Have seen vintage Singer Merritt sewing machines and sergers about, all seem made in Japan. Was this line any good?
Candide
"Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_
I have been using a Merritt serger for about 12 years and have never had any trouble with it. I think the Merritt line was kind of plain vanilla as in no bells and whistles but of decent quality.
I agree. I've had mine for 16 years. Love it. Still does a marvelous job with everything. Right now, it's been relegated to "semi-retirement" since I got my Viking. But I still pull it out for different things. Last time I had a project where I needed both single needle sewing and double needle sewing, I set it up with the double needle. It does a gorgeous job with a double needle. It's not fancy by any stretch of the imagination. However, it has certainly led a workhorse kind of life with me, and done just beautifully. (and I like mechanical sewing machines way more than computerized anyway)
Sharon
I had one of these, which I received new new back in the 1980s as a gift. It is a real workhorse, made of metal not plastic. My Meritt was made in Brazil. I had it put in a treadle table last year and gave it to a friend who has a eco-friendly home "off-the-grid" (she has very little electric - wind & solar with battery back up).
She just loves it, drop in bobbin, lots of decorative cams, etc.
It is not very exotic, but it is a very solid machine.
me
Well, at the end of the 80's it was all plastic. I bought a long desired, totally out of reach Viking #1 last summer. I'm pleased as punch with it.
She must have a different model. Mine was very basic. Maybe 6 stitch patterns and a "manual" buttonhole. Meaning it had four different parts of the buttonhole on different positions on the dial that I had to change for every part of the buttonhole. I still had to go over the stitches twice carefully adjusting things to get a solid stitch.
Mine had no decorative cams at all. It is still sitting by the door. I want to give it to my church's school for classes my DH wants to sell it at a yard sale.
IMVHO, I would not buy it again. AK in PA
Thank you for all the feedback!
It was mainly the "Merritlock" sergers one was interested in, as they seem a good value far as vintage sergers go.
Candide "Never keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. It's cheaper." Quentin Crisp 1908 - 1999 _+_+_+_+_+_+__+_+_+_+_
We are obviously talking about totally different models within the Merrit line. My machine had about 30 thin, bakelike looking drop in decorative cams that made various stitches... The head is boat-anchor heavy.. As I said, it was made in Brazil, which I found rather odd even at the time.
I would not buy a machine as you describe either. Perhaps the Merrit line went downhill as Singer itself did? Dunno...
me
"Candide" wrote
Its been about 10 years since I read about sergers before I bought one so maybe this won't apply - except that you are looking at an older one (I think...) so take this for whatever it is worth to you! The 2 things that I decided were basic to a serger were that it had to be as easy as possible to thread (and some of the old ones were nearly impossible...) and I didn't want to have to get out a tool kit and go thru a major operation to change it to do a rolled hem. I don't know anything about Merrit's so can't help you there. I bought an Elna which I have never had trouble threading and it has a stitch finger that swings down when I want to do a rolled hem. Works for me - your mileage may vary...
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