Conclusion

The world of antique sewing machines is a fascinating mix of collectibles and real, usable machines. While most White sewing machines aren’t worth a lot of money today, their solid craftsmanship means that you may still find them usable, even after so many years!

Do you have an old White sewing machine, or are you trying to buy one? Leave a comment below to let us know what kind of experience you have had with these vintage machines!

Written By: Tania

I'm a sewing enthusiast, and the founder and chief editor here at Silver Bobbin.
Growing up, I loved to explore fabrics and textures, and always had a project in the works.
I enjoy teaching others about my passion. From beginner tutorials to in-depth guides, there's something here for everyone.

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Saturday 25th of February 2023

I just bought a White Rotary without seeing it first. I learned to sew on my first machine, a White treadle that was my great grandmother's. She sewed to support herself after she was widowed. When I moved away from home to marry the machine couldn't come with me due to the weight and my aunt took it and traded it in on an electric machine for my cousin. I have mourned the loss of that machine for 50 years so this is a dream come true for me. The cabinet is in great shape and the machine appears to be functional but I need to clean her up and test her out. For $24.00 the cabinet alone is a steal!

Tuesday 21st of February 2023

My son-in-law brought a W.J.Harris treadel sewing machine and a White Rotary sewing machine back from Georgia recently. His grandmother worked at the White factory and bought the rotary machine. It took a while to find who made the Harris. I was lucky he had the original owner manual of the White Rotary. Now I just need locate the owner manual of the Harris. I am looking forward to cleaning and oiling both. I did find the serial # FR3405250.

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Hook In Assembly

Remove the bobbin case and bobbin by pinching the ears on the front of the bobbin case and pulling the case away from the hook assembly.

To the right of the hook assembly you should see the front edge of the hook retention ring lever, just behind and to the right is the lever arm, push it towards the machine to release the hook retention ring. Note that the hook retention ring and hook may fall loose when the lever is pushed. If they did not fall out, remove both now.

Front and back views of the Hook Assembly Parts.

When you go to reassemble the hook assembly, the Hook Driver and Hook are both marked “TOP” on the part that should be at the top during assembly.

Lubrication

Dating a Domestic Sewing Machine

The best way to date your Domestic sewing machine would be by the model name. Whether the sewing machine had a number, a letter, or a name doesn’t matter as these machines were identification labels were done in sequential order.

The numbers came first, then the letters and finally the models with names. The serial number on each machine will not be much help to you as there are no records to find the machine’s place in Domestic history.

There is an old treadle machine produced by the company and it dates from 1863 to 1870. The photos we saw of this machine had no identifying marks. Time has taken its toll and the badges etc. wore off.

Two online companies are Sewalot and Fiddlebase . Send them photos and as much information as you can and they may be able to help you. There are no promises made for them though.

It seems that Domestic did put serial numbers on their machine. One model had a 3 digit number then lower down, about half a line, there were 4 more numbers. There is no explanation as to what purpose these numbers served or if they were actual sewing machine serial numbers.

Domestic also produced typewriters so do not confuse the two or their serial numbers. One person thought the lower 4 numbers needed to be read backward and when you did so, it produced the date the machine was made. But there is no record of the Mack family or their co-founder stating they made sewing machines earlier than 1961.

With further research, those numbers were found on a Standard sewing machine and not a Domestic model. This is the confusing thing about serial numbers. When records are lost to history, confusion can reign and lead to false identifications.

If you really want the serial number or where to find it on some Domestic machines, just click this link . It lists only a few though.