TOGA is a vintage sewing machine get together. It was started by the TreadleOn email group and stands for “Treadle On Gathering and Academy”. Hosted in homes first by sewing machine collectors, now usually in rented venues, machines are hauled in to work on, show-off, trade, buy, sell, and play with. Treadles and handcranks are usually in more abundance than electric machines at a TOGA.

They’re taking place all over the country during the year, and they usually have some type of raffle table of goodies to raise funds to pay for the rent and sometimes a meal on the final day. Most of the ones that I know about over the past couple of years have been 2-3 day events.

A “Mini-Toga” is a term used for the meeting up of 2 or more people to swap a machine or two, either over lunch or in a parking lot somewhere handy.

Your Portman-designed machine was marketed by The National Sewing Machine Company, and also sold through Montgomery Ward, and can go by the names “N-50” or “Model J”. I’ve got one that I’m wanting to convert to treadle operation, but I haven’t been successful yet.

I can't wait to see what else you got....

CD in Oklahoma

I’m not much for PMs, so I’ll answer the questions that I got in a PM about my purchase, so maybe I won’t get more PMs asking the same thing.

The collector that I got the machines from was formerly an Antique Tractor Collector that switched to sewing machines when the tractor parts and handling the tractors got too heavy for him. His favorite thing was to get the sewing machines working, and once he sewed a stitch line with them, he moved on to the next one. He wasn’t much into cosmetics. Most of the machines were “beaters” that didn’t look too good, and there were several parts machines that he’d robbed parts off of to get another one sewing.

I got the lot at a really good price, and I won’t state how much. It was a Craig’s List Ad that I responded to, and I paid the asking price in the Ad. Then, I used the IRS flat rate for vehicle mileage to calculate the transportation cost (7 roundtrips), and added in the cost of the storage units (2 months for one and 8 months for the second), to come up with my total cost. I reached the break-even point in two years to the month, with about 3/4 of them still on-hand.

No, I haven’t checked them all out, only the ones that I wanted for my own collection. I kept 20 of them, and over the past 2 1/2 years, I’ve found new homes for more of them and pulled parts off to ship to needy machines around the country. I probably still have about half of them, mostly common parts machines, since the nice ones and unusual ones went first.

It has been a lot of work, but for a Vintage Sewing Machine Enthusiast, it has been about as exciting as it gets! And I’ve met a lot of really nice folks that also like old sewing machines because of it.

CD in Oklahoma

Thank you CD! It's good to hear a bit more of the story! There is also a Sewette, I believe this is what you would call a Japanese clone? And Ward's Signature, a Singer 185k also in that lovely green.

What a haul! Have fun discovering your treasures.

Wow, oh wow, I love getting the vintage machines, I try for all Singers...I have gotten 10 in the past 3 years, and figure that's about my limit. I can SEE how stumbling onto this kind of a deal would be so exciting. I would simply have to pass because of space issues, but I'm hanging on every entry you make to this thread, You'll have to live this for the rest of us ...lol... Hurray for a hubby who understands. Mine found my last three of mine and there were at least 7 more in the booth that I passed on. Thanks so much for sharing with us.

Hope it's ok to hijack this thread.....lots of enthusiasts reading here so,....there is an 1883 Davis currently online auction with goodwill I think ends in 3 days?Don't know anything about these but it sure is pretty cool...

[ATTACH=CONFIG]469833[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]469835[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]469837[/ATTACH]

I'm finding that some machines other than Singer are very well made.

Hi,

Pictured is a Davis Vertical Feed model New High Arm or VF1 made in 1883 (SN#264288). This is a needle feed, walking foot machine which Davis made in different models until 1924. This example appears to be missing it's shuttle and bobbin which might prove more costly than the machine. Fascinating machines and manufacturers.

Jon

Oh goodness, i woild love the Atlas. Lol its on my machine wish list. Im definitely going to be watching this thread. :thumbup:

I snapped a few more pics. It was a pretty long day. I found 4 Singer 66's today all with Red Eye decals some in better shape than others. This was one of the nicer ones. Also a Singer Genie, this is snapped without the cover. A black 301 too!