Brand

Necchi sewing machines

The Necchi family ran an iron foundry in Pavia, Italy, and Vittorio Necchi started making sewing machines there in 1919. In 1932 the company finished the BU, which Necchi calls the first domestic zigzag machine, and after the war Necchis were sold in America through a New York sales company. In the 1950s Necchi had about 90 percent of the Italian market. Two of its machines won the Compasso d'Oro, Italy's top design prize, and the Mirella is in MoMA's collection. The company struggled from the 1960s, and the brand now belongs to the Rome-based BTV group. Necchis put the needle in with the flat side to the right, so a machine that skips may just have it in backwards.

2 models we cover.