Look At What I Found... Vintage Viking 537 Sewing Machine With A Mystery Attached

Every walk into a junk shop, not really knowing why you are there and find something that seemed like it was fate was guiding you?  Well, that's what happened to me the other day.  I spotted a filthy carrying cabinet case that sorta looked like there was a sewing machine in it.  Hmmm.  I opened it and fell in love!

A Viking 537 made circa 1960's with a purring motor and a few accessories.  Of course, being my sister's sister, (Michelle has been known to bargain to the point were she gets the deal she wants with a promise that she will never darken the vendor's store again) I managed to get the machine for $18.00 CND.  Sweet!!!!  And I can still come back to the store!  :) LOL

Now, some might wonder (yes Gram, I'm referring to you) why I'd want such an old machine while I have a Phaff modernish sewing machine already.  Problem is, my Pfaff is more than ready for a tune up, and the only person that can do this lives almost 200KM away from me and he cost $75.00 just to look at it.  I will take it to him, but only when I'm heading in that direction for something else because the cost of gas here is so expensive.  Plus, this guy is so back logged, average wait for a simple tune up and repair is over 3 weeks.  3 WEEKS without sewing.  Blows my mind.  So, that is why I bought this very straight forward, FUNCTIONING machine.  And I love it!

Here is the strange part.  I wanted the servicing manual so I can tinker with it and fix issues as they pop up.  I cannot find a Viking 537 ANYWHERE on the internet.  But I did find the exact same machine listed as a New Home / Janome 537...

 AND I also found an image of a vintage Necchi machine (that I can't find now, of course) that looks IDENTICAL to my Viking.  Huh??? What is that all about?

As far as I can tell, it is a Japanese made machine, possibly by Toyota.   New Home was bought out by Janome (Janome, by the way is Japanese for "snake eyes," because the new metal bobbins have the little holes all around them that is reminiscent of snake eyes.) and they made several brands under their company for a while, including Necchi.  Could this Viking been born in Japan? 

Anyway, it sews a beautiful straight and ziz zag stitch.  And will be great for Tressa to learn on.  I also want to use it to manufacture some knitting project bags to sell in our Etsy shop.  I've got something big coming in late August that I need to make some extra cash for... Something mind blowingly cool.  Something totally fun and will be a BLAST to blog about.  And there will be super fun give aways! Yay!

Plus, there is Vogue Knitting Live NY 2015 that I want to go to.  I went to VKL NY 2014 and blogged about it over on my personal knitting design site NiNDesigns.  It was an incredible experience!