I had another balance wheel in my box, so I figured it would be an easy fix – not so. Upon inspection I discovered it was made of porcelain! I bought this second machine in untested condition from a house clearance sale, and it got damaged in the post – the balance wheel got broken. New Home did have their own designs, just not these. “As designed and specified by New Home USA”? Hardly! New Home USA didn’t design any of these machines, they are all designed by Janome based on Singer 15 architecture… Janome bought the New Home company and their designs in 1950s after which New Home USA seized to exist. There’s usually also a label with model number which states where the machine was made. Japanese machines have a green square and Taiwanese ones a blue one.
#Free new home model 444 instruction manual how to
I think I may have figured out how to tell quickly which New Home machines were made by Janome Japan and which by Janome Taiwan: it’s in the colour of the logo. It does zig-zag, back-and-forth “stretch” stitch and 14 patterns which combine with stretch stitch and added zig-zag to actually produce 56 patterns all together. It’s a heavy machine weighing 15kg and having a cast iron body, although it does use plastic gears to drive fancy stitches, but at least it is not in the main mechanism. This is a Japanese-made machine by Janome from 1970s, I think, and oozing quality. Which is why, having sold my previous one because it was “surplus to requirements”, I had to chase for a replacement because it left a gaping hole in those requirements… Janome’s New Home 551 is one of those machines that you think you can easily do without, only to discover that nope, you can’t.