldn't want to force anything. I was wondering if anyone knows a source for the manual, or possibly recognizes this as a clone of a familiar machine for which I could find a manual. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

I have uploaded pictures here before, but it's been awhile. What am I doing wrong? My preview says:
TypeError: Unsupported operand types: array & int in ..../includes/class_postbit.php on line 499
It's a jpeg file of less than 400kb.

Rose_P

https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...1&d=1685130169

Rose_P

Now I seem to have created an attachment but couldn't get it to be submitted in the usual way. So I have copied/pasted the link. Hope that's okay. I'm baffled why after all the years uploading pictures to this site seems so much harder than it is anywhere else I've ever been on the Internet. What am I missing?

Rose_P

Update: After I left it for a couple of hours, the oil seeped into where it was needed and the machine now sews! Yay! I have been googling around some more and someone mentions that the Dressmakers sometimes have manufacturers marks stamped into the bottom. I found JA 39, which suggested possibly Janome? Also, there is a J C5 The "J" has a line coming out to the right midway down. When I googled for those bits I happened upon a Riccar machine listed on eBay that has this same body, but not the same dials. So that's a bit of a clue. I'm looking at various manuals for Riccar to see if one happens to resemble it. Will update in case anyone is following this.

Rose_P

Some additional information: This machine has a side-loading vertical bobbin and a high shank. I have only one presser foot, a zigzag foot with the outwardly pointing toes, and it doesn't sew very straight. I think Sewing Parts online has a snap on adapter for high shank and a kit with several feet, which I would get for the machine if I'm confident that it's worthy of them. I have the metal accessory box, and it has brushes, screwdrivers, three thimbles, and an extra shuttle race and two additional bobbin cases, but no feet. My DIL also gave me a couple of O'lipfa quilting rulers she found in the house. They're look new. I know her mother made some prayer quilts for her church group a long time ago.

This experience drives home the point about how important it is for me to clean up my own disorganized sewing supplies. I know where things are and what they're for, but my heirs wouldn't have a way of knowing what goes with which machine. For example, the top of my Ellisimo has been removed and stored on a high shelf since I bought the thread tree that's attached in the same mechanism as the lid. Would a non-sewist, or even an experienced one who isn't familiar with this machine know to look for it or how to switch it back onto the machine? Would they have any clue about how to remove the embroidery arm and that it goes in a particular (huge) suitcase that's designed for it? It's no wonder that when we find used machines of any ilk they are often missing vital parts.

OurWorkbench

Rose, thank you for trying to post a picture. I wonder if you copied the link, but didn't go way over to the right side of the screen to click on the Upload button. Although if you got a link, I don't remember that happening until after hitting the upload button. Also from my understanding, you can't preview the post as it will lose your picture.

I wonder if it looks like this Dressmaker - https://www.worthpoint.com/worthoped...ble-1844489702 I also found a Riccar 800 manual at https://www.manualslib.com/manual/54...?page=5#manual that is different from the worthpoint machine.

The speculation is that the JA number is the company that assembled the machine and that the JC was for the company that cast the machine. JA-39 = Toyota and JC-5 = FMK per the list that has been assembled at http://www.doubleveil.net/zssmp/resources.htm#jajc From my understanding the dash or whatever on the J seems to be for "Light Machinery of Japan"

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
Not affiliated with off-site link(s)

ETA - there are some other Riccar manuals at https://www.manualslib.com/s/sewing+...ufacturer=2827 (three pages worth) but many are for free arms and probably newer.

Rose_P

Thank you, Janey and John! I've been off in various directions and forgot about this project for several days - just typical of me. I did indeed forget that you will lose the attachments if you preview, and tried at least three times previewing every time.

Rose_P

I will have to do some digging, but certainly appreciate the leads you provided and will post here if I get the specialty stitches to work. Thanks again!